Saturday, July 11, 2009

POVERTY IN THE MEKONG DELTA

By Sophac Thach

The crisis of poverty in the Khmer-Krom community in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam has sparked the world community to call upon the Government of Vietnam to step in.

On June 12, 2009 a seminar was held by the Office of the Central Party Committee to propose measures for the anti-poverty that focuses the Khmer-Krom people in the Mekong Delta.

According to the news released by Saigon-gpdaily.com, “The Government has spent over VND 1 trillion for infrastructure in the Mekong Delta, built 60,000 houses and funded more than 100,000 households to set-up businesses.” Based on the figure in the reports, very small number of the Khmer-Krom populations received support from the Government.

The number in the report also seems to understate the population of the Khmer-Krom people as there are approximately 7 million people currently resides through out the Mekong Delta. As we walk through the region of the Mekong Delta, we can see that the living conditions of the Khmer-Krom people are not any better as to what the Government of Vietnam claimed it to be.
It is very disheartening to see people living without clean water, living in the place where they called home with only the roof on their heads but no walls. The Government of Vietnam prepared numerous reports of how much they have poured the money to help built homes for the Khmer-Krom people.

As it has been mentioned in the report, “The poverty reduction grogram is facing some difficulties in lacking land for farming, high jobless rates among Khmer people, high number of homeless and poor job skills.” It would not be surprising to see that the number of Khmer workers are lacking skills because when it comes to reality, there are no training workshop available whatsoever for the people there.

Based on reliable sources, any Khmer-Krom family that received supports from the Government would somehow have connection with the Officials or had work for the Government during the Vietnam War.

There are numerous programs that focus on poverty reduction in Vietnam, but Khmer-Krom people are not made aware of their existence.

Every year at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) raises issues about the situations Khmer-Krom people are currently facing in Vietnam and hope to work together with the government of Vietnam to seek solutions to lift the Khmer-Krom out of poverty, but Vietnam consistently rejected the KKF’s recommendations and even tried to silent KKF from raising the issues of the voiceless Khmer-Krom in Kampuchea-Krom to the forum.

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