Cambodian democracy remains unbalanced

Saturday, 10 December 2011
Posted by Serath

PHNOM PENH, December 10, 2011 (Cambodia Herald) - Surya Subedi (pictured), the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia who visited Phnom Penh this past week, sees a need for a stronger position to ensure the functioning of democracy.
He raised the point as Cambodian's opposition parties are seen as weaker and still divided, devaluing their role as a force for checks and balances in the democratic process.
According to Surya, criticism of a government is healthy and natural. In all democracies from East to West, those with an open society encourage the government to rethink, debate and take on board new suggestions to benefit the country as a whole.
"The need for an effective and functioning opposition therefore is paramount," he says. "They act as (a) check and balance for government to bring people together, particularly in the case of elections where it is in both the government’s and the opposition’s interest to have a high voter turnout."
In other words, democracy in Cambodia will be more lively and beneficial if opposition parties are stronger and the government is more open to criticism. It may take, however, a long time for opposition parties to be as strong as the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
Many factors are involved including human resources, finance, access to the media and internal solidarity in the opposition parties.
Human resources are significant. Since the elections of 1993, through which Cambodia transformed itself from a communist country to a democracy, the opposition has failed to strengthen its human resources to be as strong as or similar to those of the ruling party.
More importantly, human resources have sometimes been drained. The role of the opposition has shifted from one politician to another, thanks to internal conflicts caused by betrayal.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the former leader of Funcinpec, the royalist party, was once considered a strong opponent of the CPP. He was later eclipsed by Sam Rainsy who established the Sam Rainsy Party in 1996, renaming the former Khmer National Party.
Sam Rainsy is now in self-exile, cannot enter Cambodia and his party is not as active as it once was. As Cambodia approaches commune elections in 2012 and national elections in 2013, there is no sign that Sam Rainsy will be given a royal pardon to let him return home.
Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party, has meanwhile been identified as the new opposition leader, replacing Sam Rainsy.
In such an environment, the opposition finds it difficult to be as strong as the ruling party.