<Click on the photos to view a larger size version>Ampil Pram Daeam or the Five Tamarind Trees commune reminds hundreds of thousands of Cambodians of the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge regime during their reign in the mid-seventies. Later Vietnamese troops were deployed in this area to topple the Khmer Rouge and many more years of armed conflicts depleted the forests, claimed more innocent lives and saw the laying of more mines in the rice fields.
Life for the people in the Five Tamarind Trees commune has somewhat improved these days as most of the thousands of landmines have been cleared but the horrors of the past still haunt the people, as the area is still a part of Cambodia’s wild west.
The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), the opposition party in Cambodia, did not win a single seat on the commune council in the first ever local elections held in 2002. The army, a strong and faithful force of the ruling party, and the former soldiers of the Khmer Rouge, who have since joined the armed force, have made this area their fiefdom. It is only in this year that opposition to the ruling party has been possible. This is due to the growing confidence of the SRP provincial and local teams.
The next commune elections are due in April 2007 and it is a date set on the calendar of the SRP activists. Equipped with a just a digital camera, SRP membership application forms, a red ink pad and their individual bottles of drinking water, the SRP activists visited each house in the villages of the Five Tamarind Trees commune. The youth activists and the women representatives of SRP leave no stone unturned despite the hot summer sun. Their task in the next two days is to spread the message of morality, truth and justice, the SRP motto, to the villagers. Their mission is to win the commune for SRP at the next commune election in April 2007.
The campaign to gaining a seat for SRP begins with membership registration in each of the eight villages in this commune (that is expected to be completed) by April 2006. Within the party itself, the holding of the village election by July and commune election in October 2006 to select the party’s best representatives to stand as candidates next year must take place well in advance. This is a very tedious task with just about one year to complete and an even more challenging task as SRP wants to fill as many women candidates as possible to represent their party. Just over 8% or exactly 987 women were elected in the 2002 commune elections.
To date, SRP is the only party in Cambodia to prepare itself for the 2007 commune elections and the 2008 parliamentary polls by initiating internal party reforms: all SRP officials and the party president himself must be elected by the party’s congress. Time for change is now and change for Cambodia is possible only if democracy has a chance at the grassroots level. SRP is willing to take the first step by bringing information on democratic principles to the people at the base and how they are the real masters and the force to bring change for a better future, for their children.
Why do people want change? Women sitting under the shade of their tin-roofed nickel and dime grocery store talk about their inability to read and write. They joke about their “blindness”. They talk about the number of children they continue to bear for the men who are rarely home. The 24 year-old literacy teacher who volunteers her time with Caritas, a Catholic organization working in the North West of Cambodia, scolded the women who have since dropped out of her class. She, herself dropped out of school after four years because of poverty. But she is no longer “blind” and she does not intend to marry any man in the near future. Does she want change? It is a rhetorical question for the young lady but she needs to know who will be the candidates. She voted in 2002 but not much has changed. But she believes there can be change so she will vote again. Will she register as a member of the opposition party? She gives a big smile as she walks off. “I told you, I want change. It will be best if SRP can find women candidates”, she says. In this part of Cambodia, keeping one’s political affiliation unknown is safer, especially if one has chosen the opposition as one’s choice.
Why do people want change? Rushing towards the SRP team, Mrs. Muon Hoeun, a 53 year-old farmer who has been waiting outside of her hut along the dusty road, demands the resignation of the present commune chief, and of the entire commune council. Why should these elected officials stay in their posts if they act like thieves? They steal land from poor farmers. As a widow, Mrs. Muon, makes her living as a day laborer with children to feed and yet the commune chief chased her off her rice field which she purchased years ago, with her hard earned income. He sold her rice field to a rich farmer, threatened her with a gun and even took her to court. This is injustice.
Her story is the same for many hundreds of villagers in the commune. The SRP team put aside the membership registration and explained to her the articles in the land law, her right to land and the need for change if people want to regain their land grabbed by local officials or rich individuals. The SRP team leader was urged to visit the next village where over 1000 families have been threatened and cheated by some military officers who promised to de-mine the forest for them, in exchange for a plot of land to grow crops. The stand off between the villagers and the army officers has led to violence in the last few weeks and more violence is expected. The army officers are clever enough to incite hatred among the villagers.
