Cambodian Opposition Leader Comes to Long Beach

By Sarah Bennett
The Long Beach Post
Thursday, 30 August 2012

Kem Sokha (left) and Sam Rainsy in Canada earlier this month. 

When Kem Sokha last visited Long Beach in 2002, he was a human rights activist in his war-torn, dictator-ruled homeland of Cambodia. Today, he returns as an even brighter beacon of hope in the country's quest for democracy and will be meeting with local supporters and residents at a community event similar to the ones he is famous for having started in Cambodia.

"I try any which way I can to promote democracy in our country," says Tippana Tith, a Cambodian-American activist who organized the event. "Right now the government is still using the system to suppress people. The world is changing, people are standing up and there is not that much dictatorship anymore. Why does our Cambodian country still have a dictatorship?"

Sokha represents the future of what Tith and many others hope will a political power shift in Cambodia come next July's elections. Not only is Sokha the founder and president of Cambodia's Human Rights Party, but as of July of 2012, he is also the vice president of the Cambodia Democratic Movement for National Rescue—a movement formed by the consolidation of Sokha's party with the Sam Rainsy Party, the country's other oppositional party.

Rainsy and Sokha submitted an application to the Ministry of Interior to merge the two parties into one called the Cambodia National Rescue Party in order to compete in the general election next year. But with Rainsy in exile and facing an arrest warrant after he was charged for his involvement with a protest on the Vietnamese border, Sokha has become the in-country face of the new party.

"It is a big deal that this merge happening," says Tith, who has lived in Long Beach since 1975. "Sam has participated in elections for past three times and nothing’s changed. But with the two parties together we hope it can help get rid of the current government. Kem is coming here to let the people in Long Beach know what's going on and the dangers that are ahead of us in 2013."

Sokha is a well-known detractor of Cambodian Prime Miniuster Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985, a few years after the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge Regime and installed a new Cambodian government. A freely elected Royal Government of Cambodia was formed in 1993, but those in opposition to Sen say he continues to wield total control over the country and criticize his increased infringement on citizen freedoms.

"I've lived here more than half of my life. I love democracy here and I enjoy it and I am grateful to the U.S. government for promoting democracy throughout the world," says Tith. "We don’t want our country to become communist. We want our country to be free and fair. We as Cambodian people are fed up."

Kem Sokha will be speaking to supporters and interested residents Thursday, Aug. 30 at 6PM at La Lune Restaurant, 2801 E. Spring St. A $15 donation is requested.