Sam Rainsy confident of returning to Cambodia to contest elections

Sam Rainsy speak to supporters during a visit to Australia on 19th May 2013.

Updated 21 May 2013, 

Listen to audio at Radio Australia 

Yesterday, around 2,000 people took to the streets of Phnom Penh, demanding the reform of Cambodia's National Election Committee ahead of polls on the 28th of July.

 

The demonstrators submitted a petition at the EU delegation asking for an intervention and marched to the United Nations rights office where leaders briefly met with visiting UN envoy Surya Subedi.

The march was organised by the Cambodian National Rescue Party, which is a merger of the former Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party. It's the main opposition force against the powerful and well-entrenched CPP.

The Cambodian People's Party has ruled since the early 90's and Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he plans on staying in power for another 15 years.

Over the years, the political opposition has been met with grenade attacks, targetted assassinations and harrassment of its members and one of the key opposition voices, Sam Rainsy, is currently living in self-imposed exile.

He's currently in talks with the Cambodian Government to allow him back into the country.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Sam Rainsy, President of the Cambodian National Rescue Party

RAINSY: Those talks conducted through the United Nations, a number of friendly governments.

COCHRANE: Can you give us a little bit more information about when they took place?

RAINSY: For instance the UN Special Envoy, Surya Subedi, is currently in Cambodia and he is going to meet Cambodian top officials to discuss among other things the holding of elections next July.

COCHRANE: Is he expected to meet Prime Minister Hun Sen?

RAINSY: I think so.

COCHRANE: In the past that has been difficult and he has not been able to get an audience with the Prime Minister. What makes you think he will this time round?

RAINSY: Because Cambodia cannot afford to be isolated and cannot afford to reject the UN recommendations for the forthcoming elections, otherwise any government arising from illegitimate elections would be considered illegitimate also.

COCHRANE: This isn't the first time you've found yourself in this situation, you were in exile previously after legal attacks from the government. You returned from exile I believe it was 2006 after a pardon was signed. On what terms will you return this time around?

RAINSY: If there is free and fair elections the leader of the opposition must take part in the election process, otherwise any election would be meaningless without the presence of the leader of the opposition.

COCHRANE: Why didn't Kem Sokha, the leader of the former human rights party take that role as somebody who doesn't have a charge and a conviction against their name, take up that leadership role so that you could compete?

RAINSY: Because those charges are politically motivated and as President of the only opposition party that can defeat the current Prime Minister Hun Sen I have been appointed by my party as the candidate for prime minister.

COCHRANE: If you are able to return there is the other problem that your name is not on the registration parties, that the Cambodian National Rescue Party has submitted to the Election Committee. In fact your name's been removed from the voter list. So how will you go about being prime minister if you're not on the country's voting list?

RAINSY: I think change is needed, change in the election system and it is not a judicial problem, it is a political problem. A political problem requires a political solution, and any political solution would mean that the opposition is allowed to take part fully and freely in the election process, meaning that as leader of the opposition my name must be reinstated on the voter list and I must be allowed to vote and to stand as a candidate.

COCHRANE: If you are hypothetically not allowed back into the country and your name is not reinstated as a leader and as a voter, you're saying that would mean the whole election is flawed and unfair in a fundamental way. Will you then boycott, will your party boycott the election?

RAINSY: No, this is what the State Department said, the State Department of the USA said that for the election to be considered legitimate, the chief of the opposition must be allowed to stand as a candidate. So I think there will be change and not only related to the presence of the leader of the opposition, but also to a reform of the whole election system and also to the establishment of voter list that has been denounced as flawed because 15 per cent of the electorate has been disenfranchised, where ten per cent of names on the official voter list correspond to ghost voters, those ghost voters will inflate the votes for the ruling party. So the current voter list is just unacceptable. In order to have free and fair elections we need to overhaul the whole system to make new voter list and to allow the leader of the opposition to take part in the election.

COCHRANE: Now I want to ask you more about the voter list and electoral change, but can I just re-ask that question, if you're not allowed back in will your party boycott the election?

RAINSY: There are too many ifs…

COCHRANE: There is only one if and it involves you?

RAINSY: No there are many scenarios, so you examine only one scenario. I think the most plausible scenario is that reforms will be implemented and this will imply my return, my participation and all the technical issues I have recently raised will be addressed properly. Otherwise Cambodia will be in trouble with political instability that is a major concern for the future prosperity of the country.

COCHRANE: You seem very confident that this change will happen to allow you to return to the country. Have you made a deal with Hun Sen?

RAINSY: No, I think we have to abide by the United Nations recommendation and the USA, the European Union, the Australian Senate, the Philippine Senate have all supported the UN recommendations. So the international pressure is growing. I think that eventually Hun Sen will have to take into account those legitimate demands from the international community, and the international community does have a right, not only a right, has the obligation to intervene in Cambodia according to the 1991 Paris peace agreements on Cambodia which call for free and fair elections in that country and establishment of a democratic system according to the Westminister system.

COCHRANE: If you've just tuned in I'm speaking to Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy, speaking to us from our Sydney studios. Sam Rainsy when's the last time you had a conversation with Prime Minister Hun Sen?

RAINSY: A long time ago, five or six years. He asked me to drop a case because I filed a criminal case against him for assassination attempt, and actually I did not drop, I only suspended the case and the case has been revived now.

COCHRANE: Let's return to what you were saying earlier about wanting not just your own personal return to the country and participation in the election, but wider reforms to the electoral landscape in Cambodia, in particular a look at the voting list and getting rid of the ghost voters that you say are on there. That is a major undertaking, do you think the election can still happen in time?

RAINSY: No, but it is better to have delayed real election than an electoral farce on time.

COCHRANE: And if there is no change, if it is an electoral farce will you not take part, will you not legitimise it by boycotting?

RAINSY: We will do our best to ensure a real election, even though these real elections are delayed because Cambodia needs to move on the democratic path and to abide by the provisions of the Paris peace agreement of which Australia is a permanent signatory.

COCHRANE: Mr. Rainsy we saw in the recent Malaysian election the strong role played by overseas Malaysians who either flew back to the country to vote in person, or who were offered for the first time a chance to vote via postal votes. What is the situation in Cambodia for Cambodians living overseas?

RAINSY: Overseas Cambodians are not allowed to vote because the ruling party is afraid of overseas Cambodians. Overseas Cambodians live in free and democratic countries and they would never vote for a communist or a former communist party.

COCHRANE: And would you like to see that changed as well as looking at the voters list, how urgent do you think that is as an issue?

RAINSY: This is part of the UN recommendation so we want the whole set of the UN recommendations to be implemented.

COCHRANE: Sam Rainsy just one final question, if you were to get back to Cambodia to stand and to win the election and become prime minister of the country, how would you go about working with the police, with the soldiers, with the civil servants, with the courts, with the whole mechanism of power in Cambodia that has been associated with the CPP and has been lined up against you for so long? How would you work with those people?

RAINSY: Those are civil servants, their role is to serve the country. We will respect them as such and contrary to Hun Sen, we will pay them better salaries and because of corruption now the vast majority of the Cambodian people, including civil servants, earn very little and face harsh living conditions. So by curbing corruption and by ensuring the rule of law we will promote, we will increase and improve the living conditions of all Cambodians. This would provide the support from all walks of life for the new government.