Exclusive Interview with Sam Rainsy, SRP President

Translated from French

Cambodge Nouveau (New Cambodia)
February 2007 issue

A new political landscape

Regarding the crack within Funcinpec, it is impossible to tell how many people left to join the fledgling Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP), and how many remained behind because most of them are very hesitant. Both parties present the same candidates to the commune election. These candidates are torn apart: they are Funcinpec (Fpec) members with official positions – commune chiefs, commune councilors, etc… – and Fpec asks them to be its candidates. They do not want to quit, but at the same time, they are also still attached to their former president, and they also accept to be candidates for the NRP. It's a puzzle for the NEC (National Election Committee) which will have to ask people to make their choice.

In my opinion, people who vote Fpec are devoted admirers of King-Father and the monarchy: they vote for the monarchy as impersonated by King- Father.

For Ranariddh, he only sells the name of his father as he always did. The fact that he is the son of his father, that's his only asset. But there are people for whom, politics is secondary: the symbol of Norodom Sihanouk is needed. They are unhappy, they would like to see Norodom Sihanouk doing something, and short of that, they vote for his son. Ranariddh knows how to play this field well.

Is he away from the political landscape?

It depends on the judicial system, on his relationships with his wife, his colleagues, former colleagues and collaborators. He has committed many wrongdoings.

I observe that when I was personally expelled from the National Assembly, when I lost my parliamentarian immunity, there was a lot of noise, protests, the [US] State Department reacted. When Ranariddh was sacked, nothing [happened]. People knew that he has problems outside of politics, personal ones, criminal ones … for him, it is more difficult to climb up the hill. Nobody is seen coming to Ranariddh's rescue.

To foreigners, he presents a very bad image, with all these women (mistresses) … However, for him, he considers this normal: "look at my father!" [he said]. He plays a retro game, an obsolete cliché. This is not how you serve the country. "I am corrupted because during my father's (the king) era, princes did whatever they wanted, the former Cambodian kings maintained harems, please be understanding with me!" This is really pathetic.

There is still an electorate devoted to him, but it is shrinking, and it still shrinks as we speak.

Surveys show that the Funcinpec electorate consists of older people, less educated, living in the countryside. Ranariddh can tell them anything he wants about his father's aura… All of that is not very constructive.

On Prince Sisowath Thomico: at the beginning, I thought Thomico did what King-Father asked him to do, since he was very close to King-Father. He said that he wanted to resuscitate to Sangkum Reastr Niyum, that his political program consists of what King-Father would have done now if he were to regain power. People believed in him for a while, King-Father seemed to encourage him. But, since King-Father took his distance, and even disavowed him, Thomico no longer knows what tune to dance to. A rapprochement with the SRP? At first, I contacted him, I thought it would be useful to know what King-Father thought. But since he associated himself with Ranariddh, I also took my distance. We will see what he is worth from the election outcome.
He has no true calling. If his calling was Sihanoukist – not to be confused with the monarchist calling – that's gibberish – maybe he could succeed in coming up with some surprises. But I don't see what he represents … [anyway] it's too far from my preoccupations.

Commune … and legislative elections

The signs war

If you travel in the countryside, you can see CPP signs everywhere, and Sam Rainsy Party signs everywhere also. Here I want to stress that there is a difference between a sign belonging to the ruling party, and one that belongs to an opposition party: to raise a SRP sign requires a lot of courage. The person who sets the sign up in front on his/her home can become a target, "it's like sleeping with a bomb."

These signs are given ready-made to the volunteers. The CPP does not always ask for people's opinion [to install these signs]; people do not dare protest, they think that these signs cannot hurt them… On the SRP side, it's a commitment [to raise these signs]. Note also that the CPP signs are installed with style: very straight in front of a house. The SRP signs are more modest, you can see that these people [who have installed the SRP signs in front of their houses] are not dignitaries, nor officials, nor rich merchants … those who have installed [the SRP signs] are more fearful, but they are committing themselves. Therefore, quantity should not be mistaken with quality.
SRP Candidates? We have too many!

