June 27, 2013
http://world.time.com
Cambodia may
officially be a democracy, but call it one and you’ll get a swift
reality check from anyone familiar with the Southeast Asian nation,
where one month’s campaigning for general elections begins this week.
Controversy over land rights, deforestation, extractive industries and
rampant corruption has bolstered support for the main opposition
Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). Nevertheless, only a miracle will
unseat incumbent Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose obdurate hold on power
has spanned almost 28 years — helped by voter irregularities, partisan
media and blatant intimidation of his opponents.
Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, has held power since the
start of Vietnamese occupation in 1979, and closely controls every
aspect of political, judicial and social life. “It’s a one-man band and
this needs to be changed,” Keo Phirum, a CNRP candidate in Kratie
province, tells TIME. All media are controlled by figures aligned with
the ruling elite, with more than 90% of political broadcasts promoting
the incumbent. Top judges, police officers and civil servants are also
all party members. Not even the National Election Committee has the
gloss of independence. Members are handpicked by Hun Sen and his allies.
Sam Rainsy, the leader of the CNRP, has been banished. He fled into
exile, accused of racial incitement and destruction of property —
trumped-up charges that are politically motivated, he insists. Convicted
in absentia and given an 11-year sentence, the 64-year-old now
continues opposition from abroad. Asked if he considered returning for
the July 28 ballot, Sam Rainsy told TIME that his presence would only
help legitimize a fundamentally flawed election. “It’s better for me to
let Prime Minister Hun Sen, if [I can compare him] to a boxer, to
cowardly avoid his only serious challenger before a match, and to let
him box alone in the ring.” There are currently no opposition MPs in
parliament — all 28 were expelled earlier this month for allegedly
violating internal rules.
CCP dominance really hits home outside Phnom Penh, along Cambodia’s
potholed highways. Logos for the ruling party line the routes, while
campaign slogans thunder from rural and provincial offices. Village
chiefs control voter lists and can summarily disenfranchise any
undesirables. “The playing field here is far from even,” says Laura
Thornton, Cambodia director for the National Democratic Institute. “Many
people will go to the polls on election day and not be able to vote.”
Radio Free Asia and Voice of America play a crucial role in
disseminating alternative views to rural Cambodians, as press
intimidation is rife. Nevertheless, CNRP strongholds are mainly urban.
“The more educated people vote for us, as they know how the CCP works
and don’t get scared and intimidated,” says Keo Phirum.
Unwelcome in his homeland, Sam Rainsy toured North America last month
to promote the CNRP. There are more than 250,000 Khmer living in the
U.S. — mostly in California
and Massachusetts — who have already contributed $420,000 toward this
year’s campaign. Beyond the diaspora, the wider international community
is also anxious about Hun Sen’s “increasingly dictatorial rule,” as Brad
Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, puts it. U.S. President Barack Obama visited
Cambodia in November and used a meeting aides described as “tense” to
press Hun Sen to release political prisoners, stop land seizures and
hold free and fair elections. The Cambodia U.N. human-rights expert has
also urged all sides to “play by the rules.”
Unfortunately for the Cambodian opposition, there don’t seem to be
any rules under the Prime Minister’s increasingly bizarre rule. Earlier
this month, and before an astonished crowd of thousands, Hun Sen accused Kem Sokha, the acting opposition leader, of serious sexual misconduct involving a 15-year-old girl. The Prime Minister then implicated
himself in helping Kem Sokha escape a police investigation. (Hun Sen
provided no evidence and Kem Sokha has explicitly denied the
allegations.) Later, Hun Sen threatened a defamation lawsuit against Kem
Sokha for accusing him of electioneering “dirty tactics.” Cambodia’s
constitution affords parliamentarians immunity from prosecution, but
this can be removed by the majority party, and facilitated by a
judiciary “pliant to the will of the CPP,” according
to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. The CCP can, therefore,
prosecute opposition MPs for perceived slights, while reciprocal action
is nigh impossible.
Such vitriol makes concentrating on policy extremely difficult.
Cambodia’s economy has prospered in recent years — the World Bank had
annual growth almost breaching double figures between 1998 and 2008,
but slowing to a still healthy 7% in the global downturn that followed.
However, Chinese and Vietnamese timber barons decimate protected forests
through illegal land grabs for rubber and sugar plantations, abetted by
a venal class of regime cronies. Since 2008, 2.6 million hectares —
around 14% of Cambodia’s total landmass — has been transferred from
small-scale farmers to agricultural companies, says
U.K.-based campaign group Global Witness. Inequality is rife and
widening, and there are growing calls for a higher minimum wage and
better worker rights. Yet highlighting these issues is fraught with
danger, with “activists for land rights, civil-society groups and the
democratic opposition being cracked down upon,” says Karin Karlekar,
director of the annual Freedom of the Press report by Freedom
House. There can be no hope of that situation improving with Hun Sen in
power, the opposition effectively neutered and the coming polls reduced
to little more than a cynical joke.
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