Heard along the campaign trail

Friday, March 30, 2007
Collected by UC and UB
Cambodge Soir
Unofficial Translation from French by Tola Ek

Click here to read Cambodge Soir’s original article in French

During the campaign for the commune election, we are reporting words heard at a street corner, in a market, from a seller, etc… discussing about the election. The words we are echoing here represent only the opinions of their respective authors.

A Battambang woman visiting her daughter who is working in Phnom Penh: “Say, will you come back home to vote this weekend?” The daughter said that she won’t have time to travel. “No, even if you are busy, you must find the time, otherwise the neighbors will talk bad about us!” the mother insisted. The daughter does not change her mind. “Even if you don’t vote for the CPP like us, it is important that you show up at the polling station,” the mother said nervously. “No, I don’t want to go. You just tell the neighbors that I vote in Phnom Penh,” the daughter answered. The lie that will not stand up, the mother noted. “If I tell them that, they will check the [voting] lists and they will see that it’s false. On the other hand, I can tell them that you went overseas for a mission…” the mother finally yielded.

Second-hand clothes sellers at the Olympic market kill their time by discussing the problems encountered in their areas. “My road is still not fixed yet, and I already paid my contribution three years ago to the sangkat chief. That’s because the large owners lack behind in their payment, and suddenly, nothing move, the sewers are not working… When it rains, it’s flooding,” one of the women ranted. Her neighbor believes that “it is up to the sangkat authorities to resolve this problem because they were the ones who collected the funds and it’s their duty to insure the good working condition of infrastructure.” However, for the first seller, the main culprits to pin the blame on are the rich people. “They yield enormous power. Even the sangkat chief must bow in front of them. The commune council thus has no power to resolve our problems, so what’s the use?” she wondered. The second seller replied back about the chief: “That’s right, the commune elections are less important than the legislative election. Decentralization is not yet working, and the commune councils are established for decoration purposes only.”