We will govern alone: Hun Sen

By Ly Menghour

The Mekong Times

Prime Minister Hun Sen has confidently announced his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) will govern alone after the national election, controlling the National Assembly (NA) without the need for coalition partners. He also said no leadership positions in NA commissions will be given to parties other than the CPP, including its current ally, the royalist Funcinpec party. “If there is A, there won’t be B – if there is B, there won’t be A. If there is him, there won’t be me – Hun Sen,” the premier and CPP vice chairman boomed at a Phnom Penh graduation ceremony yesterday. Hun Sen’s ambiguous statement was thought to be aimed at Sam Rainsy, who said during the 2003 national election campaign that he would not form a coalition government with Hun Sen.“The NA can have [him], but he won’t be there in the government,” Hun Sen continued, saying that the newly introduced “50 percent plus one” majority voting formula had made it much easier for one party alone to form a government.The premier warned that no chair positions on the NA’s specialized commissions would be given to members of other parties, “not even a little.” However, Hun Sen did assure other parties that “if you win, you do not need to give [positions] to me.” Hun Sen claimed that past attempts to install members of other parties as NA commissions chairmen had failed as “they acted as opposition and did not fulfill their duty as chairmen.”He said the CPP is already prepared to take over the NA commissions, with CPP members already at the head of five of the nine commissions. “We have already prepared four more chairmen for the [remaining] commissions,” he said, stressing that international assistance in the allocation of these positions would not be needed.Opposition parties protested strongly that such a situation would be detrimental to democracy. Yim Sovann, chairman of the NA Commission on the Interior and an SRP lawmaker, warned that Cambodia will become “a dictatorial nation and a non-democratic regime” if Hun Sen’s plans come to fruition. “The premier is violating the rights of the legislative body [NA] because the body represents the power of the people, and all political parties that have NA representation must have leadership roles in NA commissions,” he said. He said no one could know for certain which party will win the election, not least because of the CPP’s poor record in handling the economy. “[The CPP’s] economic failure can be traced to high-rates of unemployment, soaring food prices, corruption and rampant land disputes,” Yim Sovann claimed. “It is only the people who can decide who should win or lose the leadership of the country.”Kem Sokha, Human Rights Party president, said Hun Sen’s political ideas are “a step towards exclusive rule.”“According to democracy, exclusive governmental rule can only be assumed if the CPP gains a majority [of 50 percent “plus one” or over], but the NA must [still] have representatives of the voters from the [other] political parties who have seats in the NA,” he said.