Election anger? ‘Let it go’ [Mr. Mitton, the lecturer who should be lectured]

Dear All,

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Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, greets his supporters after landing in Phnom Penh earlier this month. REUTERS

Mon, 26 August 2013

Phnom Penh Post

By Roger Mitton

 

Let’s get something straight from the start: Cambodia’s election result will stand [Khmerican: Of course it will stand because the CPP is the thief who also acts as the police, the jury and the judge]. Furthermore, as we watch events in Egypt unfold, and as we bear in mind recent unrest in Brazil, Thailand, Turkey and elsewhere, it is clearly the most desirable outcome. [If Hun sen won't use soldiers, APCs and tanks to crack down, nothing like in Egypt will happen].
That does not mean the July 28 poll was conducted perfectly, or that there were not multiple transgressions from vote-buying to false registrations, from ballot-box stuffing to crooked counting procedures.
If none of these things occurred in an election in this region, or for that matter in many countries around the world, it would be a minor miracle.
Yes, the scale of infractions and the flagrant, semi-official way they appear to have been condoned, might be more pronounced here than other places.
But even that is doubtful, and certainly the empirical evidence – namely, the high number of seats won by the opposition – suggests it was done on a relatively small scale and in a pathetically inept way. [Khmerican: The election fraud in Cambodia was done on a small scale? It is the opposite: It's widespread and it's done on a larger scale than Mr. Mitton would like to admit].
Many of my colleagues disagree – and that’s fine, that’s democracy, that’s why we can write about it here when we couldn’t next door in Laos or Vietnam.
Some even view the disputed result as heralding portentous changes in the near future. One messaged me last week: “Do you think there will now be an Arab Spring in Cambodia?”
My reply: “There already is one. The opposition won 45 per cent of the seats. Where else does that happen in ASEAN? Not in Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore or Vietnam, and only recently in Malaysia and Indonesia.” [Khmerican: Well, it happened in Burma in 1990 when the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi won and it happened in Thailand and the Philippines on many occasions when the oppositions won and the ruling parties lost. That's because the elections there were freer and fairer and were not controlled by the ruling party like in Cambodia].
He pressed on: “But do you think the opposition can overthrow Hun Sen and the Cambodia People’s Party?”
“Let’s hope not,” I said. “The opposition performed brilliantly, but it lost. [Khmerican: No, the CNRP did not lose. It was cheated out of its victory] That is quite clear. The CPP would never have allowed it to win 55 seats if the election had been fixed.” [OMG Mr. Mitton, you knew it, everybody knew it that the CPP cheated on a grand scale. The fact that it cannot cheat to win 2/3 majority like in 2008 was because the voters stopped them and, to a certain extent, this time, many electoral officials were sympathetic with the opposition].
Stating the obvious does not signify approval of the CPP, rather just a belief in electoral politics and a distaste for governments being removed by street thuggery or military coups. [You should be lecturing the CPP and Mr. Hun Sen about street thuggery and military coups because they have carried out these in the past in 1993 when they lost the election and in the 1997 coup against Funcinpec. In the 1998 election, the CPP thugs and soldiers beaten and killed many opposition activists during the peaceful march. The videos of that thuggery still existed today. And how many people, union leader Chea Vichea, singer Touch Sounik, singer Pov Panha Pich and journalist Khim Sambo, where killed and maimed during and after the 2003 and 2008 elections?]


And to repeat: It also does not mean there was no cheating in the election. Of course, there almost certainly was, as there is in elections in all those places voicing disquiet about results.
Remember the flawed recounts in Florida’s Broward and Miami-Dade counties in 2000, which enabled George W Bush to “win” the presidency of the United States, despite losing the popular vote? [In Florida in 2000, the result was so close and the irregularities were so minute that were no where near the irregularities and frauds that have taken place in the Cambodian elections].
Remember what passes for legitimacy in treating oppositionists in Malaysia and Singapore, or what happens in every election in Indonesia and the Philippines? [Well, the oppositions in Indonesia (Megawati and Yudhyono), Thailand (Samak and Yingluck) and the Philippines (Aquino) always won the elections- that means their electoral systems are quite independent].
And please refrain from telling me two wrongs don’t make a right [Mr. Mitton, you can lecture Mr. Hun Sen about this and tell him to resolve the political dispute through political means (negotiation), not to bring APCs and tanks into the cities to commit violence like in the 1997 coup]. No, they don’t. For the third time, there clearly seem to have been irregularities in last month’s election. So complain, check them out and get an investigation started. [Yes, the opposition complained, they checked them out and they tried to get the independent investigation started, but did the CPP agree? The opposition's complaints were rejected/dismissed even before the complaint envelopes were opened. The CPP only agreed to allow the NEC, who is the CPP's proxy, to investigate. Sunday's opening of the Safety Packages "A" did find widespread systemic irregularities, but the NEC dismissed them as resulting from the mistakes of inexperienced NEC staff, not frauds].
Which is what has happened. And, as invariably happens in all these investigations, the poll results are upheld. [Of course the result will be upheld because the thief (the NEC) was allowed to investigate his/her own crimes and be the police, the judge and the jury].
Yes, the agency assigned to do the investigation is invariably biased.
So bitch again – and let people know about it via the media and public meetings and speeches in parliament. [Well, Mr. Mitton, you don't lecture the opposition about this. They have spoken everywhere, on the world media, local media, social media and in public meetings, but did the CPP and the NEC listen?].
Then take a deep breath and, in the words of Nelson Mandela, let it go.
As the South African icon told former US president Bill Clinton, he hated the apartheid leaders who jailed him for 27 years and deprived his people of their liberty. And he still hated them when they set him free.
But, said Mandela: “As I felt the anger rising up, I thought to myself: if you keep hating them, they’ll have you again. And so I let it go. I let it go.”
It was a stance that set an example for his entire nation, so that it remained peaceful and harmonious and was able to develop without being convulsed by endless violent protests. The Cambodia National Rescue Party and its leader Sam Rainsy should do the same when the election result is finally and definitively certified. [Certified by whom? By the thief (the NEC) who stole the election result in the first place?].

My advice to you, Mr. Mitton, is: If you have grown up, lived, survived and thrived in a democratic country, please also allow the Cambodia people to have the same opportunities as you had. So, please don't be on the side of the Cambodian dictatorship.