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The other day I took my car to battery shop to have the battery replaced. Since it’s important to have a car that will start every time you turn on the ignition, I was hoping to pick up a good, reliable battery, preferably a brand I can trust.

However, none of the batteries offered at the shop had a brand I could recognize. There were several labeled “Japan” in large letters on their boxes, but I found that they were actually made in Thailand. Besides not wanting to patronize Siam products, I wouldn’t trust a car battery whose manufacturer wanted to fool consumers into thinking that it was made in a country where it wasn’t. I finally decided on what I was told a “high-end” brand from South Korea that should last me about 2 years. I paid almost $70 for the battery, but I think I could have gotten a comparable one for around $50 back in the US.

Batteries are one of the most ubiquitous items in Cambodia. People need batteries for their cars, motorcycles, construction tools, even to power small light bulbs and TVs in remote countrysides inaccessible to electricity.

That made me to thinking that if these batteries were manufactured in Cambodia, we’d be able to produce much more cheaply, thanks to cheap labor, locally available battery-making materials, the absence of tariffs, and lower transportation costs. Plus, we’d have a domestic market big enough to consume them (and thus do not even have to rely on export). A domestically produced car battery comparable to the $70 Korean-made one that I bought might go for just $30. Besides saving Khmer consumers money, thereby raising their standards of living, making batteries in srok Khmer will create many jobs for our people, not just manufacturing jobs but a whole range of occupations related to the production, distribution, marketing and sales of the batteries.

Making car and motorcycle batteries shouldn’t be that difficult. I refuse to believe that the descendants of the builders of Angkor can’t even make car batteries. In fact, you can make a simple working car battery from a diagram in a high school textbook or even an article from Wikipedia.com. The science behind behind battery-making is exceedingly simple; it’s just the engineering aspects of it that needs attention. Instead of starting from scratch, a Khmer battery maker might invest in technology and equipment from abroad. Initially, they might need to hire technical expertise from countries Korea and China, so that they could set up a plant and produce commercial-quality batteries right from the start.

I think when we talk about building a nation, it doesn’t have to necessarily involve some complex grand scheme that seems beyond reach. Rather, it’s just a matter of putting all the right pieces together. Manufacturing our own batteries, as opposed to importing them, would certainly qualify as a “right piece”.

But why go through all the hassles of building a battery making plant, acquiring technology and equipment from abroad, and marketing and distributing Khmer batteries while we can simply buy them from Thailand, China and Korea? After all, importing also creates employment for Khmer people in transportation, logistics, distribution, and retailing of imported goods.

The answer is, if we don’t start making the goods we use everyday, we’ll all end up as peddlers of finished products from other countries. In fact, much of the Khmer economy revolve around the peddling of foreign goods, ranging from batteries, to toilet paper, soap, whiskey, and even toothpicks. Granted, international trade is a necessity if we are to be a successful player in today’s global economy. But running huge trade deficits with foreign countries is a sure-fire way to bleed the nation to death. Last year Cambodia managed to rack up a whopping $3.2 billion deficit with just Thailand, Vietnam and China alone.

Furthermore, the goods that the Cambodia exports tend to be raw materials like timber that pose a threat to our dwindling natural resources, while we import finished goods and pay premium prices for them. For instance, a $100 piece of timber exported to Vietnam might find its way back to Cambodia in the form of ten thousand boxes of toothpicks costing Khmer end-consumers $3,000 to $4,000. Is it so hard to make our own toothpicks?

Making batteries shouldn’t be much harder than making toothpicks. Of course, there are some hurdles to overcome. Setting up a modest battery manufacturing operation might require a $2 to $3 million initial investment in infrastructure, technology and equipment. Despite huge potentials returns, it may take a few years just to recoup the initial costs.

A Khmer entrepreneur with $2 million to invest in business might choose the easy, tried-and-true route of having a few container-loads of batteries shipped from abroad. He might make a couple dollars in profit from the sale of each battery to the battery shops, which in turn will make a few more dollars from the end-consumer.

Traveling around Phnom Penh I can easily spot 20 or 30 business opportunities in a single day– not silly ideas that can’t make money, but ones that are profitable as well as ethical, socially responsible, and “nation-building” in nature. But for these ideas to work, our mentality has to change, from a narrow focus on individual wealth to collective prosperity, from instant gratification to investing in the future.

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What bothers me is that Khmer people generally have to know a foreign language, especially English, to land a good job in their own country. Everyone seems to casually accept this as a fact of life.

But something’s definitely not right here.

Normally, if you go to a foreign country, you’re at a disadvantage if you don’t speak their language. But in srok Khmer, when a foreigner comes to your country, you’re the one who is at a disadvantage for not being to communicate with them in their language. Foreigners can come to live and work here without knowing a word of Khmer, and often making more money than all of their Khmer employees combined to boot.

The necessity to learn a second language puts Khmer people at a distinct disadvantage and places an extra burden on an impoverished country with only a fledgling educational system. Further, most Khmer students who learn foreign languages to secure better employment will not master them as well as the foreigners who speak them as their native tongues. This ensures that the Khmer workers will always answer to their foreign bosses.

