Young chief vs the system

Tek Nim is well versed in dealing with adversity. In year nine, she dropped out of school, began working on the family farm and finally became resigned to the belief that her brightest prospect was to leave Omlaing commune, in Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district, and become a maid in Malaysia. But when ruling Cambodian People’s Party senator Ly Yong Phat arrived in Omlaing in 2010 with a plan to kick her family and 2,000 others in the commune off their land for his sugar plantation, Nim found a reluctant calling. … Nim is one of just 22 SRP commune chiefs in Cambodia’s 1,633 communes and joins many of her fellow opposition leaders in facing the challenge of governing a commune locked in a long-standing and seemingly unsolvable land dispute. “It seems like a dream for me recently, but I have prepared already for working as a commune chief to help villagers in my commune,” she said, adding she planned to tackle other contentious issues in the commune such as domestic violence, gambling, human trafficking and truancy. …  

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