RCAF vehicle impunity is unfair and must end

Written by Paul Gibbings

Wednesday, 01 April 2009

From The Phnom Penh Post Dear Editor, Returning to Phnom Penh from Kampong Cham on Sunday, March 22, we took the Prek Kdam ferry that connects Route 5 with Route 61. We were part of a group of nine vehicles waiting for the next ferry. My car was the seventh in line. Three silver vehicles pulled up behind us - all sporting Royal Cambodian Armed Forces licence plates. Two were four-wheel drive saloons, and the third was a four-wheel drive pickup truck. The group purchased tickets, and all three RCAF-plated vehicles drove down the wrong side of the road and took up positions at the front of the queue. As a result, the eighth and ninth cars in our group were forced to miss the ferry when it finally arrived. The RCAF vehicles did not seem to be on official business. Too many of the vehicles' occupants were casually dressed. Surely the vehicle bearing the licence plate RCAF 23607 and the two other vehicles have no right in times of peace to behave in such an arbitrary fashion, showing absolutely no respect for their fellow citizens. The time has come for the use of RCAF number plates to be reviewed, as is the case with the police. What are such plates doing on fancy four-wheel drives? They should be confined to purely military vehicles that are conducting military business, not military families on private jaunts. Paul Gibbings Phnom Penh