Expectations exceeded at new dental hospital

 Dr Tith Hongyeou, of the Roomchang Dental and Aesthetic Hospital, speaks to the Post in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Stuart Alan Becker/Phnom Penh Post

Friday, 15 June 2012 Stuart Alan Becker

When Dr Tith Hongyoeu opened Roomchang Dental and Aesthetic Hospital in a new 10-storey building on Street 184 just off Norodom Boulevard six months ago, it was the realisation of a dream come true for a poor boy from Kampong Thom province who grew up tending cows and cutting grass under the Khmer Rouge.

What he’s most proud of is the fact that people no longer need to travel outside Cambodia to get top notch dental care. The American, Chinese, Japanese and Malaysian embassies have all acknowledged Roomchang as a safe place for their staff to get dental work done.

Dr Tith recently signed a contract with the Peace Corps, a US government volunteer service, that enables the young American volunteers in Cambodia to get their dental work done at Roomchang.

In an interview on Wednesday on the six-month anniversary, Dr Tith said Roomchang’s business had exceeded expectations with 150 patients per day, with 50 per cent of them foreigners. “We are the first dental hospital in Cambodia’s history, and we have a big team that can offer every kind of service to the customers. We guarantee that no customer needs to go overseas. We have a big capacity to treat the foreigners from overseas who come here because we have the highest international standard dental services, but we charge local prices.”

Among Dr Tith’s patients are the upper ranks of the Cambodian government, including Prime Minister Hun Sen himself.

Dr Tith says he’s grateful to the Cambodian leadership for creating the conditions for economic stability following a difficult past. He calls on all young Cambodians from the rural areas or the cities to focus on education and to come up with their own dreams.

“By passion they can make their dreams come true like me,” he said.

Dr Tith said his success was the result of a personal strategy of learning new things each day and constantly striving himself to become better. He’s a crusader against laziness.

“Today, I must be better than yesterday and tomorrow I must be doing better than today. Every day I learn new things. Many people are limited because they don’t want to learn new things. I can learn from people selling ice cream or cleaning the road, or people cooking food. Everywhere I go I learn everything.”

He said learning is the key to success in life.

“I have absorbed knowledge that I can utilise and transfer it into development in dentistry. I can learn from the construction worker, electricity from electrician, plumbing, so I can build a hospital.

“You must learn new things every day and you must make it happen. Don’t just talk. Do it. As you start to do it, you will make it true.”

Within Roomchang, Dr Tith is proud of the latest technology, including a centralised suction and compressor system from Germany, dental chairs and X-ray machines from Italy and Japan, as well as a CAD/CAM system from the USA.

“All the material we are using here is the highest standard of material in the industry.”

With 21 dentists and a total of 80 staff members, Dr Tith says he takes pride in taking on the complicated cases personally.

Revenue has increased 40 per cent since opening in December. Next year, 10 additional dental chairs will be added on the fourth floor.

“Presently we have 26 dental chairs.”

The investment in the latest imported dental equipment at Roomchang cost $2.5 million.

Dr Tith says dental treatment at Roomchang costs about 20 per cent of what it costs in the United States or Australia, which puts Cambodia on the map for what he calls dental tourism.

“One root canal in the United States costs about $1,000 and our fee is only $200,” he said.

“The living cost and labour costs are lower here, so we can maintain the fee, but we use the same equipment and material, and in many cases we have better equipment and better material.”

Dr Tith takes hygiene very seriously, with as many disposable products as possible: disposable gloves and single use materials.

He uses the highest graded sterilization systems for the equipment including antiseptic solutions, ultrasonic cleaners, clean water washes and finally a “type B autoclave” which is the highest standard disinfectant procedure.

“We are completely in the high standard, the same as in UK, US or in Germany. Because we are health professionals, we do it thoroughly and step by step.”

The 75 foreigners per day who go through Roomchang are managed through appointments with about eight patients per dentist. Most foreigners are European along with Americans, Australians and citizens of the United Kingdom.

“We welcome to all the tourists who plan to visit Cambodia to save money. For example if they spend $20,000 in their home country for dental work, they can have it done in Cambodia for $4,000.

“We are happy about that. We can provide high quality with the local price. We have a strong policy to offer the maximum benefit to the patient, for the long term predictable result.”

