As the US presidential election approaches, Barack Obama isin danger of allowing his good offices to be used as part of an attempt to denyCambodians the opportunity for self-determination that Americans take forgranted.
President Obama is due to visit Cambodia next month as thecountry holds the presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in2012. Ahead of Cambodian elections in July 2013, Prime Minister Hun Sen, whohas been in power since 1985, has been engaging in a familiar pattern ofcracking down on the voices of opposition. He knows that it’s an easier andsafer way to win elections than allowing democratic debate.
The summit meeting of the Association of Southeast AsianNations that Obama plans to attend should be moved to another country in orderto deny Hun Sen the legitimacy he is seeking to garner from the event. Thosewith a record of opposition to Hun Sen are in dread of the period right afterObama’s scheduled visit.
The owner of the Cambodia’s Beehive radio station, MamSonando, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Oct. 1 on politically motivatedcharges that he had been part of a secessionist movement. The radio station hadallowed airtime for such inconvenient issues as maternal mortality, human trafficking,labor rights, environmental protection and the need for an independentjudiciary.
Hun Sen had publicly called for Mam Sonando’s arrest on June26. He was held on July 15, two days after Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton left the country after attending an Asean regional forum.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights inCambodia, Surya P Subedi, in July recommended reform of the country’s electoralsystem. Among his 18 recommendations was the key demand for the reform of theNational Election Committee to make it a neutral body. This has been rejectedby the Cambodian government. Hun Sen is counting on donors continuing to turn ablind eye to the fact that the election committee is dominated by members ofthe ruling Cambodian People’s Party, and is even situated inside the InteriorMinistry.
The minimum requirement for proper elections next year isthat the National Election Committee be reformed. Letting it operate in itscurrent form would allow voter-registration fraud on a massive scale. Thismeans that election results are a foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, as leader ofthe opposition, I remain abroad in forced exile to avoid a 12-year jailsentence on politically motivated charges. The Cambodian National Rescue Party“ the united democratic opposition that I lead “ won’t validate such a bogusexercise next year by taking part.
There must be meaningful reform in advance or Cambodia willgo the way of Belarus, reduced to international isolation after an oppositionboycott led to a one-horse race in which the dictator Alexander Lukashenko wasthe only candidate.
This year, the Cambodian political landscape saw what couldprove to be its biggest change since the extinction of the Khmer Rouge in 1998.The Human Rights Party, led by Kem Sokha, agreed to merge with the Sam RainsyParty to create a united democratic opposition. We believe that together wehave enough support to win a free and fair election. We aim to carry out a NewDeal for Cambodia. Prohibition of land theft will be at the core of ourprogram. We will seek to rid the civil service of the corruption that cripplesit and turn it into a meritocracy associated with a sense of public service. Wewill introduce a health service that gives Cambodians access to basic care. Ourgovernment will make it illegal for any organisation, including politicalparties, to get new members through coercion. We will reform the NationalElection Committee to make it independent and introduce an age limit for primeministers to avert the specter of Hun Sen, or anyone else, ruling the countryfor life.
Hun Sen has been power for even longer than Lukashenko. Heis the only Cold War communist leader to survive in power today. During theCold War, states in Eastern Europe and Asia fell to communism like dominoes.But a domino can fall in either direction. The free world must seize theopportunity presented by Cambodia’s elections. Forcing Hun Sen to play bydemocratic rules would not only empower the Cambodian people to determine theirown future, it would also give an impetus to democracy and human rights incountries such as Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and North Korea.
If Hun Sen won’t engage with the international community andthe Asean summit isn’t moved, President Obama, the leader of the world’s standard-bearerof democracy, should take Hun Sen at his word and stay away.
Sam Rainsy is an exiled member of the Cambodian Parliament
