November 16, 2011
TALKING POINTS AT TODAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE
I- Constitutional crisis
Opposition Members of Parliament decide to provoke a constitutional crisis by resigning en bloc and constitutionally blocking the National Assembly because no dialogue is possible with the Government. The ruling CPP ignores the rights of minority parties and keeps persecuting the SRP. The National Assembly is just a rubber-stamp parliament while the justice system is a political tool for the CPP to preserve and consolidate its authoritarian power. Unacceptable human rights violations and other government abuses must be stopped one way or another.
II- SRP’s objective
The SRP will continue to block any vote or any decision by the National Assembly until the CPP-led government accepts to implement:
1) A moratorium on land grabbing and forced evictions in line with a recent Appeal by the United Nations. [“Stealing our land is stealing our life”].
2) A change in the composition of the National Election Committee (NEC) in line with the recommendation of the European Union (EU Election Observation Mission in 2008) relative to the organization of any future elections. [“Stealing our vote is stealing our life and our future”].
III-Immediate consequences for the Government if it refuses to meet the SRP demands
1) The Budget Law for 2012 cannot be adopted.
2) Loan agreements recently signed by the Government with foreign countries and international financial institutions cannot be ratified as required by the Constitution (see attached economic analysis showing how the thriving corruption of the Hun Sen regime depends on external borrowings).
IV- Response to Hun Sen
1) About a comparison between him and Gaddafi: I have compared Hun Sen to Muammar Gaddafi on several occasions. But I have also compared Hun Sen to other recently-deposed dictators such as Tunisia’s Ben Ali (removed after 23 years in power), Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak (removed after 30 years in power). I hope Hun Sen will be wiser than Gaddafi by accepting to step down when it is not too late. After 32 years in power, Hun Sen is now the world’s longest-serving prime minister preceded only by Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who will fall soon after33 years in power. Everybody can notice that the worst regimes in terms of crimes and impunity are those whose autocratic leaders have been in power for the longest period of time. Hun Sen is also in good company with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who will be removed soon after 40 years of dictatorship including his father Hafez al-Assad’s 29-year reign of terror.
2) About Hun Sen’s threat to file a lawsuit against me in Phnom Penh following my comparing him to Gaddafi: I want to remind Hun Sen and his wife Bun Rany that I have publicly accused them of masterminding the assassination in 1999 of Ms. Piseth Pilika, a renowned Cambodian artist. Given the fact that I have issued this very serious accusation in Paris in a public speech and a public written document, I invite Mr. and Mrs. Hun Sen to be courageous enough to dare file a defamation lawsuit against me before the French Court since it is from the French soil that I accuse them of murder. Mr. Hor Namhong, Cambodia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, has already filed such a lawsuit against me before the French Court. If Mr. and Mrs. Hun Sen do not dare to start a lawsuit against me in France like Mr. Hor Namhong, they would show up their cowardice and would implicitly recognize that they are effectively murderers.
Sam Rainsy
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QUORUM (from wikipedia)
UNITED KINGDOM
In the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons has a quorum of 40 MPs, including the Speaker, out of 650 members of the House. There is no need for a quorum to be present at all times. Commons debates could theoretically continue even if just one MP and the Speaker were present. However, if a division is called and fewer than 40 MPs are present, then a decision on the business being considered is postponed and the House moves on to consider the next item of business. The quorum for votes on legislation in the House of Lords is 30, but just three of the 753 peers, including the Lord Speaker, are required to be present for a debate to take place.[15]
[edit] UNITED STATES
Article I, Section 5, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution provides that "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business..." Therefore in both the House of Representatives and the Senate a quorum is a simple majority of their respective members. The only exception is that stated in the Twelfth Amendment, which provides that in cases in which no candidate for President of the United States receives a majority in the Electoral College, the election is decided by the House of Representatives, in which case "a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states," and in cases in which no candidate for Vice President of the United States has been elected, the election is decided by the Senate, in which case "a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators."
The Senate has the additional ordinary requirement in Rule VI of its Standing Rules that "A quorum shall consist of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn."
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