Interestingly, more foreigners have gum disease than Cambodians, which Dr Tith thinks comes from a combination of a diet with fewer vegetables and colder weather, which makes bathing less frequent.

“When foreigners live in Cambodia for two or three years, there is less gum disease,” he said.”With a vegetable-based Asian diet, you have to chew more and the chewing helps to improve the dental structure.”

With a two-pronged approach, for Cambodians and foreigners, Dr Tith says some patents even with difficult dental problems might not need additional treatment for ten to twenty years.

Dr Tith says for Cambodians who have never seen a dentist, he cleans the teeth, does the treatment that is required and tells them to brush after every meal.

“Gum disease causes the most destruction,” he said. “And gum disease happens with everybody, even if you are rich.”

“I feel the public awareness in Cambodia is improving and people need better quality of life, a quality healthcare system and a quality education system. We guide people to improve their quality of life. We are the light for them. They know they have a good dental service,” he said.

In Kampong Thom at the age of six, young Tith started working in the fields, tending cows and cutting grass. He finished high school in 1989 and went to dental school in Phnom Penh in 1990.

“I found that standard of dental education and care was very low. I saw that I could transform this low standard to modern dental healthcare.

“From 1996, I started to travel, to Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, taking short six months courses. In Vietnam, I studied root canals. I went to Malaysia for oral surgery training and to Germany for a two year program.”

In September, Dr Tith will return to Germany for another study program.

CIMB eyes expansion in Cambodia

 CIMB Group chief executive Nazir Razak speaks last week on the sidelines on the CIMB ASEAN Conference in Kuala Lumpur. Photograph supplied 

Monday, 18 June 2012, May Kunmakara

CIMB Bank Cambodia will look to expand into the Kingdom’s fledgling capital market, as well as into its maturing microfinance sector, Nazir Razak, the chief executive of Malaysia’s second-largest bank, CIMB Group, says.

The relatively limited scale of Cambodia’s banking sector, coupled with the more than 30 banks that experts say already overcrowd the space, would push regional banks such as CIMB to diversify their services, Razak said last week on the sidelines of the CIMB ASEAN Conference in Kuala Lumpur.

“We are playing a long-term game. As [Cambodia’s] capital market develops, CIMB wants to get involved as well. We want to look at other deposit-acquisition opportunities, possibly including micro-finance,” Razak said. “We we will look at other avenues to make a bigger impact on the Cambodian market.”

CIMB opened a bank branch in Phnom Penh in late 2010. By the end of next year, it should have 10 to 12 branches, Razake said.

Cambodia must continue to invest in its human resources and technology for the banking sector to catch up with regional standards, Razak said.

Given the the size of the Cambodian market, domestically owned banks would also need to eventually look beyond their borders to find economies of scale, he said.

Malaysian banks such as CIMB, Maybank and Public Bank have done as much in the region, even with a population of 28 million that earned US$8,363 per capita in 2010.

Cambodia’s 14.7 million people brought in slightly more than $900 per head last year, according to Ministry of Economy and Finance data.

Malaysia’s Maybank became an incorporated subsidiary in Cambodia in April, betting on what Maybank CEO Abdul Wahid Omar said was a low banking-penetration rate in the country.

Although the numbers are disputed, a World Bank report released last month showed Cambodia at the bottom of the list in terms of bank use in the Asia-Pacific region.

Only four per cent of Cambodians had formal bank accounts, and just one per cent saved money at a formal financial institution, it said.

Razak noted the sector’s low penetration rate, but agreed with most industry insiders on the need for smaller banks to consolidate.

“My view is that it’s fine if the central bank wants to proliferate the number of licences, but over time the right thing to do is to have consolidation.

“To have fewer, bigger banks is better for the customer as well. You have bigger, safer banks. Banks enjoy economies of scale, which allow them to place their products more efficiently.”

Although Razak did not give a time frame for consolidation, he said the market would most likely end up with about 10 banks.

Attempted murder rap to be appealed

 Former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Pov (l) is escorted outside a court in Phnom Penh in 2008. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Former Phnom Penh municipal police chief Heng Pov is appealing his conviction for the attempted murder of Thong Uy Pang, who was the owner and publisher of the Koh Santepheap newspaper.

Kao Soupha, Heng Pov’s defence lawyer, said the Court of Appeal will hear the 55-year-old’s case on June 28.

