"Koh Pich Koh Kmorch Koh Teuk Pnaek Khmer" a Poem in Khmer by Heng Thal Savuth

Cambodian Tragedy in Comparative Term

The Strongman shedding crocodile tears? (Photo: AP)

For the very first time that the entire world and the Cambodian public at large got to witness a Cambodian Prime Minister cried – something they’re rarely used to seeing on screen, given his past combative speeches and authoritarian style. I’ve got to give it to the man. He gave one of the finest theatrical shows I have ever seen - weeping and looking sad as best as he can be. But, NOT when he evicted Khmers from their lands; put Khmer farmers in jail; ordered his men to launch a couple grenades against political opposition march, lining up people to shoot as a result of his 1997 coup d’état. He was not crying when he sent capable men on K5 plan to be killed or limped. NO

Unfortunately when we are talking about our Cambodia, this is not the first tragedy or policy failure and it won’t be the last, either, that we are going to see from this government, going forward. There have been too many policy failures in the past and present leading up to the future. Time will tell if the true believers of the Hun’s regime, and possibly dynasty, will learn something meaningful at the end; for a nation built on shaky foundations where the culture of impunity, corruption and feudalistic behaviour are accepted as the norms at the expenses of the mass - the poor and the very least educated farmers. More land evictions are on the horizon, watch my word, people.

It is truly refreshing, yet not surprising to see Cambodian come out in large numbers to offer money and condolences to the victims and surviving families. In comparative analysis, it makes you wondered, what about other tragedies? Take land eviction as a prime example where entire villages are affected or the beating, killing of democratic activists, union leader, singers etc..? The story of Mr. Soung Sophorn is relatively fresh. Isn’t it a tragedy as well?. He was beaten up pretty badly and unprovoked at best – something could have been easily avoided. The Cambodian polices were better trained to hurt Khmers, protect Youn’s encroached farmer’s lands than to save real Cambodian lives. How sad!

My 2-cent engineering perspective on the Pich Bridge tragedy

Koh Pich suspension bridge (Photo; AFP/Xinhua)

In view of the recent tragedy on Koh Pich Bridge where several hundreds of our compatriots died and were seriously injured, I would like to provide below, my personal perspective as a Civil engineer in this regards. While my specialty is not in Structural engineering, but rather in Geotechnical engineering, i.e. a specialty related to foundation engineering etc, I will strive to explain as best as I can, in laymen terms, the various aspects of bridge construction, and in particular the suspension bridge type that is used for Pich Bridge linking mainland to Koh Pich Island, and I will also provide my 2-cent input on the various aspects any investigation should consider.

The most basic method of constructing a bridge can be seen in the illustration above. First several piers are constructed as support for the bridge, next a bridge deck is placed in between two piers to provide a platform on which traffic can move over the bridge. In general, guard rails will be constructed next to prevent vehicles and foot passengers from falling off the bridge. While in concept, this construction method appears quite simple, the reality is not so. For one thing, if the spacing between two consecutive piers is very wide, then the bridge deck need to be designed thicker or more rigid so that when traffic moves over the bridge, there would be not too much vertical deflection (see black arrow in the illustration above).