A Change of Guard

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Tuesday 11 March 2008

Kem Sokha: The Prime Minister Is Hindering Democracy

Kem Sokha (left) and Prime Minister Hun Sen (right).
10th March 2008
By Mao Sotheany
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer to English by Khmerization


Prime ministerial candidate of the Human Right Party said that the immediate rejection from Prime Minister Hun Sen toward his proposal to the National Election Committee (NEC) for it to organise a face to face televised debate is an insult to the efforts of a national electoral institution to promote democracy.
Mr. Kem Sokha, who is also the president of the Human Right Party said that Mr. Hun Sen’s declaration of rejection on Saturday to his proposal to the NEC is a threat and an interference to NEC.
Mr Kem Sokha said: “First I would like him to support that debate because it is important for the promotion of democracy, promotion of the value of the electoral process and to provide a better opportunity for the people. But whether he will participate or not is up to him. But I would like to stress that, in his capacity as the prime minister who used to say that he wants to promote democracy, I want to see him support that idea first. Secondly, then we can discuss in details about the formula for the debate. If he has hindered even before the NEC, which many people think is under the rein of the ruling party, gave its answer to the proposal, it will scare the NEC not to give the permission for the debate to take place. I did not ask the permission from anybody, I didn’t ask the prime minister, I only ask the NEC to organise the debate. When he is making a pre-emptive speech it is like he is trying to stop and to intimidate the NEC not to hold the debate.”
In relation to the proposal for the debate Prime Minister Hun Sen said that there is no need for the debate because he is not a good public speaker like Mr. Kem Sokha. But Mr. Hun Sen sarcastically responded by referring to the internal problems that have plagued the parties of other prime ministerial candidates like this: “I don’t need to participate in such a debate. Talking about the national reconciliation I have united everyone since the country was still divided. Now I have united everybody. Please just talk about yourselves, like: how can you achieve a national reconciliation because you can’t even govern your own little party and allow all your members to defect to other party? You can’t even govern a non-governmental organisation, the members are suing the chairman for corruption which caused the break up of that organisation. Someone can’t even govern his own family, one child go west, the other go east. It is like putting the crabs in a winnowing basket (the crabs will run everywhere). How can he govern a country with a multi-party system? Only me can do it. So I wish to send a message to His Excellency Kem Sokha to please spare me. You can say that I am scared of you. I am scared of you because you know how to speak better than me.”
Mr Kem Sokha said that such a reaction from Mr Hun Sen shows that he is not listening to other people’s ideas and only wants to rule the country by himself.
Mr Kem Sokha said: “He is a prime minister. It shows that he wants to rule the country by himself forever. He said he wanted to open to suggestions but there is no sign that he wants to further promote democracy. He doesn’t want to listen to anyone’s ideas. He just takes his own ideas only. Even those ideas, which did not compromise our national interests and the interests of the people, but are promoting democracy, he didn’t dare to accept them. In a democratic society, sometimes the ideas from the opposition parties are taken into accounts. This means that he (Hun Sen) is not open to receiving suggestions and ideas from other people.” //END//

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