HRP leader Heng Chan Thuon pushing SRP activists to join the CPP in Battambang province

Cambodian Politics: The enemy of my enemy is my friend

Will Kem Sokha (L) and Mao Monyvann (R) line themselves up with the CPP? (Photo: CEN)

Op-Ed by Timothy Chhim
Originally posted at: http://timothychhim.blogspot.com

"The enemy of their enemy is their friend"

Perhaps Kem Sokha is taking Soy Sopheap's advice.

Please see: http://youtu.be/6J60RKfpAUo for Soy Sopheap's comment.

Soy Sopheap urged SRP members to follow Mao Monyvan wherever he goes.

If we read between the lines, it appears that Soy Sopheap is siding with HRP and Mao Monyvan in their efforts to chop down SRP.

Knowing that Soy Sopheap has better relationship with the CPP than with any other parties, his advice to Kem Sokha brings HRP closer to the CPP not to SRP. This makes Sam Rainsy’s statement relevant when he questioned Kem Sokha’s motives behind all activities done by Kem Sokha.

The lingering and dubious questions behind such motives started even before HRP was created. It will linger indefinitely until the issues of HRP’s relationship with the ruling party are clarified. I doubt that all questions can be explained satisfactorily given the nature of HRP’s business activities and Kem Sokha’s family and personal connection with the CPP. However, most SRP members know Kem Sokha and his HRP’s operation better than many of us do.

SRP nominates Nou Pisakha to replace outgoing Mao Monyvann

28 March 2011
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Soch

The SRP indicated yesterday that it had nominated Nou Pisakha, a member of the SRP permanent committee, to replace outgoing MP Mao Monyvann who resigned from his position. Yim Sovann, SRP spokesman, said that the SRP sent a letter 2 weeks ago to inform Heng Xamrin, National Assembly president, about its request to nominate Nou Pisakha, a party activist from Phnom Penh, as the replacement for the vacant seat. Mao Monyvann resigned from his position as MP from Kampong Cham province recently and then defected the HRP.

I want Sam Rainsy as a partner, but I want SRP activists to defect to my party more: Kem Sokha, an opportunist leader?

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Opposition dilemma

Friday, 25 March 2011
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

Human Rights Party President Kem Sokha has invited members of the Kingdom’s largest opposition group, the Sam Rainsy Party, to defect to the HRP following the announcement this week that ex-SRP lawmaker Mao Monyvann would join the party.

Mao Monyvann, formerly an SRP parliamentarian from Kampong Cham province, resigned from his post earlier this month before holding a press conference this week to criticise the SRP leadership, accusing lawmakers Yim Sovann and Eng Chhay Eang of wielding excessive control over the party. In the aftermath of his comments, the SRP asked him to resign from the party and he joined the HRP.

SRP head Sam Rainsy now lives abroad to avoid a pair of jail terms totalling 12 years that were handed down against him last year in connection with a protest he staged at the Vietnamese border in 2009. He was stripped of his parliamentary seat earlier this month as a result of his convictions.

“The HRP will become the biggest opposition party in Cambodia if Sam Rainsy cannot return,” Kem Sokha said.

“We do not want him to be absent – I want to have him here as a partner,” Kem Sokha added. “But if he is not present, I believe the HRP will play an important role in pressing for a change from the current leadership.”

Stop that rhetoric: Sam Rainsy is not a killer nor like the Khmer Rouge

23 March 2011
Opinion by Timothy Chhim
originally posted at http://timothychhim.blogspot.com

KI-Media Note: Recently, former SRP Mao Monyvann decided to switch to Kem Sokha's Human Rights Party after he was kicked by the SRP following his resignation from his position as MP. Mao Monyvann subsequently likened the SRP leaders to the Khmer Rouge and the HRP took the opportunity to organize a hoopla reception for the newly defected SRP MP and his followers. The following article by Lok Timothy Chhim analyzes this issue as well as the future of the merger between the SRP and the HRP.

Mao Monyvan’s allegation that SRP’s leaders are like the Khmer Rouge is too extreme. Regardless, whether you like Sam Rainsy and SRP or not, the are not Khmer Rouge nor like the Khmer Rouge.

Politicians ought to tone down their rhetorical statements and be informative or enlightening instead of being enrage with verbal abuses.

HRP’s leaders and the so-called special event’s creators should also have better moral values in conducting such an event which could be harmful to future relations between the non-CPP political parties, if they are serious about gaining additional seats in the National Assembly.

However, from the very beginning HRP has been speculated that it was created to split Sam Rainsy’s Party and some reliable sources pointed that its President was given financial supports and a green light by Premier Hun Sen to help created the Party. Such allegations have never been proven but they have never been clarified. Actions by HRP speak the truth.

Imminent defection of former SRP MP Mao Monyvann?

Will Mao Monyvann decide to serve the oppressive regime?

22 March 2011
KI-Media

A source from Phnom Penh informed us that former SRP MP Mao Monyvann, who recently announced his resignation from his position as MP from Kampong Cham province, will soon defect to join the ruling CPP party.

Radio Free Asia reported on 12 March 2011 that Mao Monyvann indicated “that he is not joining any political party and that he will remain with the SRP forever.” If indeed, Mao Monyvann were to join the CPP, he would be breaking another promise he made on RFA.

Please stay tune.

SRP activist shot and killed in Kampong Cham province

05 March 2009
By Or Phearith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

One SRP activist from Memot district, Kampong Cham province, was shot and killed by an armed man in the afternoon of 04 March at his home.

Prack Vanny, the Choam commune chief, Memot district, indicated in the morning of 05 March, 45-year-old Moh Mamvit living in Kok Khloam village, Choam commune, was shot by two armed men (one armed man?) at his home. The motive for the shooting is unknown.

Bin Bao, an eyewitness who was standing 2-meter away from the victim, indicated that Pheang, the killer, knows the victim very well, and there was never any dispute between the two.

However, on the day of the incident, at about 2 PM, Pheang got off his motorcycle and called the victim to come out, then he shot the victim in front of the house.

Bin Bao reported: “(The victim) said: ‘I did not do anything, I know you younger brother Pheang, I know you.’ As the victim was approaching a little bit, the killer raised his gun and shot the victim who fell to the ground. The victim was saying: ‘Are you shooting me?’ After these few words, he died. He was shot near his left hip and the gunshot pierced his bladder and exited near hit butt. The killer was going to shoot more on the victim, I was next to him.”

Bien Pum, a police officer from Choam commune who was investigating on the spot, indicated that the killer was undertaking his action out in the open, and people know who he is and where he is from, but he is now fleeing and he also took a gun with him.

Bien Pum said: “Our police is building up a case in order to bring charge on the killer. We know his name and his unit. He ran away into the mango trees forest, he took a gun with him. My police force and my inspector are searching for the killer. We are posted everywhere, but we did not see him yet.”

Kampong Cham SRP MP Mao Monyvann reacted by saying that, prior to the 2008 general election, 3 SRP activists in Memot district had to flee because they were tortured by a thug, and at that time, the thug was not arrested either.

Mao Monyvann said: “Every time, when it is close to the election period, we saw SRP activists being killed, one after another, this is especially the case in Memot district. The identity of the culprits, the killers, is known, but the authority did not take any measure against them. Such conduct leads the culprit to act the same way over and over again against innocent people, these actions are illegal.”

MP Mao Monyvann asked the authority to take the appropriate measure to arrest the culprit and send them to face justice.