Funcinpec leader Nhek Bun Chhay discusses his party's merger with the Norodom Ranariddh Party. (Photo by: Tracey Shelton)Royalist parties to merge with hopes of future political gains
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Written by Meas Sokchea and Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post
THE Kingdom's two royalist parties, Funcinpec and the Norodom Ranariddh Party, are set to reunite, three years after unceremoniously parting ways following the conviction and exile of former Funcinpec president Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
Nhek Bun Chhay, secretary general of Funcinpec, said Monday that the new party, which will retain the name Funcinpec, would officially be born closer to the 2013 national elections.
But he said a de facto merger had already taken place at the grassroots level, and that local activists had worked in close cooperation for Sunday's provincial, district and municipal council elections.
He added that the impetus for the merger came from a sharp drop in support for the two parties at last year's national election.
"We hope that merging helps our votes increase. At the municipal, provincial and district elections, our votes increased, but if we didn't merge we couldn't have made such gains," he said, estimating that the two parties had won a combined 91 seats on district and province councils, and 11 seats in the capital.
"If we put our votes together, we would have gained one seat," Nhek Bun Chhay said.
"If we are split, our votes will also be split."
Royalist rebirth?
Hang Puthea, executive director of Cambodian election monitoring group Nicfec, agreed the merger of both parties had strengthened the flagging royalist movement's showing at Sunday's election, but raised questions about the long-term future of the union.
"If the merger goes ahead and lasts forever, it could help [Funcinpec] fare better in the next mandate, but I'm worried that the parties will split again," he said.
Meanwhile, opposing politicians from other parties said they remained unfazed by the formation of what will become the country's third-largest political party.
Senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said Monday that the royalists had every right to reunite, but that the ruling party was not concerned about what would result. "It will not affect the CPP. We are not scared of this merger because we know their stance and the strength of their forces," he said.
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party, described the parties' past relationship, which hit a low point in 2006 when Prince Ranariddh was expelled from Funcinpec for embezzling funds from the sale of party property, as "a game", and said a reinvigorated royalist party would pose few problems.
"I am not concerned at all because I think the people fully understand the mistakes Funcinpec and the NRP have made so far," he said.
He added that Funcinpec and the NRP had compromised their credentials by getting close to the ruling party. "They are not familiar with the role of the opposition," he said.
"Who will trust this party now? Again and again they broke their promises and betrayed the people by allying with the ruling party."
Nhek Bun Chhay, secretary general of Funcinpec, said Monday that the new party, which will retain the name Funcinpec, would officially be born closer to the 2013 national elections.
But he said a de facto merger had already taken place at the grassroots level, and that local activists had worked in close cooperation for Sunday's provincial, district and municipal council elections.
He added that the impetus for the merger came from a sharp drop in support for the two parties at last year's national election.
"We hope that merging helps our votes increase. At the municipal, provincial and district elections, our votes increased, but if we didn't merge we couldn't have made such gains," he said, estimating that the two parties had won a combined 91 seats on district and province councils, and 11 seats in the capital.
"I THINK THE PEOPLE FULLY UNDERSTAND THE MISTAKES FUNCINPEC AND THE NRP HAVE MADE."He noted that in the 2008 national election - when the royalist presence in the National Assembly dropped from 26 seats to just four - Funcinpec and the NRP received 29,000 and 21,000 votes in Siem Reap province respectively, but that the two tallies were worthless alone.
"If we put our votes together, we would have gained one seat," Nhek Bun Chhay said.
"If we are split, our votes will also be split."
Royalist rebirth?
Hang Puthea, executive director of Cambodian election monitoring group Nicfec, agreed the merger of both parties had strengthened the flagging royalist movement's showing at Sunday's election, but raised questions about the long-term future of the union.
"If the merger goes ahead and lasts forever, it could help [Funcinpec] fare better in the next mandate, but I'm worried that the parties will split again," he said.
Meanwhile, opposing politicians from other parties said they remained unfazed by the formation of what will become the country's third-largest political party.
Senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said Monday that the royalists had every right to reunite, but that the ruling party was not concerned about what would result. "It will not affect the CPP. We are not scared of this merger because we know their stance and the strength of their forces," he said.
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party, described the parties' past relationship, which hit a low point in 2006 when Prince Ranariddh was expelled from Funcinpec for embezzling funds from the sale of party property, as "a game", and said a reinvigorated royalist party would pose few problems.
"I am not concerned at all because I think the people fully understand the mistakes Funcinpec and the NRP have made so far," he said.
He added that Funcinpec and the NRP had compromised their credentials by getting close to the ruling party. "They are not familiar with the role of the opposition," he said.
"Who will trust this party now? Again and again they broke their promises and betrayed the people by allying with the ruling party."
21 comments:
Royalist,Sihanoukist,Hunsenist,Polpotist,Maoist,Vietcongist,Duchist,???????
"Flower and thorn are in the same stem."-Buddha
Funcinpec life cycle: Rebirth - Internal fighting - Death. This cycle will repeat without ending.
