La crise sanitaire que nous traversons actuellement est une crise mondiale. A l'ACO nous considérons que la dimension internationale fait partie de la vie de notre mouvement c'est pourquoi nous vous proposons ce témoignage de Yann DEFOND, journaliste,
membre de la mission ouvrière du vicariat apostolique de Phnom Penh.
(https://acofrance.fr/L-ange-du-nouvel-an-n-est-pas-venu-benir-l-annee-2563)

Dès le début de l'expansion de l'épidémie, le Cambodge s'est retrouvé avec un cas de contamination au coronavirus, un Chinois de Sihanoukville. Heureusement il n'a contaminé personne officiellement et a guéri. L'économie du royaume est fortement dépendante de l'industrie textile (tissage, habillement, confection des chaussures et des sacs) qui représente plus de 70% de ses exportations. Or les usines de ce secteur sont majoritairement chinoises. Ainsi un certain nombre s'est retrouvé en rupture de stock de matière première car le tissu venait de Chine, pays où la production industrielle tournait au ralenti à cause de la crise sanitaire. Alors des centaines de milliers d'ouvriers se sont retrouvés au chômage technique sur une période de deux mois mais pour des durées courtes. La loi du travail mentionne que dans ce cas de figure l'employeur doit verser aux salariés concernés la moitié de leur salaire de base qui la plupart du temps correspond au salaire mensuel minimum prévu par la convention collective du secteur textile qui équivaut lui-même à 175 €.

De façon précoce des mesures très strictes avaient été prises dans les usines pour éviter tout cas de contamination : distribution de masques (en langue khmère on dit également masque, il s'agit d'un emprunt au Français) de chirurgien ou masques en tissu, lavage systématique des mains, contrôle de la température corporelle.
Malgré tout quelques nouveaux cas sont apparus dans le pays et des restrictions ont progressivement été adoptées : mesures de mise en quarantaine, fermeture partielle des frontières avec le Vietnam et la Thaïlande, nouvelles conditions à remplir pour entrer sur le territoire cambodgien, arrêt des divers championnats sportifs, fermeture de plusieurs catégories de lieux de loisir, mise en place du télétravail pour certains fonctionnaires, interdiction des rassemblements religieux, fermeture des écoles, des internats, des pensionnats, des restaurants de soirée, arrêt des transports en commun dans la capitale, fermeture des casinos, des salons de massage et apparentés, des salles de sport, etc. Et bien entendu ces décisions n'empêchaient nullement les initiatives privées variées, certains citadins se sont confinés d'eux-même. En peu de temps des secteurs économiques entiers comme le tourisme, l'éducation, l'industrie du spectacle ont été dévastés.

Pourtant depuis la mi-mars le nombre de cas de coronavirus augmente presque quotidiennement. A ce jour (16/4/20) le Cambodge recense 122 cas mais aucun décès. L'épidémie est donc contenue, certainement grâce à la coopération chinoise. Cependant un immense danger pointait : l'entrée dans la période du nouvel an du calendrier bouddhique théravada, la fête la plus populaire du pays où traditionnellement durant une semaine la population retourne dans son village natal ce qui représente le déplacement et le brassage de millions de personnes.

Dilemme pour le premier ministre, le général HUN Sèn au pouvoir depuis 35 ans : s'il avait interdit tout déplacement il aurait fait face à l'incompréhension et au mécontentement de notamment plusieurs centaines de milliers d'ouvriers du textile privés d'une des rares occasions d'aller voir leur famille ; s'il n'avait rien fait il aurait risqué de voir le coronavirus se propager amplement.
Pour préparer le terrain une loi a donc été adoptée en urgence par l'assemblé nationale dont tous les députés sont membres du parti. Cette loi d'exception prévoyait un état d'urgence avec des pouvoirs supplémentaires accordés à l'exécutif. L'état d'urgence a ainsi été proclamé. Sa première victime ne fut pas le coronavirus mais un média indépendant désormais fermé. Les festivités du nouvel an avaient été préalablement annulées. Puis une semaine avant le passage à l'année 2563 le gouvernement a supprimé les 4 jours fériés prévus en promettant de les remplacer par 5 jours ultérieurement. Les ouvriers des villes, qui sont largement les plus nombreux, n'avaient donc plus de raison de retourner à la campagne. Mais régnait une certaine incompréhension tellement cette situation était inédite. Dans une usine les travailleurs se sont mis spontanément en grève pour protester contre la suppression de leur semaine de congé.

