Saturday, May 26, 2007

What to Expect in 2008 General Election

Thu, 24 May 2007
By Jayakhmer
Op-Ed posted online


As Cambodians prepare again to go through another democratic process next year, the anticipation and expectation are being built. Although it is highly probable that things will be pretty much the same as it was in the last general election, I expect a few things to be different. Cambodian democracy is young, but I am looking forward to seeing political maturity.

While I anticipate that all the major political parties will be participating in the election, what will happen within each political party will be pivotal. The way each party elects its candidate for Prime Minister Post will be a good indication of political maturity.

Of course, out of respect each party will be electing its respective candidate for the post. Cambodian People's Party (CPP) will re-elect Prime Minister Hun Sen, Sam Raingsy Party (SRP) will choose His Excellency Sam Raingsy, Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) will elect Samdech Krom Preah Norodom Ranariddh and so on so forth. It will be a true sign political maturity, if all of these candidates gracefully reject that offer by letting a fresh and new capable individual in the party to be the candidate.

Before going to my next point, I am compelled to say a few words about the name of political parties. I know that party's name is such a peripheral issue in the scheme of things, but why name a political party after oneself? A party leadership should be mature enough to get over him or herself. To do such thing would be an easy target for the accusation of being a plethora of self-love. I hope that this does not become a fashionable political trend.

The second important indication of political maturity would be to see how the Non-CPP interacts with each other. With a simple majority rule (50+1), they have no choice but to work together in order to have any impact. This means that the each party leader has to put his or her personal dream to be the prime minister aside. After all, there is only one position at the top. Work together and work hard and the chip falls where it may. When people vote in a secret ballots, one can never totally predict out come of a democratic election. Any thing can happen. In politics, one day is a lifetime.

Unfortunately time and resources are not on their side. The longer they wait to resolve this issue the weaker they will be in the general election because they have to each compete on their own.

The third indication of political maturity is what will happen after the election. The disputes of over election conducts dragged on way to long after the last election. Please do all the works that need to be done before the election. After the election, be ready to accept the certified results, congratulate the winner and move on. Live and learn and hope to do better the next time. This applies to CPP as well.

The sooner we get over the election the sooner we can put our heads together to working on the vexing issues of politic, administrative, economic, social reform to improve Cambodia.

Remember winning an election without political legitimacy is worst than losing. Losing the election but your political agendas are being addressed and implemented is better than winning. As long as there is progress for Cambodia, every one is a winner. And all of us have plenty of time to monitor progress.

Jay

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

In 2008 election without any prejudice, I think CPP will be the leading party to win more seats from the election. SRP will be the second biggest party after CPP.
Funcipec need to clean up their own rotten woods if they want to win any seat. At present their present leaders Nhek Bun Chhay and Keo Puth Reasmey have lost all their respect from voters already. They cannot expect voters to simply vote for them. They are being seen as shoemat for CPP already. Therefore voters will not vote for them unless these two leaders understood about these feelings from voters. They need to replace their top leaders who can can lead them with a strong vision and a clear direction and before election they shouldn't express that they will work with CPP at all. Funcipec has made many mistakes from the past for their failure to deliver their promises. They have good promises which they cannot implement after working in coaltion with CPP. Rannarith party will be hard to find a supporters with Rannarith'name. His political life is far from gone for ever. Human right party is a new one and is very much depended to their performance from now to the election day and their promises. They shouldn't attack their potential partner SRP if they want form a coalition party with this party. I cannot see Human Right party can work with CPP if they really stick to their principles. One is human right and CPP is no human right!!!!. Good luck to all of them. I hope Cambodians people should use their intelligence very smartly to vote for their New Government. I think CPP might do some problems to scare voters to swing to their party. Areak Prey

Anonymous said...

I think the Reunited Domocratic Party will win 2008 and Mr. Samrainsy will be the Prime Minister Of Cambodia.Comment by Prohok Khmer lived in Mass.USA.

Anonymous said...

To 3:46Am,

Mrs. Tioulong Saumura has a love affair with the former SRP Secretary-General, Mr. Eng Chhay Eang, for quite some time. This triangle of love is still alive and well and Mr. Sam Rainsy can't do a thing about it. How can the SRP President rule Cambodia while he can't even rule his wife?

However, Mr. Sam Rainsy is not to be blamed. He looks tough on the outside. In fact, he's much softer than a jelly on the inside.

In brief, Mr. Sam Rainsy will never be Cambodia's Prime Minister in his present life.

Anonymous said...

Hello Idiot 4:20AM,
I think you are making a foollish allegation in here. I knew Mrs Sam Rainsy well. She was born from a respected family and has been brought up with Cambodian good traditional family value. She is a strong woman of international class. Please do not look down on our fellow citizen. We are very proud to have a strong woman like her. She is a pride of Cambodian woman and can represente Cambodia at all level. She can only bring good wealth and good pride to Cambodia. I believe that Mr Sam Rainsy can count on her at any circumstance. She is one of Hillary Clinton of USA, Mrs Aquino of Philippine, Wu Yi of China, Helen Clark of New Zealand. She has my full respect. Areak Prey

Anonymous said...

