A False Dawn - Hun Sen's Cambodia - page 73

being seized by Buchman's almost mystical belief that moral clarity could not only bene-
fit individuals, but could release entire nations from “their prison cells of fear, resentment,
jealousy, and depression.” 18
As Rainsy embarked on a successful career as an investment banker in Paris, politics
began to exert its gravitational pull. In 1981 he and Saumura became founding members
of Funcinpec, and by the start of the 1990s had abandoned their professional careers and
returned to Cambodia to prepare for the UN-organized elections. But nothing prepared
Rainsy for what he would encounter as finance minister. After a life of economic model-
ing and Japanese stock assessments, Rainsy found himself in charge of a system hover-
ing on the verge of financial anarchy. The lack of effective regulations made Cambodia a
paradise for money launderers and organized crime syndicates. “The whole of Cambod-
ia,” Rainsy said, “is a big casino.” 19
The new finance minister took his campaign abroad. In fluent French and English, he
urged Cambodia's foreign donors to withhold development aid until the government im-
proved transparency, democratic accountability, and respect for human rights. At an in-
ternational donor meeting in Paris in March 1995, he distributed a 13-page document de-
tailing the “institutionalization” of high-level corruption and called for an aid freeze until
the government established “greater transparency in public decision-making.” 20 He took
particular aim at the intimate nexus between the government and a new class of crony-ty-
coons that had emerged since the free market reforms of the late 1980s.
One of Rainsy's main targets was Teng Bunma, a Sino-Khmer tycoon who controlled
a portfolio of investments including hotels, manufacturing concerns, a daily newspaper,
and vast tracts of real estate in several countries. Bunma was an apt symbol of the new
Cambodia, driving about Phnom Penh in four-wheel drives accompanied by a phalanx of
bodyguards armed with automatic rifles and grenade launchers. 21 He would later attain
global notoriety by shooting out the $3,000 tire of a Royal Air Cambodge airliner on the
tarmac at Pochentong airport, apparently angered by the “insolent” attitude of the cabin
attendants. 22
Rainsy and other critics accused Bunma of gold smuggling and customs fraud, and
placed him at the center of a wide circle of drug traffickers who were using the country as
a transhipment point for heroin from the Golden Triangle. The US State Department later
banned him from entering the country due to his links to narcotics, though no evidence
was ever made public. Whatever the nature of his dealings, Bunma had a chummy rela-
tionship with government leaders, deluging them with gifts and personally underwriting
the military budget. He served as an advisor to Chea Sim, and was a benefactor of both
prime ministers, presenting Hun Sen with a bullet-proof Mercedes limousine and Ranar-
iddh with a $1.8 million King Air 200 light aircraft. In late 1995 Bunma was elected pres-
ident of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce. 23