Malheureusement les marques qui commandent le plus aux usines d'habillement du Cambodge sont européennes et états-uniennes. Or à cause de la situation économique en occident les commandes ont considérablement diminué. C'est pourquoi plus de 90 usines sur moins de 600 ont commencé à mettre leurs ouvriers au chômage technique jusqu'à nouvel ordre. Le syndicat patronal a déclaré que ces usines ne disposaient pas d'une trésorerie suffisante pour payer la moitié de leur salaire aux ouvriers pendant un, deux ou trois mois, période durant laquelle elles n'envisageaient pas d'embelli. Cette information n'est pas vérifiable étant donné le manque de transparence dans la gestion des entreprises. Ainsi des milliers et des milliers d'ouvriers sans travail se sont mis à retourner chez leurs parents.

Là dessus, le 9 avril à 17h le gouvernement a réagi précipitamment en promulguant un décret interdisant tout déplacement d'un district à un autre jusqu'au 16 avec entrée en vigueur sept heures plus tard ! Cela a engendré des situations ubuesques telles que le lendemain à midi, le décret a été assoupli. Seuls les déplacements d'une province à une autre étaient désormais interdits sauf pour aller travailler à l'usine. Mais malgré cela beaucoup restaient incrédules et tentaient tout de même de circuler, ce qui a provoqué des bouchons aux limites territoriales des provinces. Alors la police a lâché du leste.
Aujourd'hui-même (16/4/20) le propriétaire de la citée ouvrière que j'habite en a fermé les issus pour procéder à un contrôle systématique de la température des entrants. Car demain (17/4/20) les restrictions de déplacement prendront fin…

Peur, insouciance ; précipitation, lenteur ; adaptation, incrédulité, sont autant de contradictions que l'on retrouve plus ou moins dans tous les pays qui font face à la pandémie de coronavirus. Peu de peuples ou de gouvernements étaient préparés à cette crise totalement exceptionnelle. Et personne ne peut dire comment elle évoluera dans le Royaume du Cambodge.
"Alors il ouvrit leur intelligence à la compréhension des Écritures. Il leur dit : "Ainsi est-il écrit que le Christ souffrirait, qu'il ressusciterait d'entre les morts le troisième jour, et que la conversion serait proclamée en son nom, pour le pardon des péchés, à toutes les nations "" (Luc 24, texte d'évangile du 16/4/20). Confrontés à des événements inattendus qui bouleversent nos illusions nous perdons espoir. Nous interprétons ces événements sans saisir leur portée parce que nous manquons de hauteur. "Leurs yeux étaient empêchés de le reconnaître " (Luc 24, texte d'évangile du 15/4/20).
La catastrophe sanitaire est jusque là écartée mais le Cambodge se dirige vers une catastrophe sociale où des centaines de milliers d'ouvriers se retrouveront sans emploi. Ainsi le mieux à notre niveau est certainement de vivre l'espérance en prière et en action par des gestes concrets de compassion et de solidarité entre nous qui nous rendront plus humains.

Signature :
Yann DEFOND, journaliste, membre de la mission ouvrière du vicariat apostolique de Phnom Penh, auteur du blog Une vie avec les ouvriers du Cambodge : http://defondyann.com

2563 est d'ors et déjà l'année la plus longue jamais connue et nul ne sait quand elle s'achèvera…

Notes :
* Selon le mythe, sept anges se succèdent à tour de rôle au service de la bénédiction de la nouvelle année.

