C ambodia? Cambodge? Jason Barber reports that "language is a weapon" in

the squabble to dominate the Kingdom's second tongue.

"YOU have come at

the right time - they are about to burn the French," a Frenchwoman greeted a

visitor to Phnom Penh's Institute of Technology this month.

Outside, a

straw effigy bearing a sign saying "French" was being readied for symbolic

burning by a band of student protesters.

A match was put to the effigy;

within seconds "the French" were reduced to a pile of ash. Most of the

institute's French and Khmer staff ignored the spectacle, while a few watched

bemused.

Despite the students' talk of holding mock trials of French

professors, the staff - and the institute's French funding - emerged unscathed

from the protests which disrupted classes for several weeks.

But the

demonstrators' demands to be taught in English, not French, highlighted the

battle of the languages in Cambodia.

Francophonie (the French-speaking

community) efforts to promote their language, foreign aid and the pursuit of

influence and profit in Cambodia are all intertwined.

Language, says one

Phnom Penh Frenchman who has worked closely with French aid projects, can be "a

weapon".

The man, who wanted neither himself nor his job identified, says

the French government's aim in Cambodia is the same as any country's - to gain

influence.

"Language is a weapon, money is another. If you want to have

influence, you have to attract people.

"In that sense, the French

language may be a means to attract people. If Cambodians learn French, maybe

they can go to France to study, and so on."

He believes the French

government - unlike francophonie agencies - considers the language "is a means,

not the purpose".

Others, whom he describes as "professional lobbyists",

are eager to see language promoted as a way to further their business

interests.

There are simmering rivalries, for instance, over the future

of Cambodia's legal and accounting systems.

The French government funds

Phnom Penh's Faculty of Law school - where students are taught in French - while

the United States also funds law training at the Faculty of

Business.

"Personally, I don't think that is good. Cambodia does not need

two institutions," says the Frenchman.

"If an American lawyer comes here,

and if Cambodia adopts his law system, it means money and a job for Americans.

It's the same with the French - the language may be used as a weapon by each

other."

Promoting the French language abroad is big business. Phnom

Penh's Institute of Technology is getting $7 million in French aid - described

as "peanuts" by one involved with the project - out of a world budget of tens of

millions of dollars.

The key players are the French government and

international francophonie agencies such as AUPELF-UREF, an association of 350

universities in French-speaking countries.

AUPELF, which made its debut

in Cambodia in 1993 when it took over the running of the Institute of

Technology, is stepping up its activities with the recent opening of an office

here.

Its latest move was to help establish a new French language

newspaper, Cambodge Soir (Cambodian Evening).

The newspaper was initiated

by AUPELF general-manager Michel Guillou, in Cambodia in January to open the new

office.

Guillou, keen to start a daily French language newspaper,

approached French journalists in Phnom Penh. Among them were Alain Gascuel, who

publishes the fortnightly New Cambodia in English and French, and Marc Victor,

of the monthly Le Mekong.

"This man Guillou came and said 'I have money,

I want to create a daily'," says Gascuel.

"I said no. Marc Victor said

no. Both of us, without consultation, said: 'No way, not a daily. If you have

money, try something else'."

Gascuel's view was that there were not

enough readers for a daily paper, but Guillou was insistent.

Victor, who

eventually agreed to start a new paper, says the first thing he told Guillou was

"we have to study the market".

Victor says Le Mekong - which receives

$30,000 a year from France's Ministry of Culture - had been wanting to start a

weekly sister publication.

AUPELF preferred a daily one, so finally they

compromised - Le Mekong would start a tri-weekly publication. AUPELF gave

$40,000 and Cambodge Soir was born.

"Maybe it would be better to have a

weekly," says Victor. "But...[Cambodge Soir] is not expensive for us to publish,

it has four pages and we have only a few journalists - we said why

not?

"Maybe one day we will try to publish it daily, but it will be very

difficult...it will depend on the advertising market."

Gascuel, who

speaks of working by candlelight to start up New Cambodia 15 months ago, is

unhappy about the new competition for that market.

"It's my money. It's

my work. I don't like people coming suddenly into the market with money from

elsewhere.

"This guy Guillou comes here for a few days and says 'I want a

daily'...This paper was not started by the will of the people

here."

Guillou ran into other critics in his time in Phnom Penh,

including French Ambassador Gildas Le Lidec, widely known to have exchanged

words with him at a social gathering.

According to one account, Le Lidec

described Guillou's francophonie efforts as "merde " (shit) and made

undiplomatic suggestions about the best place for them.