The CPP said that it has the best candidates everywhere for the upcoming commune election. I am referring to the 2002 [commune] election. Then, we had a hard time finding candidates. People were scared, there were not that many [party] activists. Sometimes, we had nobody at all. The most courageous ones are those on the fringe of society, people who have nothing to lose. Now, I have a lot of problems to decide between among the volunteers: there is competition to become a SRP candidate. From nobody, we now have way too many. Their ideas: they believe they can be the commune chief, they can feel the wind of change, they believe that at the local level, there will be a change; if they win the commune chief position, things will change: there will no longer be land confiscation, money extortion, intimidation … It means having better day to day living conditions .

SRP: the democratic reform

I look forward to these elections with a lot of optimism for the following reasons:

• First, reform happened within the SRP itself

It happened without being much noticed, but the discretion is the key to success. We held election at the village level ; 10,000 villages out of a total of 14,000 in Cambodia participated, to select 5 village councilors for each village. By the middle of this year, we will have village councils in all 14,000 villages.

We are sending activists to neighboring villages in the same commune or district to identify people who support the SRP. It's a labor-intensive task which requires discretion, and it lasted two years. We now have structured networks with registers kept for each village. In this manner, people know each other and become more courageous.

We now have candidates to the commune election in 1,596 communes out of a total of 1,621. We are covering 98.5% of all the communes, and in terms of population, we have a 99.9% coverage. The remaining 25 communes are located in remote areas, and sparsely populated… What allowed this progress to happen is the political détente which is part of our overall strategy.

At the next level up: each group of 10 villages or so which constitute a commune sends in their 5 councilors, i.e. 50 councilors per commune, to elect a commune council consisting of 15 to 20 members. These SRP commune councilors (not commune councilors elected during the officially held commune election) hold a meeting to elect one commune council president.

We are now in the process of forming in major provinces district councils which are elected by the commune councils. This will be completed after the upcoming commune election.

The district councils will then elect provincial councils, which will send to the national level delegates to the party steering committee.

The next party national congress will be held in the spring or summer . It will select party leaders at the national level through a democratic process. There will be a new steering committee which will include some 70 members, not very different from today's figure (73).

These 70 members or so of the steering committee will elect the party permanent committee which consists of about 10 members. The permanent committee will elect a new secretary-general, and the congress will elect, or re-elect, the party president.

• Second reason for optimism: fundamental changes in the society

First, a note on the youth: their first worries are their studies which should help them find jobs. But, more often than not, all they are faced with is unemployment. The Cambodian economy creates 30,000 jobs per year, at most, but there are 300,000 youth who reach the job market , and voting age, each year. Therefore, 90% of these youth ended up on the unemployment line.

Of the 2 million of new voters [this year], 90% of them are unemployed. Generally, unemployed people tend not to vote for the government – though you cannot tell if this will be the case in Cambodia. Generally also, the youth are more open to political changes.

Therefore, the political situation is changing, not only because of the disintegration of Fpec, but because of some fundamental factors, pertaining to social evolutions due to education, urbanization, and communication.

There are more people traveling: people travel more often, they move around because of [available] roads. They are better informed thanks to the Internet, the radio which is broadcasted on several FM stations, they communicate with each other thanks to mobile phones – there are 1.5 million of them in use in Cambodia now – and those who do not own one, can always rent one and pay by the minute…. All of this contributes to the sea of change, it creates a melting pot of culture. The impact is hard to measure, but you can find there a major source for potential changes.

That is why the SRP is focusing our political message towards the youth, stressing on jobs with decent pay, on jobs held with dignity that allow people to escape from begging.

This is the contrary of the CPP that wants to keep people begging, dependent on donations, a system based on client-patronage relationships, on the good deeds dispensed by the leaders, on personal ties…. all of that is changing because of the social factors I mentioned earlier.