What is the real benefit Funcinpec will contribute to Cambodia in the future? Nothing, but having busy time solving their internal broblems on the expenses of Cambodian interest.
Hope that ah Hun Xen will share some loote!
OK CPP will give some stilling vote to Fuckroyal to make it look good as a faked democracy!
May lightning strike on the blood sucker of Cambodian!
The guy looke like shit head baboon!
in politics, when you have a lot of smaller parties, you can't win with the bigger party. don't people understand that in order to win, you have gotten to have a majority votes, etc. how could anyone win in any election when only a small number of people voted for you. maybe you can only win a few seats in parliament; perhaps even a few seats are better than none, i guess. got to do something effective for the public so people will trust and like your party so they will vote for you, but if your smaller parties keep on fighting each other and not having vision for the country and people or not making a difference for people's lives, the country, etc, then your party is hopeless. please think about it and do get a lot of education as well; and definitely learn to adopt new ideas, new way of doing business, etc... keep in mind a cambodia and the world have changed a lot since the cold war era, etc, so get with the program for a change. good luck and god bless.
1:01AM, You must have alot of education to be so smart like that!
Is party come to win or to bring a bout new idear and principal?
And can the evil Hun Xen greate small idear so to make educated person like you thing you the only smart person that can not do any think but talk smart?
Ther is a way if not lightning will help us! Watch for lightning or sickness ah Hun Xen and all corrupters!
This guy looks like child birth gone wrong.
Pouk ah royalists - tok kor men chom niench, dok chenh kor men kat!
Set Te Pouch Kchout
Fun will no longer in peoples' mind anymore regardless how hard they are working even the game of merger.If you were to put in business way, Fun should be bankrupted long ago,the only reason Fun still breathing now is due to a temporary life saving oxygen machine that is CPP machine.For my opinion,just give up and dissolve to avoid the pain of innocent people or supporters.The BIG problem with Fun is that they cannot work in harmony with each other and never learn from their mistakes and put their personal interest above the interest of public and the country and not to mention that Fun has no integrity but no clear mission of what they want to achieve.
This guy is pig and torn the Funcinpec down.
Funcinpec will go to eternity when its founding father go.
This is tghe picture of the so-called Royalists=Royal shit. Ach Ko(Ox shit/ox fece) is much more useful than those Roalist/shit..
Fun-Ranrut parrties are Royal shit....
yes, i think it is a good idea to introduce new ideas or concept into cambodia; however, let's don't everything together to make it look so bad when in reality it's not that bad in cambodia. i think it is better for the country and people to work together as in good productive dialogue, consulting each other, etc, instead of us against them mentality which i can say most khmer people don't want to see our country going back to civil war etc. our people had suffered and deprived long enough already; so for any one leader who in their right mind want cambodia to go that direction is not a good, effective leader, but only a trouble-maker who only think of their own interest and not the national interest. be careful because if that's the case, i'm sure most khmer people won't vote for them. khmer people only want and need a leader who unite the country, who's willing to work together for the sake of our country stability, peace and prosperity and development... look around the world there are really few places on the planet that actually have war in this day and age, so why drag cambodia into that unwanted suffering again. please listen to lord buddha's advice for all human kinds: "ignorance is the root of all evil." thank you and god bless cambodia and all our beautiful khmer people and citizens.
please remember too that comments and opinion on this blog are merely that and are not written in stone, meaning nobody have to take them seriously. comments, suggestions, opinions, etc here are just expression of one's thought, understanding, etc and not to take them personally or serious. please be selective and be smart about it. thank you.
It's a great feeling to have heard these losers (in this forum)exchanging their ineffectual views and meaningless and clueless ideas.
PPU
9:16 AM
What does it make you? POOP?!
PPU
A CHKé VEA NAUV té CHKè Y COMPRIS aCHKè THOMICO ET RANNARIDH ESCLAVE DES PUTES ...
Trying to foul Khmer people one more time???
We all learned from " LOVE "; When a girl turns her back to you, you better forget everything and adapt yourself to the " CHANGE" which is a universal law. Going after that girl to beg her to come back to you is just disgrading yourself cheaper and cheaper, and also moral less.( And your don't need to earn a Phd to know that). In politics not just like in regular business, mistakes like FUN and RN have done in the past never could be fixed that easy. Well, you might get one or two seats for yourself, and, in exchange for that, you have to lie down a very good plan how to go around fouling your own country men one more time. Sorry ! I am not CPP, and the truth sometimes hurts. But please !!!
Funcinpec and its counterpart RNP are useless parties. Cambodia can not afford to depend on these fools to lead our country. They are virtually satellite parties for cpp. People voted for cpp because they had no choice.
Listen to this video below. Why did mr hun sen trash talked Funcipec? Listen to how mr hun sen brags about dissolving Funcinpec in 1997.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9WGDfBNSpM&feature=related
Cambodian people no longer trust "Funcinpec or RNP". These two political parties are incompetent in relation to national election so they will always be losers. One of the weaknesses of Funcipec is that it allows cpp to break them into small factions. Now, neak bunchay wants to talk about possible merging with other political parties?
10:42 AM
They should give up altogether.
PPU
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