IN A country with a history of political violence, it appears that
actual bloodshed has been limited. But otherwise the campaign for
Cambodia’s general election on July 28th is as ugly as ever. The ruling
Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) will win again, shoring up the rule of
one of Asia’s longest-serving strongmen, Hun Sen, prime minister since
1985. But the CPP’s majority may be cut and Mr Hun Sen and his party
seem rather het up.
On June 9th the CPP backed a 30,000-strong march across the country
in protest at comments by Kem Sokha, a leader of the main opposition
Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP). He had claimed the horrors of
Tuol Sleng, a Khmer Rouge torture centre, now a museum, were a fiction
invented by the Vietnamese. Mr Kem Sokha argued that the Khmer Rouge
would not have simply forgotten to destroy the prison before their
defeat in 1979 by Vietnamese invaders (who installed the CPP
government).
This repugnant nonsense seemed to stem from the opposition’s habit of
using traditional anti-Vietnamese sentiment ahead of elections. This
time it prompted Hun Sen to pass a law criminalising the denial of Khmer
Rouge atrocities.
The passage of the law and the anti-denial march served Hun Sen well.
The CNRP’s campaign had gathered some momentum, thanks to issues
ranging from the government’s complicity in illegal land grabs to the
plight of garment workers, galvanised by a disaster in a factory in
Bangladesh in April. The garment industry accounts for about a fifth of
total government revenue. Workers, who earn less than $100 a month, want
more, and industrial accidents have spurred further protests, including
a rally on June 3rd that saw clashes and arrests.
That rally changed the tone of the election campaign. The government,
which seems increasingly paranoid, enforced a rarely used law intended
to curb “party hopping”—ie, post-election defections by candidates of
the losing party. The law restricts MPs to membership of one political
party only.
A committee of CPP lawmakers then stripped CNRP politicians of their
salaries and parliamentary rights because they were originally elected
for two other parties, which later merged. America said the move
“starkly contradicts the spirit of a healthy democratic process.” The
CPP government responded in traditional fashion, accusing foreigners of
interfering in Cambodia’s affairs. It seems more worried about the
outcome of next month’s election than the niceties of the democratic
process.
No comments:
Post a Comment