Swinging doors in politics
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- Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2007 10:44:45 -0700
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/
Swinging doors in politics
By Vong Sokheng and Charles McDermid
Mergers within the splintered royalist movement, and a flurry of high-
profile party defections, have left the competitors of the ruling CPP
cluttered and divided ahead of next year's national elections.
What seemed like a strictly two-party race only months ago has been
fractured by new entrants and alliances in a political arena already
famous for its shifts of allegiance and backroom deals.
As it stands, the Sam Rainsy Party is facing a potential rival in the
fledgling Human Rights Party (HRP), led by Kem Sokha, while the
royalists are attempting to rally from the brink of political
extinction. It's still an underdog's exercise, as whomever is left
standing will face a hardened CPP juggernaut in full control of most
of the media, the armed forces and the courts.
Defections are coming from all camps.
In recent weeks, lawmaker Keo Remy quit the SRP for the HRP citing a
lack of unity and autocratic management from the party leader. Son
Soubert, a member of the Constitutional Council and son of former
prime minister Son Sann, also joined the HRP. Soubert has been a
strident critic of government policies and the leaders of the Buddhist
clergy.
Meanwhile, the SRP picked up Khieu Rada, former president of Khmer
Unity Party and then former first deputy secretary general of Prince
Sisowath Thomico's Sangkum Jatiniyum Front Party (SJFP). The SRP also
accepted ex-Funcinpec member Hor Sopheap, former secretary of state at
the Ministry of Information.
A month after he merged his SJFP with the NRP, Thomico reversed course
and merged with floundering Funcinpec, a party who's historic
president and longtime leader, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, has his own
eponymous party. Funcinpec was joined by the ex-NRP official and
longtime Ranariddh loyalist Serei Kosal, a 3-star general in the Royal
Cambodian Armed Forces, and Ok Socheat, formerly a personal advisor to
Ranariddh.
"Even since the old days politicians have switched parties all the
time," said Ou Virak, executive director of Cambodian Center for Human
Rights. "The current system encourages other parties to split-
especially those parties that claim to be democratic. There are no
principles to politicking in Cambodia, and as Ghandi said, politics
without principles is a deadly sin."
Touting a platform of stability and development, and still saber-
rattling about overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, the CPP won a huge
majority of the recent commune council positions. At the time, party
spokesman and Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith predicted a
landslide victory in the 2008.
Now, political analysts are concerned that the splintering and dissent
of political opponents will further delay the emergence of a credible
challenge to the CPP's ironfisted grip on government. And Prince
Sisowath Thomico has said that if the dwindling royalist groups don't
unite, the monarchy's role in politics would disappear.
"If we cannot unite, the royalist movement will dissolve after 2008,
and each royalist party would not get even if one seat in the National
Assembly," Thomico said.
HRP president Kem Sokha, who launched the HRP in March, defended the
right of individual politicians to choose their political party.
Sokha claimed that other politicians will defect to his party and will
be announced at the congress scheduled on July 22 at the Olympic
Stadium, which he expected 15,000 members to attend.
"The SRP is the only serious challenger. The only mainstream force
that can defeat the CPP," Rainsy said on July 12.
He added the morale of the SRP is at a "zenith" and that his party
will win the 2008 election. But he's not surprised by the present
culture of defections.
"I think the CPP will try all they can to split or continue to split
the democratic movement and the opposition. It's not surprising," he
said.
"What could be surprising for some observers is that the Cambodian
people are more mature. They'll vote to bring about change, vote in an
effective manner and concentrate their vote on the only serious
challenger, which is the SRP."
But Virak disagrees. He believes voters are wary of opposition parties
for practical reasons, which have been exacerbated by the spate of
recent public defections.
"There's a percentage of voters that don't like the CPP but can't
trust the opposition. They think the opposition is too extreme and
will overturn everything," Virak said.
"It's not difficult to get voters from the CPP - they really have a
small core of real supporters - but the majority just want stability
and they don't know what to expect from the anyone else."
"There's a saying: the devil that you know versus the devil that you
don't and I think that still applies to Cambodian politics."
Phnom Penh Post, Issue 16 / 14, July 13 - 26, 2007
© Michael Hayes, 2007. All rights revert to authors and artists on
publication.
For permission to publish any part of this publication, contact
Michael Hayes, Editor-in-Chief
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