Disguised as a fisherman, Bun Ly chugs up and down the Mekong River in a longtail boat, counting giant barges full of sand dredged from the bed of the struggling waterway as part of his new job with outlawed activist group Mother Nature Cambodia.
It’s a far cry from the luxury hotels and buffet lunches of his former life in the development sector, which Ly – whose name has been changed to protect his identity – left behind after the arrest in September of a young woman he had mentored.
“I still blame myself,” said Ly, 32, who has trained hundreds of young intellectuals in critical thinking, including Long Kunthea, a 22-year-old chemistry student facing trial on incitement charges related to her work with Mother Nature.
