Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Hun Sen and his party have used libel suits in compliant courts to gain total control of the political system

The Global Decline In Democracy

13/03/2010
Newsweek

Political freedom blossomed in the developing world in the 1990s and early part of this century. While authoritarians still ruled most of Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia in 1990, by 2005 democracies had emerged across these continents. The Soviet Union had morphed into Russia, a freewheeling society that seemed to bear little resemblance to its grim predecessor. With the fall of Saddam Hussein, the overthrow of the Taliban, the apparent end of military interventions in Turkey, and the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami in Iran, even the Middle East, long the laggard in democratic reform, appeared to be joining the trend. In 2005, Freedom House noted that only nine countries experienced rollbacks of democracy; in its report in 2009, it registered declines in "40 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union." Indeed, the organization found that the number of electoral democracies had fallen back to 116, its lowest number since 1995.

The culprits in democracy's decline may come as a surprise. Many of the same middle-class men and women who once helped push dictators out of power are now seeing just how difficult it can be to establish democracy, and are pining for the days of autocracy. Why has this happened? In many cases because the early leaders of the young democracies that emerged in the 1990s failed to recognize that free societies require strong institutions, a loyal opposition to the ruling party, and a willingness to compromise. Instead, they saw democracy as just semiregular votes; after they won, they then used all tools of power to dominate their countries and to hand out benefits to their allies or tribe. This narrow interpretation of democracy not only distorted the true meaning of the word but also alienated the public in many countries, who became disgusted that these democrats seemed no more committed to the common good than their authoritarian predecessors.

Too often, Western nations, which after 9/11 refocused their attention from the democratization of the 1990s to the war on terror, said little as democracy went down the drain. Sometimes, the West simply no longer had the time to stand up for democrats abroad. Other times, as in the case of Malaysia and Pakistan, authoritarian rule suddenly benefited the West, since the U.S. could rely on autocrats to help detain terror suspects indefinitely. Meanwhile, the Bush administration's linkage of the war in Iraq to democracy promotion tainted democratization in the minds of many, particularly in the Middle East.

The global economic crisis has also damaged democracy's appeal. To many middle-class men and women in the developing world, the spread of democracy was linked to the spread of capitalism, since many of these countries opened their economies at the same time as they embraced political freedom. As the crisis cuts into people's incomes, many blame democracy, in part, for the economic downturn. Dominican President Leonel Fernández said as much. "Expectations over the prospects of democracy in the region [Latin America] have given way to disillusion as democracy failed to boost economic prosperity," he declared at a summit of Latin leaders in 2008.

The result is that on nearly every continent, democracy is sputtering out. In Iraq, the first post-Saddam leaders relied on the bluntest tools of intimidation to defeat their rivals and rise to the top of the political system, disillusioning the population. In the recent Iraq election, voter turnout dropped from the 2005 poll, despite extensive advertising prodding people to vote. In the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2006 used an emergency decree to, in effect, declare martial law, and her reign has coincided with an increasing number of abductions and killings of left-wing activists by the security forces. In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen and his party, though also elected, have used libel suits in compliant courts and, allegedly, beatings and killings of activists to gain total control of the political system. In Russia, starting in 2000, Vladimir Putin took advantage of widespread anger at the collapse of Russia's economy in the 1990s to push through changes that crushed any chance for real democracy, replacing elected regional governors with ones appointed by the Kremlin, taking over nearly every independent political party, and neutering most of the media. Venezuela's Hugo Chávez has for more than a decade used his oil wealth to maintain broad popularity with the poor, winning election after election even while turning virtually the entire political establishment into a sycophantic chorus by shutting down independent media outlets, packing prominent state companies with his cronies, and using a national referendum to wipe out his term limits. And in many African countries, so-called reformers, like current Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, came to power vowing to promote real political freedom but soon used their office simply to crush rivals and favor their own ethnic allies.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:06 AM

    MAY LIGHTNING STRIKE HIM WHILE SHAKING HAND WITH AH KWACK!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:53 AM

    Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime

    Members:
    Pol Pot
    Nuon Chea
    Ieng Sary
    Ta Mok
    Khieu Samphan
    Son Sen
    Ieng Thearith
    Kaing Kek Iev
    Hun Sen
    Chea Sim
    Heng Samrin
    Hor Namhong
    Keat Chhon
    Ouk Bunchhoeun
    Sim Ka...

