Three political parties' reactions against the CPP

picture: Ly Thuch (photo by Rasmei Kampuchea).


By Mayarith


Radio Free Asia


Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy


Courtesy of http://ki-media.blogspot.com/



Representatives of three political parties reacted to yesterday’s report quoting Ly Thuch, the vice-chairman of the CPP working group in Pursat province, who claimed that 785 members of the Funcinpec, NRP and SRP defected their respective parties to join the CPP prior to the 2008 general election.Ly Thuch who is currently a government minister, was a former Funcinpec party member who defected to join the CPP also.Heng Chanthuon, the SRP representative in Pursat province, said that Ly Thuch’s claim was false: “I believe that this is his political habit, in general, he likes to go around saying that this or that person joins him, but in fact, he is looking down on political activists and all the people who are supporting our Sam Rainsy Party in Pursat province, as well as in other provinces. He doesn’t have a clear political goal or standing, he is a continuously changing politician, just like what we saw.”From the NRP, Muth Chantha, NRP spokesman, declared that those who went to join the CPP were in fact Funcinpec party members: “I reviewed that report, there was no NRP party members who went in to join the CPP through Ly Thuch. Those who went there, were in fact Funcinpec party members, and he paints them as NRP members for political gain only. In reality, there was nobody from the NRP who went there. In particular, Ly Thuch was in charge of Pursat for 2-3 mandates already, and he led a group of 700 people to join the CPP once in July of this year, what he continues to do is to mop up Funcinpec party members, he cannot push NRP members to join the CPP.”Nov Sovathero, Funcinpec spokesman, said that the switch of allegiance from one party to another is normal. Nov Sovathero said: “I believe that what he (Ly Thuch) is saying, that’s his problem, but for the current Funcincpec, all party leaders visited the grass root, and our party members feel more confident than before, and our (party) structure is strengthening up. Therefore, the switch of allegiance is normal, those who defected are not in large number, however those who remain with Funcinpec are numerous, and those who returned back from other political parties are also in large number, but the Funcinpec never talk about this issue because we believe that this is a normal affair for the party members. However, within Funcinpec, because the party president, Princess Arunrasmi (F’pec PM candidate) and the secretary-general (Nhiek Bun Chhay) strengthened and visited the grass root, there is a lot of progress in our current structure.”