Scant jobs in politics for youths

Sin Chan Pov Rozeth, 25, campaigns in her native O’Char commune, in Battambang province, ahead of June’s commune election. She now serves as deputy commune chief. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Monday, 13 August 2012
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

Young people rallied to support political parties at June’s commune election, but few have been rewarded with paid internal positions as a result, election watchdog Comfrel says.

The Kingdom’s political parties are lagging when it comes to developing policies that reward young people for wanting to be involved in party politics, despite many of them being highly educated, according to a Comfrel statement released on Friday.

“A number of teenagers . . . were activists for political parties during the commune election and the number of teenagers who voted was a much larger number than the previous [election],” it says. “However, the activities of youths have no bearing on the decisions political parties are making.”

According to Comfrel’s data from the June 3 ballot, 54 per cent of Cambodians voted in the commune election.

Cambodia to host 6th general assembly of Asia Pacific political parties

March 02, 2010
Xinhua

Phnom Penh has been selected to host the 6th General Assembly of the International Conference on Asia Pacific Political Parties in December 2010, official news agency AKP reported on Tuesday.

The decision has been made during the 12th Standing Committee Meeting of the International Conference on Asia Pacific Political Parties, Sok An, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in Charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers, told reporters on Monday upon his return from the meeting held in Katmandu, Nepal.

Around 100 political parties are expected to participate in the General Assembly, said Sok An, stressing that this will help increase Cambodia's prestige on the international arena.

During his stay in Nepal, Sok An met with Nepalese Prime Minister who invited Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to pay an official visit to his country in an appropriate time.

Parties criticize the setup of the official TV election campaign

22 May 2008
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek

At the end of the meeting with political parties, the NEC announced that, based on an agreement with TVK, political parties will have 8 minutes of TV time to defend their program for the general election.

When Im Suosdey, the NEC president, invited private radio and TV station owners to discuss about broadcasting time that could be sold to the various political parties, none of the station representatives showed up at the meeting.

TVK decided to provide 100 minutes of broadcast time for the election campaign to be divided among the registered parties. “Each party will have approximately 8 minutes, this is 3 minutes mote than in the previous elections,” Tep Nytha, the NEC secretary-general said.

Several parties proposed for a change in the official campaign program. The secretary-general of the Khmer-American Party asked for the cancellation of the broadcasting of the “round table” program and that it is replaced by a face-to-face debate instead. During this program, each political party would send a representative to read its program in front of the camera.

SRP MP Yim Sovann indicated that he did not wish to participate in the “round table” program and that he would prefer a campaign spot during the allotted broadcast time.

These two proposals were rejected by the NEC because the spot broadcast and the “round table” was already planned separately.

Several parties said that the 8 minutes they had would be insufficient.

“TV viewers cannot concentrate long on the same subject. The TV campaign now lasts 20 minutes per day, from Monday to Friday. We are currently discussing with the National Democratic Institute to set up a 60-minute daily broadcast. With the 100-minute that we dedicate on top of that, and that would re-broadcasted the next day, it will be 180-minute per day, this does not even count the re-broadcasting. Wouldn’t that be enough?” TVK’s Kem Gunnawadh retorted.

“Don’t be afraid to annoy the viewers. Just give us as much time as possible,” Ban Sophal, secretary-general of the Justice Party asked.

SRP’s Yim Sovann also asked that the broadcasting of the TV campaign be held between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM.

“You cannot cut the news time slot,” Kem Gunnawadh replied. For the latter the broadcasting of the election campaign cannot start before 8:15 PM.

Cambodian Election 2008: Natural Alliances

Sunday, November 25, 2007
Op-Ed by jayakhmer
Posted at http://www.modernprogressivekhmer.blogspot.com

As election is near, politicians are scrambling to find ways to ensure their place at the national political arena. This political maneuvering has happened before. It was done in the façade of national unity where political parties struck deals to form an alliance in order to face a stronger opponent. In the end, natural alliance emerged and politics was just as business as usual.

If we are not examining the issue carefully, it can be very confusing. Politicians tend to use undefined political terms to confuse people.

I am going to focus on two operating terms that being tossed back and forth out there – “the Royalists” and “the Democrats”. Who are the royalists and who are the democrats?

Here are the main parties to be contested in the 2008 election: The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), The Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP), The FUNCINPEC Party (FUNCINPEC), and The Human Rights Party (HRP).

Let us examine the term “Royalists” first. Under the current constitution, aren’t we all royalists?

The answer to that question is a resounding “Yes”. Legally, we are royalists because Cambodia is a kingdom. As it states in article 131, the constitution is the highest law of the land within which it devotes at least 23 articles defining the role of the king.

If all of us are legally royalists, it is safe to draw a conclusion that all political parties are royalists.

Be careful. Politically speaking, not all royalist parties are equal.

For a moment one would think that FUNCINPEC and or the NRP have the credential or even the blood line, if you will, to be the legitimate royalist parties.

If you think so, you couldn’t be further from the truth. CPP, as it turns out, is the most royalist political party of all. CPP leaders evidently were just handsomely awarded with honors and titles that are too long and complicated to state them here.

Do not be fooled by political rhetoric of last minute scrambling designed to achieve a short term gain.

If alliance to be formed, it would be natural for CPP, FUNCINPEC, and the NRP to be together.

Who are the democrats?

