The Indigenous People and the Strange Westerner

Abstract

This chapter traces the events and tactics employed by Cambodia’s indigenous community movement targeting government institutions and a European investor to address social, economic and environmental concerns. To this end, the indigenous community, with relatively weak support from local NGOs, launched two phases of influencing strategies, involving an escalation from institutional to non-institutional tactics. Initially, they held several peaceful protests, networking with local NGOs, and circulating petitions (institutional tactics), but received no satisfactory responses from either the government or the company. The indigenous community then staged violent protests, such as vandalising the company’s property, to put pressure on the government institutions to intervene to regulate the company and address the community demands. In a relative sense, the indigenous community succeeded in achieving most of its demands. However, this chapter argues that, while an analysis of influencing strategies, such as a tactical escalation from non-violence to violence, is necessary for explaining the dynamics of the indigenous community, the decisive factors for explaining the responses of the government institutions that duly shaped the outcomes lie elsewhere. The government institutions chose, at the expense of the European company, to concede to rather than repress the movement, due to the weak political ties between the local partner of the company and the central patron of the regime. This gave the government institutions, especially the provincial office, strong autonomy in decision-making and exerting pressure on the company to comply with related regulations and thereby address the demands of the indigenous community and NGOs.