Conscription not for everyone
In less than a week, 18-year-old Heng Tina, who has just finished his high-school exam, will take another test that determines whether he’ll get a scholarship to go to technical school, a development that would put him one step closer to his dream of becoming an engineer and designing skyscrapers. But according to a law passed in 2006, though never meaningfully enforced, Tina should be taking exams of a different sort – such as marksmanship and physical fitness – as a newly minted conscript in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. Under the law, which many Cambodians – including Tina – have never heard of, every Cambodian man aged 18 to 23 is obliged to serve in the armed forces for 18 months. … According to Mong Hay, a military that provided conscripts with a set of skills, and options for the future, could be a positive development, but the current system would be unlikely to produce such results. Furthermore, he said, Cambodia has neither the human nor financial resources for full implementation of the 2006 law. …