Introduction
As you can see SreyTouch and Bopha are quite still young. Bopha was born at the same time as the garment sector in Cambodia. I don't want to recall the terrible decades that beset Cambodia because you ever know that all has been destroyed by human madness. In 1993, after the elections supervised by UNO, the actual regimen saw the day but there was almost no industry. It was only in 1997 that some foreign garment factories arrived thanks to a law facilitating their installation.
In 20 years the departure situation has evolved a lot. The first minimum convention wage was USD 30 and; on 1st January next year it will be 170$. Actually from 1997 until 2013 the purchasing power of factory workers did not increase. But, in 2013 spurred on by the popular contestation of the legislative elections, the garment workers began a general strike. Six were killed by the army but they obtained big wage increases and the promise of an annual negotiation with employers' representatives and the ministry Ministry of Labour officers. In spite of improvements, however, the minimum wage in the garment sector does not reflect the contribution of garment workers to the country's economic development.
Twenty years ago the work conditions were terrible: non-paid overtime, forced labour, trade-union repression, insults, miscarriages of justice, blows, sexual assaults, assassinations… Gradually work conditions have improved considerably. Until 2011 there was a lot of fainting at work: 2000 in a year for different reasons. Now this number is less, overtime is paid (up to 8 hours/day, 6 days/week), workers health is better and in some factories workers are treated better. Next year they will benefit from a universal health insurance. A retreat insurance has just been created too. Very recently, a maternity vacation leave has been granted. Normally factory workers can obtain 18 days of holiday in a year. Most of bosses prefer pay these holidays instead of granting it. And in a lot of factories, especially in Chinese factories, which are the best established in Cambodia, trade-union freedom is ridiculed.
Ninety-five percent of garment factories employees are women because they are deemed by employers to be more malleable. At this time there are 800,000 female workers in the Cambodian industry (15,000,000 inhabitants). The majority work in the 600 garment factories in the country because; this sector represents 80% of Cambodian exportations. Those who have not graduated see this kind of job is as an opportunity to leave from misery but not from poverty as the legal minimum wage is under the vital minimum wage that is around 200$/month in Phnom Penh. Factory workers are in at the same time recipients and victims of the fast economic development.

Having given this background, I will begin my testimony by introducing myself. As a member of the Labour Pastoral Committee of the Phnom Penh catholic vicariate, I'll speak about the involvement of the Cambodian Catholic Church with the workers. And I'll finish by telling you more about how I live among Cambodian workers as a migrant and a Christian.

My background
I was not born in Cambodia but in France in a catholic family. My mother was a housewife and my father was a building worker, a plasterer. I have 3 brothers and a sister. At around 15 years old I learned about the Young Christian Workers (YCW). It is a catholic movement for working class young people. I liked that it was managed — by — young people and I became a member. At the end of my high school studies I obtained a technical diploma in graphic arts. I worked in the graphic industry for 5 years in different positions so I could say that I knew this the sector from A to Z: design concepts, design execution, file preparation for printing, printing, cutting, folding, conditioning and even delivery and distribution! At that time I knew clearly about the life of a worker in a company, in a factory. I was happy with this experience even though sometimes it was hard to endure the pressure until being fired.

After a period of rejection, step by step, I discovered, thanks to the YCW, that Jesus had been a young worker and that he was really resurrected, really living. This certainty began to lead my life. In 2003 I was sent to Cambodia as a volunteer for the catholic Church. My mission was to design books for catechism and education and to train a Cambodian graphic designer. But this mission has evolved a lot… The Phnom Penh bishop suggested that I might be interested about in the female women factory workers situation because the Church was quite far from them while garment industry development was booming! He made me meet, in a catholic centre, 3 former female workers who lived there. I followed them as they visited their former colleagues. I proposed the YCW practical method to them: the review of life. It's a concrete way to help young people to solve the contradiction between the convictions they have and the life they lead in 3 steps: See, Judge, Act. I met more and more factory workers. I spent more and more time with them. At the end of my 2 years mandate, this mission, this passion, had become full time.