The crime occurred in 1998 outside a Phnom Penh pagoda, where Thong Uy Pang had travelled to observe an annual commemoration for his deceased mother.

Heng Pov allegedly sent gunmen, including his bodyguard, to ambush Thong Uy Pang. In the shooting, Thong Uy Pang only suffered a minor injury.

“Until now, my client Heng Pov has been charged with eight different criminal cases by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court,” his lawyer told the Post yesterday. “And this month’s appeal is just one” of the cases.

Heng Pov is serving more than 100 years in prison on convictions for multiple crimes, including the assassination of Judge Sok Sethamony.

His attorney said that for the attempted murder of Thong Uy Pang, the court sentenced Heng Pov to 18 years in 2009.

Press reform looks to self-regulation

Thursday, 14 June 2012 Chhay Channyda and Joe Freeman

A high-ranking Cambodian official wants to create a press council that would act as a self-regulating body with the power to field complaints as well as sanction reporters and their media organisations.
Senior minister Om Yin Tieng, head of the Anti-Corruption Unit, endorsed the idea yesterday at a joint workshop between Cambodia and Sweden on press freedom and ethics. Local reporters and editors from a variety of radio stations and newspapers attended the event.

“We don’t want the court to judge,” Om Yin Tieng said, although he said the court would not be taken completely out of the equation.

The new body would not replace incitement and disinformation laws that have been used to put journalists in prison.

Om Yin Tieng said the council would be along the lines of the Cambodian Medical Association, with its authority limited to withdrawing licences, issuing fines, and ordering corrections and apologies.
Although Om Yin Tieng was unclear when or how this new group would operate, the existing model is Sweden’s Press Council, which was established in 1916 and is the oldest of its kind in the world.
The Press Council’s ombudsman, Ola Sigvardsson, flew in to lead the one-day workshop.

He said about 300 complaints a year came to his office, and he rejected roughly 250 of them. If he wants to uphold a complaint, he sends it to the Press Council for approval. Newspapers, magazines and their websites then have to publish the decision.

Although he is unfamiliar with laws governing the press in Cambodia, Sigvardsson said a free and unrestrained media environment was necessary for the Press Council to work.
“Self-regulating must not be confused with self-censorship. That’s when you don’t write sensitive stories about people in power,” he said.

Journalists in attendance warmed to the idea of a Press Council in Cambodia.
“Before [going] to court, we want readers, listeners to react to the working group,” Om Chandara, president of the Khmer Journalists Friendship Association, said. Sek Barisoth, president of the Cambodian Journalists’ Council of Ethics, said it was a good idea but needed to be supported by reporters to work.

Cambodia to cede two villages to Vietnam

Monday, 18 June 2012 Meas Sokchea

Cambodia would have to give two villages to Vietnam if it wanted to retain another two deemed the territory of the Kingdom’s eastern neighbour by the former French Indochina colonial administration, a government minister said yesterday.

Last year, the Cambodian government announced it was speeding up the process of demarcating its borders with Vietnam and Laos, which were renegotiated in 1985, six years after Vietnam ousted the Khmer Rouge.

Va Kimhong, senior minister in charge of the Cambodian Border Affairs Committee, said the government would have to compromise to keep Thlok Trach and Anlung Chrey villages, in Kampong Cham province’s Ponhea Krek district, as part of the border demarcation process.

“We have still kept both the villages the same, but we have an obligation to find any area in Kampong Cham province to give back to Vietnam,” he said. “That is what we call a compromise.”

Va Kimhong did not specify which villages would be given to Vietnam in exchange for retaining the territory, which includes Anlung Chrey, the home town of National Assembly president Heng Samrin.

But Sean Penh Se, president of the NGO alliance Cambodia Border Committee, said from France yesterday that any exchange would be unacceptable without consulting those who stood to lose land from such a deal.

“As I know, the map that France has kept [for us] has [Ponhea] Krek [district] belonging to the Khmer,” he said. “There has never been such an exchange, like an exchange of bread and oranges. [We] must have agreement from all people, because that land does not belong to Mr Va Kimhong and Mr Hun Sen.”

Alleged Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodian territory stirs strong passions in the Kingdom and has been a pivotal issue in all of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party’s election campaigns.

Party president Sam Rainsy lives in self-imposed exile in France after receiving more than a decade in jail terms in Cambodia for pulling up a border demarcation post and publishing a Google map to support his claim of Vietnamese encroachment.

SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday the Vietnamese claim was based on an unacceptable 2005 supplementary treaty to the 1985 Treaty on Delimitation of National Boundaries between the two countries.

“I think Va Kimhong is very wrong. According to the names of the villages, they belong to Cambodia, and since the beginning, we did not agree with the additional treaty since 2005,” he said.

Ros Va, 71, and Chum Chin, 71, residents of Po Preuk village, which neighbours the two villages in question, said they believed the villages were inside Cambodian territory but had been used as hiding places by Vietnamese soldiers during the war with the US.

“Those villages really are Khmer land. It is not confusion,” Ros Va said.

Heng Samrin could not be reached for comment yesterday, but senior Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yeap said the National Assembly president had lived in Anlung Chrey village for close to 80 years.

“I have gone [to Heng Samrin’s village] often; it is next to the border. Samdech Heng Samrin has already declared that since he was born. He has lived there since a long time ago,” Cheam Yeap said.

High school sweet hearts: Will it last until marriage?

Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Phearun Chey and Kimsour Song


Tun Meta and Kong Naikeang got married five years after meeting one another in high school.

Their love grew for one another swiftly after they first met, and they decided to continue their Bachelor’s degrees together. After graduating in 2009, they married – an exception to recent trends that show few couples make it to marriage after they transition from studying.

“I always thought about the problems we would face, but you can’t predict everything,” Meta said, who now works as a shipping assistant at Jing Jing Factory in Phnom Penh. “Sometimes we argue, or talk about how we haven’t started a family, or we’re under pressure from society about how we’re not traditional enough.”

Samchan Sovandara, a psychology lecturer at Royal University of Phnom Penh, said that young couples face three main challenges.

The first is money. Unlike the past, young couples need to save up themselves if they want to get married; they can’t rely on their families.

Another obstacle is the young psyche. Many young couples discover that their feelings of love are fleeting, and get bored quickly – which leads to break up or divorce.

Finally, Professor Sovandara said, young couples’ parents don’t have the same modern mindset – therefore, it’s hard for them to agree to a wedding.

So how many young couple do end up staying together once school ends?

Samphoas, who did not want her real name revealed, said that her lover from high school broke her heart once they graduated. After six years of relationship bliss, her boyfriend broke up with her and is now married.

“Don’t have a relationship while studying, because it’s too hard facing all the problems coming from school, families, and the relationship itself,” Somphoas said.

Twenty-five-year-old Yang Kong, a fresh graduate from Technology Institute of Cambodia, said, “I don’t believe many young couples are making it once they graduate – young Cambodians should try to have a permanent job before a lover.”

Chan Krim, 55, a land broker, said that she’s witnessed young heartbreak – and it’s not pretty.

“When their heart is broken,” she said, “I see that their personalities and their academic performances drop sharply.”

But Professor Sovandara thinks that 50 per cent of young lovers have a chance at a successful relationship once school ends. He attributes this success rate to the individuals, instead of outside factors.

“The longer you are with your partner, the less you are able to forget him or her,” he said. “This is what we call ‘long term memory’ – a good way to find love is to spend a lot of time being happy with your partner.”

“Young people in this modern society will tend to overlook the older generation’s culture, and are choosing their own lovers.”

Meta said that the love he has for his wife is the most important part of life.

“When we love each other, we can share our feelings – sadness or happiness – and a feeling that we can help one another through,” he said.

For this week’s Constructive Cambodian, Professor Sovandara weighs in to advise that having a relationship while studying can work out successfully.

He says that for success, the couple needs to focus on prioritising: they need to figure out together how to sustain their relationship, and maintain a healthy balance between work, life and love.

Youth corner: Sok Try

Dear Sam Rany,

Thank for your answer in the May 23 issue of LIFT regarding how to stay green with my bike in Phnom Penh.

So far, I’ve found my own solution to keep my solar-powered bike. Luckily, I have found a parking place nearby. Now, if I want to, I can carry my battery to a charging point. Of course, difficulties still remain. It’s hard to take out the battery in the rain and the box containing the battery is fragile.
Most importantly, I’m saving money on gas and I’m not emitting any gas or noise pollution.

It’s nice to drive so silently.

I’m getting up to a five-hour drive after charging the battery for six hours.

