Cambodia's Scale of Justice

7th March, 2009
Opinion by Khmerization

“In Cambodia of today, people win court cases not because they deserve to win. People win court cases based on how much money they can bribe the judges, regardless of whether they are on the right or the wrong side of the laws.”

Cambodia’s justice has been suffering image problems since the formal inception of the Cambodian judiciary. From one regime to the next, Cambodia’s justice system, and its tarnished image, remained virtually unchanged. And after the 1970 coup d’etat that toppled Sihanouk’s royalist regime and the installation of the Khmer Republican regime of Marshall Lon Nol, Cambodian judicial and justice system has suffered incessant political interferences. But the level of political interferences in the judiciary has never been on a scale seen today.

Political and legal pundits are dumbstruck about the level of injustice that has been practising in the Cambodian courts today. The high level of injustice comes about in large part due to the economic factor of the judges because of very low pay which lead them to practise corruption. But the main factor leading to rampant corruption and injustice is mainly due to the condonation of corruption and impunity tolerated by the government. As a result, justice has become too expensive for many ordinary Cambodians.

The scale of justice in today's Cambodia is tilting toward the rich and the powerful at the expense of the poor. In Cambodia of today, people win court cases not because they deserve to win. People win court cases based on how much money they can bribe the judges, regardless of whether they are on the right or the wrong side of the laws. The more people are willing to bribe the judges, the more chances they will be assured of winning. This is why nowadays, the poor people have lost confidence in the justice system and resort to take matter into their own hands. Regardless of what purpose it was originally designed for, the Cambodian justice system has effectively become the tool for the rich and the powerful to oppress the poor.

Corruption has made justice in Cambodia unreachable by the have-nots, but it served the rich and the powerful well because of the money and the political powers they wield. But the political interferences in the judicial system have made it virtually impossible for those who are on the opposite side of politics to the government to obtain justice. Crimes perpetrated against opposition figures by government agents have never been resolved. On the contrary, crimes perpetrated against supporters of government, whether the perpetrators are from the opposition or elsewhere, have always resulted in the wrong convictions of opposition supporters.

Case in point: The recent lifting of Mr. Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary is a gross injustice and a blatant proof of high level of political interferences in the judiciary. The Cambodian People’s Party-controlled judiciary failed to take action on Mr. Sam Rainsy’s lawsuit against the National Election Committee (NEC) for electoral frauds. On the contrary, the court took action against Mr. Sam Rainsy, following lawsuit lodged by the NEC for failing to pay fines, which resulted in his parliamentary immunity being lifted.

The lifting of Mr. Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity is illegal for many reasons. First, Mr. Sam Rainsy has not been allowed to exhaust all avenues of appeals. He was still appealing to the High Court when the Permanent Committee of the Parliament hurriedly lifted his immunity in contravention of the constitution. The Cambodian constitution stipulates that only the full session of the parliament can decide on such a matter. Secondly, Mr. Sam Rainsy had paid the fines on the same day as when his parliamentary immunity has been lifted. And immediately after the payment of the fines, the NEC, the plaintiff against Mr. Sam Rainsy, withdrew the lawsuit against Mr. Sam Rainsy. Mr. Sam Rainsy immediately wrote to the president of the National Assembly requesting for his immunity to be re-instated. As a matter of fact, without political interferences, the matter is considered finished. But due to political interferences, up until today, nearly two weeks after the fines have been paid, Mr. Sam Rainsy is still without his parliamentary immunity.

Mr. Sam Rainsy’s case, if not for any political motivation, can be resolved in split seconds. Cambodia has more urgent and pressing issues for the government, especially Prime Minister Hun Sen, to deal with. Political pundits and observers put the blames squarely on the government, Prime Minister Hun Sen in particular, for artificially creating a lot of trivial issues for itself to be occupied within a deliberate attempt to divert public attention from the more pressing issues of unemployment, global financial crisis, crimes and border issues.

For the sake of Cambodia and her suffering people, Cambodian political leaders, Prime Minister Hun Sen and Mr. Sam Rainsy in particular, should set aside their political differences and unite in one force to work together in helping to tackle urgent issues facing the Cambodian nation today. Border issues, political, economic and social ills should be on top of their agenda. Internal infighting, as is always the case, has brought havoc and destruction. Internal infighting against one’s own fellow countrymen, even against those who are from the opposite side of politics, is effectively a national suicide.

To sum up, in order to make Cambodian justice system a clean and just system, the judges have to be paid well and severe punishments of judges who are involved in corruption must be applied. But more importantly, political entities must stop interfering with the courts’ works and the courts and judges must be made to be neutral and truly independent of politics.