I had to return to France and there, during almost 4 years, I kept asking the Lord what he expected of me for my life. When I understood that he wanted me to live with poor people I decided naturally to leave everything to devote all my life to the factory workers in Phnom Penh's suburbs. Back in Phnom Penh I had no job, no home, no transportation mean, no bank account, but some friends helped me, especially a female worker who accompanied me to find a room to rent, like the Phnom Penh factory workers who come, almost all of them, from the provinces. After several months the Phnom Penh bishop appointed me as a Labour Pastoral Committee member. It was a voluntary position; because I worked as a freelance graphic designer.

Labour Pastoral Committee of the Phnom Penh Catholic Vicariate.
Its mission
Christian life leads one to live the Gospel accompanied by the God's love. Catholic faithfuls try to live the Gospel values where they are, where they live. The bishop of each dioceses pushes his people to live according to the faith, giving them some means, like pastoral committees. Its mission is to show to the factory workers that they have an infinite dignity. The committee has 5 or 6 members who are somehow attached to factory work and one employee.

Its means and activities
The Labour Pastoral Committee, who celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, rents a house from a private owner in the historical zone where the first garment factories began. The big house has rooms that the committee leases cheaper that it rents for young workers who come from the countryside. The price is per person and not per room like elsewhere, in order that the tenants don't squeeze at 5 or 6 people into a room. Pierre, a old priest who has worked for more than 30 years in the industry, lives with them. Every week one of the tenants is responsible for the housework. Twice a month they eat together, sharing about the life in the centre and solving problems. Once a month, the responsible young woman, who is a tenant like the others, organises a social evening about a topic she choses for the centre inhabitants who are both Christians and non-Christians. Every years they prepare a day out to have fun together, to like being together. The mission of the young workers centre is not only to help them youth have a pleasant and cheap place to live, it is also to realise a concrete educative project for responsible young adults.

Every one or two years the Labour Pastoral Committee organise the festival "Workers Together" in Phnom Penh. The goal is to give factory workers to have fun, to develop good relations between them, to know each other, to gather, to prepare activities, to discover their values and to think about a theme. Almost 300 workers join each edition of this festival.

During one semester every year the Labour Pastoral Committee cooperates with the Salesian sisters, who manage a school, for an the elimination of illiteracy discrete program, in the place where I live. Thus some women are learning to read and write for free where they live.

On the same subject, the Labour Pastoral Committee has created a library in a working-class city. It opens every Saturdays. But surprisingly users aren't really consist in workers, mainly they are children. It was founded by a member of the committee who manages a catholic centre for boys. They deal with the library.

Every month, on a Sunday afternoon, some young workers lead a meeting organised with the employee of the Labour Pastoral Committee for around 10 or 15 workers. The topic is different each time to make the participants aware. The atmosphere is fraternal.

Each year for Labour Day on 1st May, the committee organises a small meeting with workers and partners. A video is projected to stimulate reflection.

For one or two years we persevered in having a weekly prayer time in the young workers centre. But the tenants participated rarely and we decided to stop. The prayer corner is kept in the same place and sometimes is used. Its presence reminds of the spiritual dimension of the centre. Private prayer is not forbidden!

Its method
The main goal of the Labour Pastoral Committee is to show the love of God to the workers. Of course most of them don't believe in God but the important thing is that they understand and believe that they have a dignity. Because globally, the society doesn't give workers a big value: they are poor, they are women… Especially their daily environment tends to devalue them. At the factory they are usually not more favourably treated than the machines. Their householder is interested by them only for the rental they pay. They live in badly arranged districts, etc.

