Cambodian opposition leader seeks foreign support for election reform

Updated 5 October 2012, 

Radio Australia

By Liam Cochrane

Veteran Cambodia politician Sam Rainsy has been formally accepted as the head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party.

Cambodian Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on ABC Radio Australia's Connect Asia program (Credit: ABC) 

Audio: Cambodian opposition leader seeks foreign support for election reform

The party is a merger between the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party, led by Kem Sokha.

It will be competing in the national elections to be held next year.

In the last election the Sam Rainsy Party won 26 seats and the Human Rights Party won 3 seats - well short of the 90 seats secured by the Cambodian People's Party, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Sam Rainsy, leader, Cambodia National Rescue Party

RAINSY: This is not the first time I have been sentenced to jail terms many times in the past, so this is a political problem and the political problem will have a political solution, so I am sure I will go back to Cambodia in the very near future.

COCHRANE: Does that mean there is a deal, a secret deal that has been worked out, that you are expecting to take up an offer to go back to Cambodia soon?

RAINSY: No, this time I expect international pressure on the Cambodian Government to reform the election system in line with recommendations from the United Nations and among the UN recommendations, there is an amnesty for all those who have been sentenced by the Cambodian government, a travesty of justice, because of political charges, so that they can return and run the next election.

COCHRANE: When do you anticipate that happening in, when do you anticipate returning to Cambodia?

RAINSY: I think around the time US President Barack Obama will visit Cambodia in the second part of November.

COCHRANE: Does that mean you're relying on US pressure?

RAINSY: Not only the US, but also Australia. Australia is a major donor and I call on the Australian Government to put pressure on the Cambodian Government to respect the United Nations and to accept, to reform the election system.

COCHRANE: Who will you be meeting from the Australian Government during your visit here to try to get that assistance?

RAINSY: Appointments have been arranged for me in Canberra to meet with a number of Australian officials.

COCHRANE: Will you be meeting with Australia's Foreign Minister, Bob Carr?

RAINSY: I would be honoured and I hope to be able to meet with him.

COCHRANE: Let's talk about the options. I mean if the resolution of this case doesn't happen and you are not able to make it back to Cambodia. Will it still be appropriate for you to be the head of the major oppposition party?

RAINSY: This is not a personal issue, this is a national issue. Cambodia must respect the Paris Peace Agreement and all the signatories of those agreements, including Australia, must ensure that the democratisation process be put back on track  in Cambodia and that there be acceptable, I mean free and fair elections in Cambodia.

Now the United Nations has come out with very clear recommendation on how to reform the election system, so that next elections will be acceptable and the next government will be recognised, otherwise Cambodia will become a pariah state.

COCHRANE: What are the key electoral reforms that you believe are necessary in Cambodia?

RAINSY: It's concerned the National Election Committee, the body that administers the election in Cambodia, that body needs to be reformed to make it neutral, impartial and stop being the political tool for the ruling party just to perpetuate and to legitimise its grip on the country.

COCHRANE: What does this new party, this merged opposition party of the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party. What does the new party stand for?

RAINSY: The names is the National Rescue Party. We have to rescue our country, meaning to rescue the living conditions of the population, to give back the land, the rice fields, the forests, the natural resources that have been taken from the people, the ordinary people, the poor people, to give back to them and to stop the land concessions, the corruption-based land concessions granted by the current government to private companies. This is the main issue and the other issue is to ensure that factory workers and all employees get a decent salary. So we must fix a minimum salary in all countries with decent government. There is a minimum salary, so we want to fix a minimum salary which is a livable salary for all employees.

COCHRANE: What would that salary be?

RAINSY: It would be 100, the equivalent of 150 dollars, yes.

COCHRANE: That's I believe if my figures are more or less up-to-date almost twice as much as the current minimum wage that factory workers do get.  What do you think the economic consequences of that raise in the minimum wage to be?

RAINSY: I think Cambodia's industry will remain competitive. We can afford that pay increase provided we curb, we reduce corruption, because what is most costly for companies, for private companies in Cambodia is the kickbacks which are very costly to them. If we reduce our corruption, then we can afford to increase salaries for workers without jeopardising our competitivity .

COCHRANE: You mentioned one of your other key platforms being land issues. The issue of land around the borders, in particular, around the border with Vietnam is the thing that got you in trouble a couple of years ago. The charges against you related to disinformation and falsifying maps, in moving some border posts on the Vietnam border. Will border issues be a key platform in the campaign next year?

RAINSY: The land issue is a key platform, whether land grabbing is associated with concessions, land concessions to private companies or with border infringement, because in both cases, Cambodian farmers are losing their land to private companies, dubious companies or to neighbouring countries that moved the border markers inside into Cambodian territory.

COCHRANE: How do you rate the chances of your new party in the next national elections? What are you aiming for?

RAINSY: We aim for free and fair election. If the elections are free and fair, and meeting international standards, then the result would be totally different from the result that we have seen in the past.

The ruling party, especially Mr Hun Sen, who is the longest serving leader in the world. He has been in power for some 30 years, so after Gaddafi and a few other leaders, Mr Hun Sen I think it is his turn now to stop ruling the country in the way he has been doing for 30 years.

COCHRANE: Does that mean you think in a free and fair election, the Cambodian National Rescue Party will win outright?

RAINSY: There will be a democratic change for sure.

COCHRANE: What role do you see the Royalist Party playing?

RAINSY: They have virtually disappeared from the political scene, because if you translate the votes, they got at the commune, at the local elections a few months ago, you translate those votes into national assembly seats, they have lost all their seats in the parliament. So there are only two competing parties now. On the one hand, the ruling party of Prime Minister Hun Sen and on the other, the National Rescue Party.

COCHRANE: Many of the leaders from both those parties have been involved in politics for a long time and are familiar faces to many Cambodian watchers. Where are the young political leaders of Cambodia?

RAINSY: There are many young activists now coming to help the united democratic opposition represented by the National Rescue Party. Look, Mr Hun Sen, not only Mr Hun Sen has been in power as Prime Minister for nearly 30 years, but he's main ministers have been in the Cabinet for about the same time, for several decades, so this is a bad example for the young generation. The young generation want to see new faces at the head of the country.

COCHRANE: You, yourself have also been the head of the opposition for about the same amount of time. Do you think it's time for young leaders to rise to the ranks and present a fresh face?

RAINSY: Not, really. I have worked in the private sector as a banker in France for 30 years. I came to Cambodia only recently, when the United Nations intervened...

COCHRANE: It's still almost 20 years ago, though?

RAINSY: Exactly 18 years, but I was very young. I was a junior. I was not a top leader. I am still in the opposition. But what is important is to put a term limit, in nearly all democratic countries, there is a term limit for top leaders, so the fact that our current Prime Minister has been in power for nearly 30 years, it's not a good indication.

COCHRANE: If you are elected as the Prime Minister of Cambodia, what term limit will you introduce?

RAINSY: Only one term, like.

COCHRANE: Of how many years?

RAINSY: Five years, like in the Philippines, like in South Korea, the President there can be in power for only one term.

COCHRANE: Sam Rainsy, just on another issue, I'd like to ask you about the case of Chut Wutty, the environmental activist, who was shot dead in Koh Kong province. The news has just come through as of yesterday. A court in Koh Kong has dismissed the cases against the military police and security guards involved in the shooting. They've been thrown out of court. Can I get your reaction to that?

RAINSY: It's a travesty of justice. As we all know, the justice system in Cambodia is just a political tool to crackdown on the opposition and to secure impunity for criminals who are in power.