[UPDATED] Why This July 2013 Election Could Be the Tipping Point (by Ms. Theary C. Seng)

"It's stunning and exciting and difficult to believe," said one foreign member of a human rights group here. "But there seems to be a surge of support for the opposition."

Why This July 2013 Election Could Be the Tipping Point

A Living, Personal Reflection by Theary C. Seng 

This election is different. This election could be the "tipping point". 

1.  The Voters who have no direct experience of the Khmer Rouge. 

- 3.5 million of the country's 9.5 million registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 30  

- 1.5 million, or 15% of the electorate will be first-time voters 

What do these numbers tell us? 

One, these 3.5 million registered voters below 30 are not directly traumatized by the Khmer Rouge.  Moreover, many of them were children during the turbulent years of the 1990s, with some only coming of age in the last election 5 years ago, where election violence and murders confronted the voters in living colors. 

I returned to Cambodia in September 1995, less than 2 years immediately after the United Nations-organized elections.  I joined the campaign trails of the Khmer Nation Party in 1998 when traveling to each province took an average of a day through yawning gulfs of crater-sized potholes every few yards on the national roads and each village is its own remote, isolated universe. 

In 2002 I traveled the provinces as an international consultant of the US-International Republican Institute to train political party agents on the first commune elections, and once again joined the campaign trails of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP, formerly the Khmer Nation Party, changed to protect the CPP from appropriating the name by splitting the party) for this commune elections as well as the national elections the following year in 2003.  The roads were semi-improved but each village was still its own remote, isolated universe. 

Once again in 2007 and 2008, for the commune and national elections respectively, I joined the SRP on the campaign trails. 

In between these elections, I traveled the provinces for my work, first in 1997 to each provincial prison to assess the state of juveniles detained in these prisons.  And since, I traveled each province on numerous occasions in my capacity as the head of a NGO known for its justice and reconciliation forums, and most recently as the founding president of CIVICUS Cambodia to conduct the Speak Truth To Power (or, in Khmer, Courage Without Borders) curriculum for teachers, monks and other educational and provincial leaders. 

All to say, I have witnessed first-hand the conditions across Cambodia through these 18 years and have paid acute attention (for personal and professional reasons) to the voices and yearnings of the people in trying to understand for myself and for my work these seeming intractable problems in search of solutions.

And one of my strong beliefs in light of what is happening now in July 2013 is this:  we are witnessing a new phenomenon -- the manifestation and timing of it could not have been perceived till it is actually happening, as it is now. 

BUT this phenomenon did not happen out of the blue, magically; it grew organically and nurtured along the way.  

  

It is part and parcel of all the educational efforts and advocacy and challenging of the status quo and the demanding of each dollar raise to the wage of workers and hotel staff, of each improper land concession.  

Then we are given the tools of social media and Smartphones and Unicode and English, etc. to set it off, fueled by the energy of youth coming of age. 

2.  Social Media + Smart-phones + Khmer Unicode + Rising English Usage 

The previous elections did not have a public venue where Cambodians, particularly young people, could exchange information and be part of something larger than themselves. 

This is closely connected to the growing comfort level and increasing number of Cambodians proficient in English, not only to be on Facebook, but also have access to a broader array of information (which are in English).

Even if English is the still dominant language of social media, the comfort level and increase quality of the Khmer Unicode also facilitated the growing use of Social Media. 

This is greatly inter-linked with Smart-phones which allow for instant, captivating, engaging sharing of images along with a narrative.

We are right to worry about the vulgar, violent, crude or empty content and posts -- from soft to hard pornography, from foodstuff to graphic traffic deaths of mangled bodies and bloodied, cracked skulls -- that were initially sent en masse and that continue to exist to a horrifying extent, despite Facebook's and other attempts to curb such vulgarity, violence and lewdness.  

Horrified by the improper and wasted use of such powerful media, I made a conscious effort to make Facebook a major part of my CIVICUS Cambodia work and to inject educational content in an unassuming manner that was chatty, thus more palatable (than the institutional issuing of a statement). 

3.  Tourism and Urbanization of Garment Workers from the Provinces 

4.  Accumulation of Human Rights Abuses - Land, Trafficking, etc. - before heard, now directly felt by every Cambodian 

5.  The Knowledge (human rights education, tourism, province-city exchanges) stored in the Heart and Mind now Finds Expression

6.  The Admixture of the Above 

- Theary, Phnom Penh, 17 July 2013 

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