    Committed:
    Tortures
    Brutality
    Executions
    Massacres
    Mass Murder
    Genocide
    Atrocities
    Crimes Against Humanity
    Starvations
    Slavery
    Force Labour
    Overwork to Death
    Human Abuses
    Persecution
    Unlawful Detention


    Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime

    Members:
    Hun Sen
    Chea Sim
    Heng Samrin
    Hor Namhong
    Keat Chhon
    Ouk Bunchhoeun
    Sim Ka...

    Committed:
    Attempted Murders
    Attempted Murder on Chea Vichea
    Attempted Assassinations
    Attempted Assassination on Sam Rainsy
    Assassinations
    Assassinated Journalists
    Assassinated Political Opponents
    Assassinated Leaders of the Free Trade Union
    Assassinated over 80 members of Sam Rainsy Party.

    "But as of today, over eighty members of my party have been assassinated. Countless others have been injured, arrested, jailed, or forced to go into hiding or into exile."
    Sam Rainsy LIC 31 October 2009 - Cairo, Egypt
      
    Executions
    Executed over 100 members of FUNCINPEC Party
    Murders
    Murdered 3 Leaders of the Free Trade Union 
    Murdered Chea Vichea
    Murdered Ros Sovannareth
    Murdered Hy Vuthy
    Murdered Journalists
    Murdered Khim Sambo
    Murdered Khim Sambo's son 
    Murdered members of Sam Rainsy Party.
    Murdered activists of Sam Rainsy Party
    Murdered Innocent Men
    Murdered Innocent Women
    Murdered Innocent Children
    Killed Innocent Khmer Peoples.
    Extrajudicial Execution
    Grenade Attack
    Terrorism
    Drive by Shooting
    Brutalities
    Police Brutality Against Monks
    Police Brutality Against Evictees
    Tortures
    Intimidations
    Death Threats
    Threatening
    Human Abductions
    Human Abuses
    Human Rights Abuses
    Human Trafficking
    Drugs Trafficking
    Under Age Child Sex
    Corruptions
    Bribery
    Embezzlement
    Treason
    Border Encroachment, allow Vietnam to encroaching into Cambodia.
    Signed away our territories to Vietnam; Koh Tral, almost half of our ocean territory oil field and others.  
    Illegal Arrest
    Illegal Mass Evictions
    Illegal Land Grabbing
    Illegal Firearms
    Illegal Logging
    Illegal Deforestation

    Illegally use of remote detonation bomb on Sokha Helicopter, while Hok Lundy and other military officials were on board.

    Lightning strike many airplanes, but did not fall from the sky.  Lightning strike out side of airplane and discharge electricity to ground. 
    Source:  Lightning, Discovery Channel

    Illegally Sold State Properties
    Illegally Removed Parliamentary Immunity of Parliament Members
    Plunder National Resources
    Acid Attacks
    Turn Cambodia into a Lawless Country.
    Oppression
    Injustice
    Steal Votes
    Bring Foreigners from Veitnam to vote in Cambodia for Cambodian People's Party.
    Use Dead people's names to vote for Cambodian People's Party.
    Disqualified potential Sam Rainsy Party's voters. 
    Abuse the Court as a tools for CPP to send political opponents and journalists to jail.
    Abuse of Power
    Abuse the Laws
    Abuse the National Election Committee
    Abuse the National Assembly
    Violate the Laws
    Violate the Constitution
    Violate the Paris Accords
    Impunity
    Persecution
    Unlawful Detention
    Death in custody.

    Under the Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime, no criminals that has been committed crimes against journalists, political opponents, leaders of the Free Trade Union, innocent men, women and children have ever been brought to justice.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous1:25 AM

    Ah kwanhthink he smart!

    ReplyDelete