A friend in Cambodia alerted me to this story, about the Cambodian Prime Minister’s ban on 3G phones to prevent the spread of porn. Said the PM:
Hold it. Do not yet start the mobile phone services through which the callers can see each others’ images. Maybe we can wait for another 10 years or so until we have done enough to strengthen the morality of our society.
As my friend (not a libertarian) explained,
Now you have read the quote and are wondering what the heck is going on in Cambodia. It is time for the context.
Third generation cell phones, called “3G” can use the internet and send photos and movies and do just about eveything. They are the current holy grail, and are being introduced around Asia.
In Cambodia two companies were trying to win the right to deliver 3G technology. One company is owned a French-Cambodian, and the other company is owned by Madam BUN, the wife of the dictator, Prime Minister Samdec (Lord) Hun Sen.
Now the 3G phones work very well, and lots of money has been invested.
Madam Bun got all of her company’s money from the Chinese who for reasons unclear GAVE her several millions dollars to get the whole thing going. But of course this is a society with buckets of corruption, and Madam Bun LOVES to shop, and so before her company had finished the 3G telephone system for Cambodia, she had already burned through ALL of the millions.
Meanwhile, the other company was ready to go and to show that they were ready to go gave 3G phones to all the cabinet ministers and important officials. At this point it is less than two weeks to the final moment.
Cabinet ministers loved the things.
Well, the problem is that Madam Bun’s company cannot possibly win the concession as her company never finished the project, so it will go to the other company. But this means that there will be no more trough for getting more and more millions out of the very lucrative 3G cell phone business for Madam Bun and her hubby the PM.
But think of the children!!!
So Madam Bun started a petition to stop 3G cell phones as being bad for the morality of the country. Yes, that’s right, the woman who owns a 3G cell phone company started a petition to ban 3G cell phones all because her company would not get the concession and she would not be able to get her hands on several million more dollars. I guess all those shopping trips to Hong Kong and Paris costs a LOT of money.
Madam Bun made certain that the wives of cabinet ministers hated the things.
Now maybe Cambodians really are concerned about the morality of the 3G technology. That must be why nine (9) people signed her petition. Yes, nine people signed it, and then she gave it to her husband.
And you see the result: 3G cell phones are banned as a danger to public morals. The company that was ready to roll with the 3G phones has been locked out of the country, and Madam Bun is free to start up her 3G company again when the time is right (and when she gets several million more dolalrs in gifts from China). Welcome to the land of the mystified and the home of the corrupt.
