to The Cambodia Daily
In "Kem Sokha Sets Conditions fcr SRP Cooperation," (Published by The Cambodia Daily on Tuesday 24 July 2007), there are allegations that I have sole control of the SRP and that I only want to control people. In April's commune elections, the SRP emerged as the country's second largest party, with 25 percent of the vote.
It is overstating my capacity to imply that I alone could successfully navigate through all the difficulties facing the only opposition party in parliament. It is giving me too much honor and distorting the truth to imply that I alone, like a "god" or a "king" could collect 1.3 million votes despite an obviously uneven playing field.
In fact, the encouraging votes obtained by the steadily growing SRP are attributable to the joint effort of a large team that operates in the most democratic style. The SRP is the only party in the country to have conducted reform with far-reaching implications that gives meaning to the words "democracy" and "decentralization."
Over the last three years, with help from institutions such as the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, we have put in place a "from bottom up" decision making process that is unique in Cambodia.
In our meetings and congresses, we place more emphasis on quality than quantity, in that participants and delegates are elected and true representatives of tens, hundreds or thousands of people. We have already moved far away from democracy on paper only.
Sam Rainsy,
SRP leader,
Phnom Penh
It is overstating my capacity to imply that I alone could successfully navigate through all the difficulties facing the only opposition party in parliament. It is giving me too much honor and distorting the truth to imply that I alone, like a "god" or a "king" could collect 1.3 million votes despite an obviously uneven playing field.
In fact, the encouraging votes obtained by the steadily growing SRP are attributable to the joint effort of a large team that operates in the most democratic style. The SRP is the only party in the country to have conducted reform with far-reaching implications that gives meaning to the words "democracy" and "decentralization."
Over the last three years, with help from institutions such as the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, we have put in place a "from bottom up" decision making process that is unique in Cambodia.
In our meetings and congresses, we place more emphasis on quality than quantity, in that participants and delegates are elected and true representatives of tens, hundreds or thousands of people. We have already moved far away from democracy on paper only.
Sam Rainsy,
SRP leader,
Phnom Penh
