Cambodia's parliament meets in Phnom Penh, September 27, 2003. Cambodia's parliament passed a law Friday which could send adulterers to jail for up to a year. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea From correspondents in Phnom Penh
Herald Sun (Australia)
September 01, 2006
CAMBODIA'S Parliament passed a law today which could send adulterers to jail for up to a year.
The vote prompted a walkout by Opposition MPs who said the law carried echoes of the Khmer Rouge and the Taliban in a country which should be tackling poverty and corruption instead of legislating about morality.
But the Government argued the law would help reduce pervasive corruption by removing the temptation for officials to steal from state coffers to maintain mistresses as well as halting what it called a decline in morality.
“This law is also aimed at reducing corruption, because when government officials have more women, they seek more financial sources to support their girls,” National Assembly Chairman Heng Samrin said.
Sam Rainsy, chief of his eponymous opposition party, was not impressed.
“The Government wants to distract the public from the important issues of poverty and the culture of impunity,” he said of a country where 35 per cent of the 14 million population live on less than $US1 a day and the powerful rarely face justice.
Many married Cambodian men keep mistresses if they can afford them and the government argued that making adultery a criminal offence would help shore up the family.
Some wives resent the unfaithfulness of their husbands to the point of violence.
In the last seven years, at least 108 cases were reported of women being attacked by acid, some left horrendously scarred, usually by an outraged wife, the Licadho human rights group says.
Few such cases made it to court, most being settled by compensation.
The Opposition argued that a law on adultery smacked too much of rigidly authoritarian regimes like the Khmer Rouge and the Taliban for a country still recovering from the Pol Pot years in which 1.7 million people were killed or died of overwork and starvation.
“There are only a couple of countries in the world which prosecuted personal immorality based on their sacred texts such as the ousted Taliban regime,” Opposition MP Eng Chhay Eang said in the debate.
“They forced people to follow their tradition which cannot be accepted. So did Pol Pot's regime. They murdered people who had love affairs.”
The vote prompted a walkout by Opposition MPs who said the law carried echoes of the Khmer Rouge and the Taliban in a country which should be tackling poverty and corruption instead of legislating about morality.
But the Government argued the law would help reduce pervasive corruption by removing the temptation for officials to steal from state coffers to maintain mistresses as well as halting what it called a decline in morality.
“This law is also aimed at reducing corruption, because when government officials have more women, they seek more financial sources to support their girls,” National Assembly Chairman Heng Samrin said.
Sam Rainsy, chief of his eponymous opposition party, was not impressed.
“The Government wants to distract the public from the important issues of poverty and the culture of impunity,” he said of a country where 35 per cent of the 14 million population live on less than $US1 a day and the powerful rarely face justice.
Many married Cambodian men keep mistresses if they can afford them and the government argued that making adultery a criminal offence would help shore up the family.
Some wives resent the unfaithfulness of their husbands to the point of violence.
In the last seven years, at least 108 cases were reported of women being attacked by acid, some left horrendously scarred, usually by an outraged wife, the Licadho human rights group says.
Few such cases made it to court, most being settled by compensation.
The Opposition argued that a law on adultery smacked too much of rigidly authoritarian regimes like the Khmer Rouge and the Taliban for a country still recovering from the Pol Pot years in which 1.7 million people were killed or died of overwork and starvation.
“There are only a couple of countries in the world which prosecuted personal immorality based on their sacred texts such as the ousted Taliban regime,” Opposition MP Eng Chhay Eang said in the debate.
“They forced people to follow their tradition which cannot be accepted. So did Pol Pot's regime. They murdered people who had love affairs.”
11 comments:
Stupid stupid stupid...they can't pass immigration and corruption law but they can pass adultery law. Who is going to enforce this law? Small people will go to jail but big people will not. If Hun Sen and Hok Lundy have mistresses, who is going to put them in jail? Law makers in Cambodia can pass only un-important and stupid laws.
What's wrong with these people!!! There're so many important law that need to be enforced or passed such as immigration and anti-corruption law. These no-brainers said by passing this adultery law is helping in reducing corruption...Very Very Very STUPID..your brain is not working at all. You all will go to HELL for what you have done to Cambodian.
Currently there are many good laws in book already and AH HUN SEN never enforce it! This new law won't be any different from any other law! I give this stupid law for 6 months and I will be amazed that if anybody go to jail for it!ahahahah! It is very hard to change habit and passing the pass to change habit is unheard of!
This is nothing new! There is a saying! Do as I say but don't do as I do!
I'm sorry to say this, but the opposition is the only one that sounds the most reasonable and logical.
letting idiots do what they want without thinking about Cambodia in the future will definitely ruin Cambodia's chance of becoming a modern, democratic country. the communists are all hypocrits anyway. they ban everybody from having modern stuffs, while they themselves used the modern stuffs such as 3G phones. they also have multiple wives. what narrow minded, uneducated, visionless, hypocrits.
Was it for Heng Peuv when he might be sent from Singapore to face trial? If they can't get him accused on other charges, at least they lock him 2 yeears for having 2 mistresses.
i don't get this. the rationales behind this law are terrible and baseless. it blames women as the source of corruption.
If the law of this banana Kingdom is passed can anyone arrested Hun Sen, Hok Lundy , Rannarith and Khiev Kanharith for having too many mistress? Or this law is only for the small ( Sihanouk term) people? Pol Pot is reviving now isn't it?
This law is mainly passed just in time for Naranarith. Can't you see, he left the country one or two days earlier. Now he is done. Who will be next?
There are alot of violence case in Cambodia bcoz the law in unforceable or corruption not because there is no anti-adultery law. CPP women are crazy now. First, they ban 3g phone and now they issue anti-adultery law....and then maybe they lead Cambodia to Pol Pot regime again....no love each other otherwise KILLLLL!!!!!
aahahahah!
Crazy CPP women!
CPP Women can make the Cambodian Law Makers to pass a law, but millions of Khmer people can not make them to pass just one law such as immigration. Are they afraid of these women?
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