KPPM chief’s exile ends
Fri, 2 October 2015 ppp
Meas Sokchea
Self-exiled dissident and Khmer People Power Movement leader Sourn Serey Ratha greets supporters yesterday at the Phnom Penh International Airport. Vireak Mai |
Sourn
Serey Ratha, firebrand president of the newly legalised Khmer Power
Party, wasted no time in lashing out at Cambodia’s two main political
parties following his arrival at the Phnom Penh airport yesterday
morning, saying he wanted to create a joint alliance of smaller parties
to counter their influence.
Speaking upon his return
from self-imposed exile in the United States, the Cambodian-American
nationalist railed against the leaders of the ruling Cambodian People’s
Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party for their long
terms in office and incompetence.
“I will only stop
criticising the government as long as the government stops doing wrong,”
he said, surrounded by about 100 supporters.
Ratha,
once branded a “terrorist” by Prime Minister Hun Sen and sentenced to
seven years in jail over a Facebook post that urged the overthrow of the
government, was pardoned in July in a move some analysts said was made
to swell the field in hopes of splitting the opposition vote.
But
Ratha dismissed that allegation yesterday, adding that he hoped to
unite with other small parties currently without seats in Cambodia’s
parliament.
“We know there are parties in the National
Assembly who received votes from citizens, just not enough [to gain
seats],” he said. “So we want to seek an alliance to struggle for a
joint political platform, not create only one party.”
Ratha
said the joint platform had five main points under discussion: creating
a National Election Committee free from political influence,
eliminating Vietnamese names from the voter rolls, granting voting
rights to Cambodians abroad, allowing people to directly run for prime
minister and introducing term limits for the premiership.
CNRP
spokesman Yim Sovann said that Ratha’s new party, built on the
foundations of his former Khmer People Power Movement – which just last
week saw three of its members released after serving two years in prison
for distributing T-shirts – wouldn’t harm the CNRP’s chances during
upcoming elections in 2017 and 2018.
“He is not a competitor of the CNRP,” said Sovann.
Four
new political parties have entered the Cambodian political scene this
year, which the CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said the ruling party was happy
to compete with.
“He can criticise [us]; go ahead. If
he criticises us correctly, we will take it into account, we welcome
it,” Eysan said. “But if he criticises us by merely insulting us, that
falls into criminal law and that is his problem.”
Future
Forum founder Ou Virak, however, said the legalisation of Ratha’s new
party, despite his past calls to topple the CPP-led government, was a
clear move to split opposition votes.
“The ruling party wants it like this,” he said.
4 comments:
Khmerization seems to pay a lot of attention to sourn serey ratha. I wonder why?. Does he deserve it?
All these small political parties such Mam Sonando, FAILCINPEC, and this guy Khmer Power Party were Hanoi/CPP tactics to break up Khmer democracy voices from CNRP. If any Khmer vote for these small parties which Khmer are that gullible to strayed away from CNRP because of CPP propaganda then Cambodian peoples deserved to live under Hanoi/CPP puppet. We must not strayed from our common goals to replace CPP/Hanoi government through fair election. CNRP leaderships are not perfect but they are our best chances of regaining our country back. These small political parties are all traitors who probably took money from CPP friendly business elites.
Agreed
If people still stupid Khmer must be in zero in world map ,why they support all puppy like suing serey Rathaus,mam sans do ,khm veasna .
Post a Comment