Economic development is a good thing but it's not enough to fill a life. "Bread is not man's only need" said Jesus (Mt 4,4). The Labour Pastoral Committee takes into account all dimensions of a person: moral, physical, spiritual, emotional, sentimental, etc. Workers need wages at least equal to the vital minimum but they don't need only money. They need to be heard, they need to express themselves, they need to exist, to exist in the eyes of the others, they need to be recognised, in order to open themselves out, to bear fruit, to know happiness.

So the Labour Pastoral Committee straighten men and women, giving them back their dignity, which has been violated. Like SreyTouch has expressed to the Young Christian Workers, some workers who participate into the Labour Pastoral Committee activities trust again in themselves, feel that their lives have a significance, take some more responsibility, become actors of their own lives, become aware about of social and politic issues, etc. Of course their resurrection is not rectilinear, sometimes they tumble down. But like God the Father always forgives us, we try to always build confidence again with them.

Most of the time, when a young person comes to Phnom Penh to work at factory, he is happy. Because it's the first time s/he caves her/his parents. He feels free. He is exited to live with friends or cousins. And living in the town is valued. But after the first day of work her/his buoyancy declines. Because even in a good factory, workers make always the same things, they do always so the same gestures, it is morally exhausting. Women workers who are insulated, not because they live alone, which is almost impossible, but because they feel insulated, are vulnerable and thus they can easily fall into alcohol, prostitution (less and less), toxic love relations because in their villages, in their families, they have never experienced freedom. The group decided for them and they have never had to take responsibility. That's why a lot of factory workers in Phnom Penh have difficulties in manage their new freedoms. They land in a place where there are no old people to respect, no landmarks…

The Labour Pastoral Committee helps the factory workers to leave from insulation, to think about their futurs and not to only live from hand to mouth. We help young workers that we accompany to decide by themselves and after have take time to think. Gradually those who participate to the Labour Pastoral Committee activities by taking responsibilities, organising meetings, set priorities for themselves without undergo the pressure of their families.

Our committee never organises something only by its own members. We prefer get the factory workers to organise things by themselves or with our support. We are the Church, we are not an NGO. Our main objective is to love workers, to live in solidarity with them. The Labour Pastoral Committee realisations are not amazing, we are little as there is not a lot of catholics in Cambodia. But we focus on each workers that we have a relationship with. We follow them one by one, we inquire about their news, their health, their family, their neighbours… We see them grow and we underline their progress. We discover their capacities and we try to make them develop these capacities by calling to take in charge this or that responsibility. And it builds confidence. This method is not far from the God Father method: He never does things in place of us.

My vocation
"For God had such love for the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3,16) God gave himself totally to us. Christian life is not about doing good actions; it is welcoming this immeasurable love to give it back to God and others. Of course I'm not the first Christian who has wanted to give himself to the others by living with them. Many faith witnesses have lived what I live before I have done so. I can quote some French names like blessed Father Charles de FOUCAULD who lived alone in the middle of Muslim Touaregs in Algeria 100 years ago; like Madeleine DELBRÊL who chose to live in a popular town in solidarity with the workers near Paris 50 years ago though she was from a higher-class; like Father Gui GILBERT who chose to live in a center with young men classified by the courts and deemed irrecoverable. I cannot compare myself to them but the Holy Spirit and the workers have helped me on my path of conversion.

I have rented a room, normally made for factory workers, since 2009. It is located in the biggest city of this kind in the country: 845 rooms in an industrial park. My choice is to live as much as possible like my neighbours; to live, simply. But I live alone, in prayer, work, celibate, giving attention to the others, and for all a life long commitment. I share my life with the factory workers living around me. I share what I am with them. We build varying relationships more or less closed because each is different. With some we are friends and with some we are only acquaintances. We share about the daily life. I'm interested about in what make their daily life at work, at the market, with their family, their friends, their room-mates. It's useful sometimes to well know what how they live in order to make them think about their life, to help them solve little problems. Jesus could understand what the persons he met needed, what they missed, what they wanted using only a few words, a few gestures. I try to understand the same things when I observe my neighbours, when I listen to them. Some people confide in me but they are rarely factory workers.