Well, technically speaking all political parties are democratic. All seem to adhere to a certain democratic process to run their parties. As far as alliance is concerned, without the alliance of royalists, the only main parties left are the SRP and the HRP.

I also want to be cautioned here. Not all democrats are the same even when they all claim to be one.

If one of the democratic processes requires a transparency of elections within a party structure, the SRP and the HRP would meet that requirement. In principle, both parties are advocate for more democratic reform within the government.

Although the HRP is too new to have any track records that can be used to evaluate its political performance, it is safe to assume that the party is in the same mold as that of the SRP.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense, and it is natural for both parties to form an alliance of democrats if the two parties can compromise and find common ground to work together.

Between the two camps - royalists and democrats, politically parties should reject any flaw and unnatural alliances because unnatural alliances only last right after the next election.

If natural alliances are formed, this would give Cambodian people a clear choice to choose in the next election. This also takes away the guessing game out of election politics.

The only question we need to ask is that will CPP be willing to work or the share power with FUNCINPEC and the NRP when it is conceivable that CPP may already have enough votes to meet the simple majority requirement to form the next government without both FUNCINPEC and the NRP.

Over 20 Cambodian political parties to join general election in 2008

September 05, 2007

There will be over 20 political parties of Cambodia to join the general election to be held in July 2008, local media reported Wednesday.

"Over 20 of all 46 political parties which officially registered at the Interior Ministry will join the general election in 2008," Tep Nitha, Secretary General of the National Election Committee (NEC) was quoted by the Koh Santepheab newspaper as saying.

The names of 650,000 voters will be omitted from the voters' list because some of them had double names, died or changed their addresses, he said.

"We are trying to clean the voters' list for general election in 2008," he added.

According to an NEC report, over 7.8 million of all 14 million Cambodian people have rights to vote in the commune council election in 2007.

Source: Xinhua

US Institutes reject newspaper report

Monday, August 20, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Two US institutes, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), issued a joint statement regarding a report published by a local newspaper indicating that these two institutes helped strengthen the NRP, to the envy of the SRP. These two US organizations clarified that they did not provide any financial help to any political party because it would be against Cambodian law prohibiting them to provide financial contribution to any political party in Cambodia. The two organizations said that they provide support to various political parties through setting up training seminars, and providing them with research information. All these activities were conducted under a political plurality framework, or they were conducted for each party separately. The two organizations regret to see the publication of such information.

The CPP is taking steps toward allowing more openness and decentralization of decision-making within its organization???

Friday, August 17, 2007
Cambodia begins its journey to democracy

By BOB BROWN
Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana, USA)

A tragic echo of the Vietnam War was the genocide of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in neighboring Cambodia, four years immediately following the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, where an estimated 1.7 million people, or about 20 percent of the country's population, were killed. Cambodia's tragic history has made its journey toward democracy a long one.

On a recent trip to Cambodia, I was invited by a U.S. Agency for International Development-sponsored program to make the case for democracy in a country that has traveled a rough road to achieve it.

I spoke to approximately 50 members of Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party, as well as the top leadership of two smaller "royalist" parties, both with ties to the family of Cambodia's aging "King Father," Norodom Sihanouk.

King Sihanouk was a personal friend of Vietnam-era Sen. Mike Mansfield. I know from personal experience that the Mansfield name is still magic in much of Asia, and although I was unable to present them to him directly, the king thankfully accepted gifts I brought for him from the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana.

He responded to me in writing, characterizing Mansfield as "a very great statesman I greatly admire, and a great and true friend to our country and our people (who) with his usual humility and patience worked hard to stop the war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia."

Democracy and peaceful change

I took Sen. Mansfield's efforts in the region 35 years ago as inspiration while preparing for my democracy lectures. With co-presenter John Willis of the International Republican Institute, I gave the Cambodian political party leaders an overview of the democratic options open to them, particularly after a long history of authoritarian rule.

I reminded the party leaders that change is ongoing and constant. I told them that democracy is the only system of government that makes peaceful change possible. I told them that if peaceful change is impossible then violent change becomes inevitable.

I pointed out that the instability caused when governments are violently and unpredictably overthrown makes planning for a positive future impossible. Countries that are democracies are good places to live, I explained, because the stability made possible by peaceful change creates the environment for economic growth and a higher standard of living.

I emphasized that a free and independent press and open and honest elections are as essential to making democracy work as democracy is to stability. And I concluded that an independent judiciary is necessary to the protection of human rights, which are fundamental to citizen participation within the democracy.

Taking steps toward openness

I doubt that Cambodia will become a textbook example of a stable democracy any time very soon, but I think we succeeded in planting a seed that may in time grow. The Cambodian political parties, including the CPP, are taking steps toward allowing more openness and decentralization of decision-making within their organizations.

Cambodian civilization extends much further back in time than ours. They have been governed by monarchs, French colonialists and communists. They have no tradition of government by the consent of the governed. Democracy will come to them, in a way that fits them. Democratization of political parties is not "Western-style" democratic government characterized by competition between open and free political parties, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

In the continuum of history, the participation and stability that "party democracy" might enable is dramatic progress from the "Killing Fields" of Pol Pot just three decades ago. I hope to have had a small part in Cambodia's journey toward democracy.

Bob Brown, is a senior fellow at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Missoula. He formerly served as a Montana legislator and secretary of state.