Le Lidec - who

last week declined to speak to the Post - also ran into controversy for a March

interview he gave to New Cambodia

He was quoted as saying: "Cambodia has

never been and isn't francophone. It would be a major mistake to drag Cambodians

by force into francophonie."

French was "something supplementary", useful

for Khmers who already spoke English, but he urged: "Let's be reasonable in our

objectives".

There were sometimes "misunderstandings", he said, "maybe

because some operators acting in the name of francophonie are either brutal or

too aggressive".

Le Lidec's comments reached France, where Culture

Minister Jacques Toubon - noted for drafting a law banning English words in

French advertisements - reacted angrily.

Toubon called for Le Lidec to be

reprimanded by the Foreign Ministry, which responded with an assurance that

French diplomats abroad were "committed to developing French language and

culture". A later statement proclaimed that the Ambassador had "all the

confidence" of France.

A month later, the Cambodian government was forced

to address the English-versus-French debate by the Institute of Technology

protests.

"I felt like I was being held hostage on one side by AUPELF and

by my own students on the other," says Minister of Education Tol Lah, who headed

negotiations to settle the dispute.

"AUPELF threatened to withdraw their

aid package, while the students were also complaining."

Tol Lah accepts

AUPELF's policy is to teach in French but he remains adamant that Cambodia's

universities "cannot be exclusive to France".

On his preference for

English or French, he says: "I know right now that English is the dominant

language in the region. I wish we could teach our children English right from

primary school, but that is just a dream - we don't have the teachers, the

materials."

His best hope, he says, is to see both English and French

taught in secondary schools.

Cambodia - along with Vietnam and Laos - is

unique in that its former colonization means many still speak French in a region

where English is the most-widely spoken foreign language.

Officially,

Cambodia is at least a semi-francophone country. In 1993, it joined an assembly

- whose name translates to the Summit of Chiefs of State of Governments Sharing

French - made up of 49 countries where French is spoken to some

degree.

AUPELF - whose $32 million budget (in 1994) is funded by the

French, Belgian and Canadian governments and its university members - is an

agency of the assembly.

Christophe LaBorde, head of AUPELF's new

Cambodian office, cites Cambodia's decision to join the assembly as the reason

for francophonie projects.

"If a country joins...it means they want to

promote French in their country. If they don't want to promote French, they

don't join."

Cambodia, he says, needs more French speakers to help build

relations within the French-speaking world.

"To speak French in Southeast

Asia, where a lot of countries speak English....it's something special,

something better than the other countries have."

But "we don't want

everybody to speak French," he adds, laughing.

AUPELF targets science and

technology students for French lessons, he says, to help them get greater

knowledge and opportunities in the world francophonie science

community.

He would not reveal AUPELF's Cambodian budget. But as well as

the Institute of Technology, it funds materials and training for the Faculty of

Medicine and the teaching of science subjects in French at the University of

Phnom Penh and three high schools.

Minister of Education Tol Lah, in the

wake of events at the institute, has asked AUPELF to consider the high school

projects only an "experiment".

The French government, meanwhile, also

sponsors French language classes for secondary and university students, among a

host of other francophonie projects.

They include funding the Cultural

and Language Cooperation Center - which teaches French to some 10,000 children,

students, officials, professors, teachers and others - and two French language

television programs on TVK.

LaBorde believes Cambodian government

officials, many of whom speak French, accept that French and francophonie aid is

No.1 for "action and for volume of money" in the education field.

"If

they don't have francophone policies, this action will go away, will go abroad,"

he says.

But he disputes that the flourishing francophonie of Cambodia is

aimed to exclude English.

"The best someone can do is to learn French and

English too. They will have a lot of opportunity for the future if they know the

two main languages.

"Francophones or French people working here don't

want to make war with the people who promote English courses."

Alain

Gascuel, of New Cambodia, says that, intended or not, there is a battle going

on.

"This is more than a game. This is a fight. We have a number of small

fights, some are stupid, some are justified.

"But this is Cambodia, I

think we should be clever - the [aid] work is so huge, there is a piece for

everybody."

Nobody, Gascuel says, is stupid enough to say that "Cambodia

should be French again", but nor should they discount the French.

"Sure,

the surrounding countries are English speaking, but you cannot suppress all that

is French here. It's part of the history and culture.

"It has to be

recognized that France has a place here, a reason to be here. For how much

longer? Well, it is up to us to remain useful."