Regards,

Sok Try

Letter to editor: Sam Rany, Phnom Penh Post

Dear LIFT,

I had great pleasure in reading Mr Lim Sovannarith’s feedback, position and valued comments about my letter on May 30, 2012. I highly appreciate his fascinating insight into academic research activities, and I recognise some crucial problems that could impact Cambodia’s academic freedom. I support the development of research in the social sciences in our universities. However, I still believe that there are many obstacles facing students conducting this research in particular. The main problems could be impacted on the validity and quality of research findings including human resources, lecturers or academicians’ research capacity, facilities, library resources and financial support. I’ve observed that most universities select only outstanding students to write their thesis in accordance with institutional capacity, while some universities have required all students to write their thesis without thinking about the ratio between students and supervisors as well as their institutional capacity.

Ultimately, I would like to ask some questions: What are the consequences of this academic\ crisis? How many lecturers hold PhD degree in each university? What facilities can offer resources to research students? How many academic papers and textbooks do lecturers publish per year? Why do most universities select so few students to write a thesis?

Sam Rany

Letter send to editor: Feedbak Sam Rany

Dear LIFT,

I am writing to respond to Sam Rany’s letter from the May 23, 2012 issue that attempted to legitimise the ban by the Royal University of Law and Economics on certain graduate thesis topics.

As far as academic freedom is concerned, I was shocked when I read Sam Rany’s letter that tried to justify RULE’s unacceptable ban. The three justifications he used were (1) to prevent graduate students from facing difficulties when doing their thesis on the stock market, because of their limited English proficiency; (2) to avoid the situation that these students will not have supervisors with sufficient qualifications and expertise on the subject-matter; and finally (3) as the result of (1) and (2), to avoid having potential findings of the research that can be misleading, thus negatively causing ‘internal backlash’.

My position is the ban is not in any way appropriate in the academic world.

First, limited English proficiency amongst graduate students across Cambodia is a common barrier in their academic life. Banning research topics that are to be written in English is no solution to this problem. A possible solution one can imagine of is to allow the students to write their thesis in Khmer.

Secondly, graduate students should work on a thesis topic to be supervised by a supervisor who has adequate expertise of that chosen topic. If a university is not able to provide academic support for students to work on certain areas, the university should instead guide those students to work on their research for which the university could provide support.

Thirdly, while research generally generates findings for implications and applications of certain matters, it does not work like math. In a natural society, there can be many studies on one same topic and these studies can also reveal different, and sometimes contradicting, results, if they are accurate at all. Yet that society will not collapse. Rany’s concern about negative internal backlash to be caused by some inaccurate research findings is nothing but groundless.

If Rany’s proposed justifications for the ban are possible at all, I would like to pose a question — why was the ban made for only certain thesis topics as all of Rany’s justifications will apply to virtually all research topics or areas?

Sovannarith Lim
Teacher Educator, Department of English Royal University of Phnom Penh

Letter to Editor: Sam Rany

Dear LIFT,

Having read your article “Should university take stock in your thesis?” (LIFT 121, May 9, 2012), I would like to contribute my personal comments in response. Last February, most mass media and social communication networks had broadcasted and discussed Royal University of Law and Economic’s official announcement prohibiting their students from pursuing certain research topics for their graduation thesis. At that time, some scholars and civil societies considered this as controversial, citing political motivation as a violation of academic freedom. However, I think there are legitimate reasons behind RULE’s ban on certain topics that need to be considered. To begin with, Cambodian students will face many problems with their English proficiency because most documents related to these subjects are written in English. For example, the stock market is a new economic phenomenon in Cambodia. Most universities are lacking library resources with updated documents, textbooks and modern facilities. Students cannot access internet services to download e-books and academic journal papers.

Also, Cambodian universities have a shortage of qualified academics on these subjects who can supervise students’ theses in conformity with international standards. RULE doesn’t have research university status in Cambodia because of the constraints of low public financial support and incentives. Finally, research findings on these banned topics could be wrong, due to the lack of available resources, thereby leading people and organisations to believe information that’s false. Some findings, which may not be true, could cause a negative internal backlash, as well as disturb social stability and even breach confidentiality.

Sam Rany

Sam Rany is a graduate of law at RULE and currently a PhD Candidate at the Universiti Sains Malaysia’s School of Educational Studies.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052356339/LIFT/letter-to-the-editor.html