A Change of Guard

សូមស្តាប់វិទ្យុសង្គ្រោះជាតិ Please read more Khmer news and listen to CNRP Radio at National Rescue Party. សូមស្តាប់វីទ្យុខ្មែរប៉ុស្តិ៍/Khmer Post Radio.
Follow Khmerization on Facebook/តាមដានខ្មែរូបនីយកម្មតាម Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/khmerization.khmerican

Tuesday 21 July 2015

Sam Rainsy: “Change is Irreversible”

CNRP leader Sam Rainsy (C) kneels to pray before adressing a crowd of supporters on the day of his return to Cambodia in 2013. Photo: Anne Holmes Sam 

 Khmer Times/Vincent MacIsaac
Monday, 20 July 2015


Phnom Penh (Khmer Times) – Two years after his return from exile in France, the president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party says the changes that have occurred in Cambodia since then are dramatic, widespread, and irreversible.

“The foundation for a change to democratic government is in place,” he said yesterday in an interview with Khmer Times. “We are moving from darkness to light and there is no way back.” 

“This is a new world for me,” Mr. Rainsy said, after recounting the decades he spent in opposition, beginning in 1994 and culminating in what he described as a victory for the Cambodian people in the July 2013 national elections.

Those elections saw a surge in support for the opposition, which claimed afterwards that it won the vote. Almost two years later, Mr. Rainsy still maintains that is true.

“If the elections had been free, fair and honest we would have won,” he said yesterday, adding that many Cambodians agree. “They know in their hearts that the CNRP won the election.” 

The CNRP refused to recognize the results of the 2013 elections and then boycotted the National Assembly for one year. The deadlock ended last July 22 when the CNRP and ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) negotiated an agreement that included a guarantee that the National Election Committee (NEC) would be reformed and that several CNRP members would be released from jail.

The CNRP assumed 55 seats in the National Assembly, compared to 68 for the CPP. The 2013 election had seen the CPP lose 22 seats.

Mini Parties: No Threat

Mr. Rainsy said he was not worried about “mini parties” diluting the opposition vote in the next general election, in 2018. 

“This is not the first time we have faced such rivals,” he said, explaining that they are not a threat because they lack strong networks at the grassroots level.

“This is the secret [to having a viable party],” Mr. Rainsy said. “No party can achieve success without a strong grassroots network and such networks cannot be created out of the blue.” 

The first half of this year has seen the revival of the Funcinpec royalist party and the registration of Mom Sonando’s Beehive Party. Last Friday, the Interior Ministry unexpectedly approved a new nationalist party, the Khmer Power Party. And Kem Ley’s “Khmer for Khmer” movement may well become a party in time for the elections.

These new arrivals were dismissed by Mr. Rainsy, the son and grandson of elite Cambodian politicians and a force in Cambodian politics since 1992.

He said it took two decades for the opposition to build a network of “strong and dedicated activists.”  Three years ago, he merged two opposition parties, the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party, to form the CNRP.

“No party can be shaken if it has a strong grassroots network,” he said. “As long as we remain true to ourselves we will move forward,” Mr. Rainsy explained. He said the number of seats won by opposition candidates increased in every election over the last two decades.

Cambodians Have Changed

Today, Cambodians are no longer afraid to speak their minds, are becoming more confident, and their expectations are rising, Mr. Rainsy said. This is especially true among the young, who are better educated and have higher expectations than their parents’ generation, he stressed.

Mr. Rainsy said that efforts by the ruling Cambodia People’s Party to be more responsive to voters would not translate into votes in the next general election.

“CPP Cannot Change”

“The changes are very superficial and cosmetic,” he said of CPP efforts to reform. 

As an example, he cited the legislation passed last week by the National Assembly on nongovernment groups. He denounced this as “authoritarian and brutal.” 

“This is their real nature – this is their true face,” the opposition leader said of the ruling party’s desire to control civil society groups.  The CPP faces a dilemma if it attempts to reform, Mr. Rainsy said. 

“Any real reform would undermine the very nature of the CPP,” he said. “The CPP’s patronage system is based on corruption and secrecy,” Mr. Rainsy charged, adding that increased transparency would destroy it.

Cambodian voters have shown that they prefer a party that draws its strength from a nationwide network of dedicated activists, rather than one that maintains power through a system of patronage, he argued. 

Asked whether he had at times lost hope during his three decades in opposition, Mr. Rainsy, now 66 years old, responded flatly: “Not once.”

“Of course the ultimate victory is to the lead the country, but we have had countless victories, especially over the last few years,” Mr. Rainsy said of the opposition’s growth. “I was alone [in 1994]. Now we have 55 seats. We are winning an ever increasing number of seats. The change is irreversible.”  


A crowd of supporters gathered to welcome back opposition leader Sam Rainsy. Photo: Anne Holmes

3 comments:

king said...

I absolutely agree with mr sam rainsy about the mini parties.

king said...

I absolutely agree with mr sam rainsy about the mini parties.

Peaceful Life said...

Thanks for all Khmers that have been done the right thing for the Cambodia Country and I believed that from today Khmers will be united and take Khmers' land back from Vietnam. Don't fear for the Vietnamese Communist, and I believe that China will back Cambodian people. Also, The Communist of Vietnam will lose two huge resources in the South China Sea (oil & fishery) sooner or later the Vietnam's economy will collapse, and then the chaos will occur. Consequently, social unrest...