Wrong, the rich khmer class does
no observed Khmer value in any way
or form. They are drowned with
European Value. Just listen to them
talk, and you will know that they
can't completed two sentences in
a row without using the
word "europe" in one of the
sentence. While it is true that
they inherited Indochinese blood
and DNA, but their mentality is
far from being khmer. They look
down on khmer people. They are
shamefull of khmer people. For
all practical purpose one can say
they despise everything that is
khmer. They have no faith in khmer
teaching whatsoever. Otherwise,
they would not persistently try
to wipe out Khmer culture and
tradition from this planet and
replace it with European.
Having said all that, I find
4:20 more credible than the
moron (5:36) who is totally blind.

Anonymous said...

To Areak Prey from 4:20AM,

So respect for Mrs. Tioulong Saumura is yours. I am not going to take it from you. It's your right. But to force me to respect that woman the way you do is to violate my right. I speak my mind exactly the same way as you speak yours. What's wrong with that?

We live in a free world, don't we.

Anonymous said...

To 4:20AM!

Whatever! Show me the fucken photographs of both of them sleep or spend sometime together in any secret locations and only then I will believe you!!!

You can't just go around bullshit and expect people like me to believe you!!!ahahhahahhahhahha

Tell me that you had never been cheated on! Oh! Poor baby! You see so much in other people but forget to look at yourself first!!!

Here is my kiss from me to you and I hope you will feel better!!!ahahh

Anonymous said...

Damn, there goes another Ah pervert
Khmer-Gringo!

Anonymous said...

that would be you, Mee Sumpung! Kiss my crack?

Anonymous said...

What is the new Democratic United Party? I didn't know it exists yet. I believe it is a foregone conclusion that the CPP will win by quite a large margin, if only because of vote rigging, buying, and across the board election fraud.. They will not give up power easily and voluntarily.

Anonymous said...

Well, like I said, there has not
been any unity in Cambodia since
the begining of time, And for Ah
khmer-Gringoes to claim that they
have been educated by the world
tiptop institution, it is more of
a joke than the truth. Am I wrong?

Anonymous said...

To 10:53PM,

You are absolutely right. Compared to the Burmese junta which puts the Burmese Oppositon leader, Ms. Aung San Suu Qyi, under permanent house arrest, the CPP, with full backing from Hanoi's top political strategists, is much smarter. Apart from having all State institutions (NEC, the Constitutional Council, the National Assembly, the Senate and the Monarchy) under his firm control, Hun Sen has such political parties as Funcinpec, SRP, HRP, NRP, etc... as democratic ornaments to dupe the international community for recognition and aid.

As long as they pose no serious threat to the CPP and Hun Sen politically, all smaller parties listed above may stay around. Once they get stronger and threaten the CPP power foundation, they will certainly be eliminated. Only People Power can win over the CPP and Hun Sen.

Unfortunately, party leaders such as Sam Rainsy, Kem Sokha, Norodom Ranariddh, Norodom Chakrapong, Sisowath Thomico and the like fail to see - or do not want to see - this naked truth at all, and by the process, commit serious crime of giving false hope to the whole Khmer nation that they would win the elections one day. In fact, they are either clowns or stand-up comedians who just let themselves be used by the CPP and Hun Sen as political pawns at worst and/or democracy window dressing at best.

In one word, they are doomed to fail. Decent Khmer people can see very clearly this total failure because they are not blinded by ambition and greed like political leaders.

Anonymous said...

Yep, and it all boils down to the
crappy westerners education
institutions are nothing more a
joke. They just hand out fake
degrees to meet their quotas, so
that they will not be blamed by
the corrupted International
community for not educating people.
Many of the graduates are really
strugling just to fill out their
own application for
employment, ... . Am I wrong?

Anonymous said...

12:48 - Right on the money. But maybe what the SRP is trying to achieve is a constant attrition into the CPP power base.

3:29 - Western educational institutions may not all be good, but for the most part they give people enough to fend for themselves, which certainly cannot be said for the Khmer educational system - no offense meant here. That's not the Khmer people's fault. No need to put down Western institutions just because they are Western.

Anonymous said...

Not quite true, 3:29, only a few
educated westerner can fence for
themself. After billions is pouring
in to the Education divisions, many
westerners are still vulnerable to
scams and frauds. The Government
has to spend billions more to look
out for them. Thus, the westerner's
education system are not doing what
it is supposed to do, by far.

As for Khmer Education, we have
been screwed up for using
westerners system that don't fitted
us, but this will soon to change.
In other words, we have been trying
to wear westerner's large pair of
pant and trip on our face, hehehe.