KPPM chief’s exile ends
Fri, 2 October 2015 ppp
Meas Sokchea
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| 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.”
