Examples: in Cambodia's Northwest, some villages used to be CPP strongholds, SRP had no access to them before. Now, people welcome us with open hands. Why? People left to work in Thailand because they don't have jobs, they have nothing to eat in Cambodia. They were miserable, but when they returned home, they learn new ideas: Thai people don't live from donations, from begging, they do not depend on the ruling party. They have jobs allowing them to earn a dignified living condition.

Beggar [life]: people live in precarious conditions, and they remain this way forever, without the possibility of moving up, whereas if they were to have a job, they can move up, professionally and in the social hierarchy. Furthermore, there is no dignity in begging. People who return from Thailand see that changes are needed, they should not live in the bottom of the well waiting for donations from the CPP. They say: in Thailand, there are 100 times more roads than us, and they are paved, there is electricity everywhere, canals, dams, health centers, and all that without donation form anybody! Why then in our country, is it always a donation from the CPP, from Hun Sen, from such and such oknha? In Thailand, there is no donation, but there is an effective State which is performing its job, and there are people who live comfortably with physical and social infrastructures, people who owe nothing to begging, who don't have to be thankful to any political party or to any politician, or even less to any oknha.

Another example: A Cham village in Kompong Cham was a CPP stronghold, people usually listen to their religious leaders: if their leader tells them to vote for the CPP, they are doing it. The CPP helped build a mosque, finance trips to attend the Hajj in Mecca …. Now, there are villages that are changing, there are young people who declare themselves SRP activists. Why? They return back from Malaysia where they went to look for work (the religious similarity makes it easier for them there). They return with new ideas . They say, just like those who return from Thailand, that in Malaysia, people earn their living by working, doing decent jobs, living with dignity. In Malaysia, there are infrastructures, a [working] public system, a modern State.

The SRP was able to penetrate the village through these new ideas brought back by people themselves. Ideas have wings! Through these new ideas, we are feeling at ease.

Vote for the CCP or the SRP?

To the CPP's claim: "SRP people do not have the experience to govern," I say:

In Cambodia, foreign investments are not coming in, in any case the official figures are highly inflated, they consist mainly of projects, not developments, and these investments are mainly concentrated in forest concessions, mining, real estate speculations, … sectors that are not creating jobs, it's a lot of money involved but they don't create jobs. In order to create jobs, we must fight against corruption and ensure the rule of law. Is the CPP capable of doing that?

People tell us: Once in power, what will you do to create jobs? But we need to be in power first! Segolene Royal [French Socialist Party presidential candidate] has never been president of the [French] Republic, but she could be one. Mrs.[Corazon] Aquino who succeeded [Ferdinand] Marcos in the Philippines, gave a good answer to those who told her: "But, Madam, you don't have experience!" She replied: "It's true that I don't have experience in corruption, in killing my opponents …" That did not prevented her from becoming President of the republic. There's a first time for everything!

If we put ourselves in the shoes of a voter who is a young unemployed worker who is about to vote, let's assume that that person has a better education than the average; he/she is not illiterate, he/she listens to the radio, he/she meets with people who have traveled: he/she will use all the arguments I mentioned earlier. He/she would say: the CPP, they have been ruling the country for 30 years, look at the appalling condition in which the country is. Only a new party, with new blood, can bring Cambodia out of this condition and make it a modern State, just like Thailand or Malaysia. People who have been ruling for 30 years, they are obsolete, they can't bring in new ideas, they are not pushing for progress.

I am recalling also that in 2003, the SRP collected 1,130,000 votes, i.e. between one fifth and one quarter of all the popular votes. If this number is added to those of the youth who are voting for the first time, the number of opposition votes influenced by the factors I mentioned earlier, we have all the reasons to be optimist. We should also remember that, in any election, it is easier to reach the 50%+1 majority than the two-thirds majority.