Last week, a poll was conducted to select a new list of the “seven wonders of the world” to replace the ancient list, dating from 200 BC. This was not a UNESCO initiative but the brainchild of a Swiss adventurer, who uses the World Wide Web and text messaging for this poll.

While Cambodia’s Angkor Watt made the shortlist of 21 candidates, it trailed in the final selection and failed to be selected, despite an appeal by the governor of Siem Reap to all Cambodians to vote for this historic monument, witnessing the glorious past of the Khmer empire. Yet, this appeal may have exactly have put the finger on the failings of the selection process.

Voters likely favoured their own national monuments, turning this poll into a survey of how widespread internet access is in the participating countries. Name recognition may have been another factor in the selection process: Cambodia is still more associated with Khmer Rouge than with any of its cultural heritage sites.

The Cambodian government, disappointed with the outcome, realised the reason for the defeat and vowed never to partake in www-based polls. Even if Cambodia’s participation would have been on the instigation of the government, such a move would be unwise. As name recognition was an important factor in the outcome of this poll, Cambodia has gained a lot notwithstanding its failure to make the final list of seven.

Since the start of this poll, the Angkor Watt page on Taxi Vantha’s website has received an astonishing number of hits. Whereas the VanthaNet event calendar used to be the greatest attraction on our website, the Angkor Watt webpage has greatly outnumbered the odd 100 hits per day for the event calendar, with close to 12.000 hits since mid-May 2007, the date on which our counters restarted.

Compare this with less than 900 hits for Angkor Thom, our second most popular page in the section of Cambodia’s tourist attraction.

The point of these statistics is that Cambodia’s participation has greatly boosted the name recognition of Angkor Watt and enhanced the public perception of Cambodia. The world should not forget the horror of the Khmer Rouge, but additionally become aware of the greatness of the country’s heritage sites. Even though Angkor Watt did not make the final seven wonders of the World, Cambodia’s inclusion in the shortlist has accomplished just that.

Instead of refusing future participation in internet-based polls, the government should consider improving internet access, by building out a nation-wide network, introducing internet in state- run schools to acquaint students with the technology and by reducing the price for internet access.

For unlimited access at a speed of 64 kbps upload and 128 kbps download, the cheapest ISP charges $220 per month. The monthly Cambodian-level salary of Taxi Vantha’s manager at CUP university is not sufficient to pay for this internet access. The VanthaNet internet shop does not raise enough money to be profitable, but may complement the academic salary to make internet access just barely viable.

For the average Cambodian, internet is obviously still out of reach. And that is what the government should do something about. This is an investment that will profit the country greatly!