What’s wrong with the assumption that you must speak English, French, Chinese, Korean, or whatever, to succeed in Cambodia? Well, if you’re only 5 foot tall, you don’t have to play basketball just because everyone else is playing it. You can practice basketball all life, but no matter how hard you practice, in all likelihood you’ll never make it to the pros. Why not play a different sport, e.g. become a horse racing jockey, where your height (or lack thereof) becomes an advantage rather than a handicap?

The same logic applies to srok Khmer. If the Cambodian economy is somehow shifted away from over-reliance on tourism toward areas like agriculture and manufacturing, then Khmer people could thrive professionally and become successful in life without the added burden of knowing a foreign language. Personally, I don’t think it’s very smart to ignore one’s own natural strengths to play other people’s games.

Don’t get me wrong– I still think Khmer students should learn foreign languages like English, Chinese, French, Korean, and Japanese to compete successfully in today’s global economy and to advance their studies in fields like medicine, technology, and science. But our society should not rely on foreign languages in a way that cripples and subordinates Khmer people within our own country.

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You may have read about the double-digit growth of the Cambodian economy in the past few years. This year the economy is expected to shrink by 1% because of the global economic downturn. The lack of diversity in the economy, which relies mainly on textile, tourism, and construction, makes the country particularly vulnerable to global economic conditions.

Any real development should focus on improving the livelihoods of the middle 70% of the population, not just the top few percents. It is my impression that middle 70% still make less than $100 a month. For instance, waiters and waitresses at restaurants in Cambodia make only about $50 a month. Their monthly incomes are barely enough to take out their families to the restaurant where they work for just one meal. A typical waitress in the U.S., by contrast, earns enough to dine her family at the restaurant where she works 20 to 25 times a month.

What’s the point of building all the homes and high-rise condos if the average Khmer person can’t afford to live in them? Not surprisingly, there are many empty flats and condos as a result of the recent housing boom. That’s because they’re built by the affluent minority for speculative investment purposes. They’re not built for those without adequate housing. It’s inconceivable that a Khmer couple who makes $100-200 a month would be able to afford a $100,000 flat, especially without financing.

The next logical step would be to encourage the influx of foreigners and allow them to own properties in Cambodia to fill up these empty units. This is exactly what is happening in Cambodia. Khmer people are becoming second-class citizens within our own country. Many of our young people are taking low-paying jobs as waitresses, security guards, tuk-tuk drivers, janitors, and prostitutes to serve foreign expatriates living and doing business in Cambodia. At many establishments Khmer employees have to speak a foreign language to communicate with their bosses.

Development can be a double-edged sword. If it is to play a constructive role in Cambodia, it must focus on raising the living standards of the average Khmer citizen, not just adding to the already excessive wealth of the rich. Otherwise, it will lead to a neocolonialist situation where the majority of the host population are subjugated to serve the interests of the local and foreign elite.

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In many ways the country is suffering the worst of two worlds: the bureaucracy, inefficiency and corruption of communism coupled with the greed and excesses of capitalism. Some of this is to be expected from the recent shifts in our politics and economy. If the abuses are not brought to light and moderated, however, they could become a way of life.

A good case in point is the large trade deficits we have with our neighbors. Cambodia has an annual trade deficit of $3.2 billion with Vietnam, Thailand and China alone. You can imagine 32 million $100 bills with wings flying out of the country each year on a one-way migration. That’s the amount of money we have to recoup by begging foreign countries and overseas relatives and selling our women to sex tourists.

When Khmer people have money, they want to buy the finest imports. They want to impress their friends by being able to afford overpriced foreign brands. They think of little else. That’s why there are only a few goods like bottled water, beer, and one brand of instant noodle that are manufactured and mass-marketed in Cambodia. If you need coffee, razor blades, toothpaste, batteries, and other consumer staples, you’ll have to settle for imports. Even though we have a huge garment industry, you won’t find many clothing with “Made in Cambodia” labels here. The finest Khmer-made garments are shipped to places like the US and Europe while inferior goods are imported from Thailand for domestic use.

If ordinary Khmers would only give value to our own goods, that might encourage Khmer entrepreneurs to build manufacturing plants to make them domestically. The government can do its part by offering tax incentives to Khmer manufacturers while implementing some trade restrictions on imports to help our own manufacturers.

The $3.2 billion that would otherwise go to grow the economies of Thailand, Vietnam and China would lead to the creation of millions of jobs for Khmer people. More jobs means more demand for labor. More demand for labor means higher wages. Higher wages means less poverty and higher standards of living for everyone.

Meanwhile, a flourishing economy based on manufacturing and agriculture provides a major source of tax revenues for the government. More employment opportunities in the private sector will further encourage some civil servants and police and military personnel to leave the public sector, freeing up more public funds to increase the wages of existing government employees, thereby REDUCING CORRUPTION.

So what is it going to be? Are we going to drink Johnie Walker or Angkor Beer? Are we going to eat Mama Instant Noodle (Siam) or Mee Yerng? Are we going to make it a habit to prefer and demand Khmer-made goods, so that others have an incentive to produce them?

As you can see, it doesn’t take much to change the world. But we must take the first step ourselves, rather than constantly crying foul and relying on others to walk the walk for us. Some people like to call for a revolution to solve our problems, but they forget to do the little things that matter.

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