When members of my neighbours families come, we meet, I visit them, they visit me. And I accept any invitation to follow my neighbours into their native villages to build confidence. As it is the tradition, when they come back from several days out, they bring me something. And when I come back from several days out, I bring them something. Sometimes they ask me for help. And sometimes that's me who ask them for help, even though I have to create a need for that!

I don't think all what that we do must be useful. Having good relationships together is a way to celebrate the life. But, by living in this way, thanks to the workers, I have the impression that I have become better. I hope that it is reciprocal, that my solidarity with them bears fruit in their lives also, fruits of love. At the beginning they were surprised that a European had come to live there. I think now some of them understand that this choice was for them because of the Gospel. I hope it bears fruits in their life. But my way of being seeks to show by in many way that what they live are important, that they are important, that they are unique. I'm sure that the life of some workers can be transformed if they feel the dignity they have. It doesn't matter if they believe this dignity is conferred by God or not. Because it can help them leave from fear.

Cambodian people lives into fear. I realised that after have lived with them for many years. They are afraid of bad spirits and zombies. They are afraid to be alone. They are afraid of their political leaders. They are afraid of the upper hierarchy, of their husbands, their householders; afraid to be rejected by their group, etc. But the Lord wants them to be free: "have no fear" (Marc 6,50) for they are free and they can taste full happiness.

Limits
In our city nobody is native to Phnom Penh. I have lived in the capital city for more time than most of the inhabitants. But I'm the only one who is not native to Cambodia. I have asked for Cambodian citizenship but though I fill all the criteria, I have never received any answer. Anyway, in Cambodian society, ethnicity is considered as most important. As my face is not Khmer, and not Asian, people around me wonder what I'm doing in this industrial park, living in the middle of factories; especially the authorities, or my householder, what is the same: he pays 2 policemen to supervise the tenants. They don't understand because I haven't fled any religious discrimination, political persecution, war or environmental damage in my country; I didn't come because of my job. I came to bring hope. And they are there cause despair to the people.
When I settled in the biggest worker area of Cambodia, the police investigated on me. I know that because I have had been followed and several persons told me that policemen or spies asked them questions about me. I was victim of intimidations.

In late 2011 after a meeting in my room with some workers, we took a picture of the scene outside. Just after that one of the policemen in the city came and asked me: "Have you asked for an authorisation to take pictures?" Of course I hadn't any permission! So he sent me to the office. In the office the manager of the city told me that according to the internal rules it was forbidden to take pictures without authorisation. But actually there's are no internal rules! The real reason for this meeting was not the photography. They said: "You're a foreigner. Keep quiet!" It was the real reason: as an occidental man I have conscience of my dignity, I think, I ask questions to my self, I know that I have rights, I inform myself, I'm not afraid of them... And they didn't want this to spread. The manager gave me 10 days to leave the city. Two or 3 days after, I ate in a restaurant with a friend from Korean. He was teacher in the University of Iksan and some years he had Cambodian students. At that time he was in Phnom Penh to visit former students. I told him the story and he answered me: "I am not sure that it can help you but tomorrow I will meet one of my former student whose father is number 2 of Phnom Penh police. I'll speak to him about your problem." I thought to myself: "It's God who sent you!" After 2 days the manager of my city told me that I could stay. And by phone the former student of my friend told him: "Your friend has a strange way of life anyway!"

During this conflict and more generally in my relations with the office I show that I'm not afraid in order to give courage to the inhabitants of the city. Because courage is the unique virtue that you cannot make grown by yourself. But you can make it grows in the heart of the others. That's why we must be in solidarity.

This is my choice as a simple believer with all my limits. This is the choice of a migrant, not a forced migrant, witness of the economic development of a South-East Asian country; not only witness but also actor in human development with the Church.