Anti-inflation Protest: A Moral Victory for Sam Rainsy And Democracy

“Price rises can be contained if the right and effective measures are applied. Salary increases can be achieved if Hun Sen has the political will to get tough with corruption. Money to fund the pay rises can be found through the elimination of corruption.”

Monday, April 7, 2008
Editorial by Khmerization

However small in size and not able to march in a grand scale, the anti-inflation protest on Sunday was a moral victory, not just for the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), but for the democratic process as a whole. To a degree, it was seen as a victory of democracy over dictatorship.

Sam Rainsy has not only killed two birds with one stone, he has killed three birds with only one stone. The protest had produced three vital outcomes. First, by being able to obtain a permission to protest is a victory in itself. It is a victory over Hun Sen’s draconian rules which had long banned public demonstration. By persistently pushing for a permission to hold that protest, Sam Rainsy had opened a gate and set a precedent for more protests of this sorts, while at the same time succeeded in sending Hun Sen’s anti-demonstration draconian rule to its eventual death. Secondly, the protest, if anything at all, has succeeded in drawing national and international attention to the plight of the poor, the high costs of living and the lower wages of the Cambodian workers- public servants in particular. Thirdly, as it is election time, the protest itself and Rainsy’s demand for a pay rise to hundreds of thousands of public servants can be seen as a huge electoral drawcard and a shrewd political manoeuvrings which can possibly translate into an election victory in the July election, if the election is free and fair. With these three factors looming in Hun Sen’s head, he cannot ignore the reality. First, Hun Sen cannot ban public demonstrations anymore because he has given permission to Sam Rainsy to hold one. Secondly, to make an electoral impact, Hun Sen cannot ignore low wages and the skyrocketing of commodities prices. He has to raise public servants’ salary in commensuration with the high costs of living. He must also take actions to bring down the prices of other commodities as he had done with the prices of rice.

On another note, I wish to opine on the decry of the Human Right Party (HRP) over Sam Rainsy’s success in obtaining the permission to hold this protest. While I do sympathise with the fact that their request for the permission to hold a protest against the skyrocketing of fuel prices was not granted, I do not sympathise with their decry over the permission granted to the SRP. If the HRP was fair dinkum, to use an Australian phrase, in their concerns for the welfare of the people, they would have called on their supporters to join in with the SRP supporters in order to maximise an ability to mobilise and motivate the affected general population to participate in large numbers. This sort of decry can only come out of jealousy, and with the two parties having the same goal- and that is to defeat Hun Sen at the election- this sort of decry against one another is not helpful to their cause. It can only play into Mr. Hun Sen’s hands. Therefore, I call on these two parties to support each other in future actions.

On a last note, I wish the authority, and in particular Mr. Hun Sen, to open up to the reality by solving these crises sooner rather than later. Price rises can be contained if the right and effective measures are applied. Salary increases can be achieved if Hun Sen has the political will to get tough with corruption. Money to fund the pay rises can be found through the elimination of corruption. And this, I mean, the incomes from illegal logging, Angkor Wat concessions and the proceeds from the sales and concessions of public lands and properties etc., must be deposited into the state treasury accounts, instead of allowing them to flow into the pockets of corrupt officials.