Fear of foreigners in Laos

The journalist in Laos wrote an article titled 'Fear of foreigners in Laos' upon one year of a Lao ecolodge in the northern province of Luang Namtha. He talks about the Lao government disliking foreign influences in Lao.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JB02Ae01.html

I just wonder where he gets this information from because after a year I’ve found it hard to get information around here. Generally, people just rely on rumours. He highlights the point that the Lao National University, Lao’s only university opened in 1996 which is very recent. It does not yet have postgraduate courses. My friend says that students are expected to learn long passages of Marx’s texts. Lao doesn’t produce textbooks so they learn from Lao or Thai textbooks.