The SRP team splits up in two so the membership registration can be completed and the urgent request of the villagers is addressed. Before the SRP team leader drove off his motorcycle to the next village, the villagers reminded him of the land mines. “Stay on the main path and avoid un-cleared land”, he was told.
SRP activists spent the night in the Five Tamarind Trees commune. The two days of hard work earned them a total of : 584 new members. The night was spent around a fire with discussions about justice and how to rebuild Cambodia.
The Five Tamarind Trees commune
North-West of Cambodia
A day in the life of an SRP activist
March 16, 2006
Life for the people in the Five Tamarind Trees commune has somewhat improved these days as most of the thousands of landmines have been cleared but the horrors of the past still haunt the people, as the area is still a part of Cambodia’s wild west.
The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), the opposition party in Cambodia, did not win a single seat on the commune council in the first ever local elections held in 2002. The army, a strong and faithful force of the ruling party, and the former soldiers of the Khmer Rouge, who have since joined the armed force, have made this area their fiefdom. It is only in this year that opposition to the ruling party has been possible. This is due to the growing confidence of the SRP provincial and local teams.
The next commune elections are due in April 2007 and it is a date set on the calendar of the SRP activists. Equipped with a just a digital camera, SRP membership application forms, a red ink pad and their individual bottles of drinking water, the SRP activists visited each house in the villages of the Five Tamarind Trees commune. The youth activists and the women representatives of SRP leave no stone unturned despite the hot summer sun. Their task in the next two days is to spread the message of morality, truth and justice, the SRP motto, to the villagers. Their mission is to win the commune for SRP at the next commune election in April 2007.
The campaign to gaining a seat for SRP begins with membership registration in each of the eight villages in this commune (that is expected to be completed) by April 2006. Within the party itself, the holding of the village election by July and commune election in October 2006 to select the party’s best representatives to stand as candidates next year must take place well in advance. This is a very tedious task with just about one year to complete and an even more challenging task as SRP wants to fill as many women candidates as possible to represent their party. Just over 8% or exactly 987 women were elected in the 2002 commune elections.
To date, SRP is the only party in Cambodia to prepare itself for the 2007 commune elections and the 2008 parliamentary polls by initiating internal party reforms: all SRP officials and the party president himself must be elected by the party’s congress. Time for change is now and change for Cambodia is possible only if democracy has a chance at the grassroots level. SRP is willing to take the first step by bringing information on democratic principles to the people at the base and how they are the real masters and the force to bring change for a better future, for their children.
Why do people want change? Women sitting under the shade of their tin-roofed nickel and dime grocery store talk about their inability to read and write. They joke about their “blindness”. They talk about the number of children they continue to bear for the men who are rarely home. The 24 year-old literacy teacher who volunteers her time with Caritas, a Catholic organization working in the North West of Cambodia, scolded the women who have since dropped out of her class. She, herself dropped out of school after four years because of poverty. But she is no longer “blind” and she does not intend to marry any man in the near future. Does she want change? It is a rhetorical question for the young lady but she needs to know who will be the candidates. She voted in 2002 but not much has changed. But she believes there can be change so she will vote again. Will she register as a member of the opposition party? She gives a big smile as she walks off. “I told you, I want change. It will be best if SRP can find women candidates”, she says. In this part of Cambodia, keeping one’s political affiliation unknown is safer, especially if one has chosen the opposition as one’s choice.
Why do people want change? Rushing towards the SRP team, Mrs. Muon Hoeun, a 53 year-old farmer who has been waiting outside of her hut along the dusty road, demands the resignation of the present commune chief, and of the entire commune council. Why should these elected officials stay in their posts if they act like thieves? They steal land from poor farmers. As a widow, Mrs. Muon, makes her living as a day laborer with children to feed and yet the commune chief chased her off her rice field which she purchased years ago, with her hard earned income. He sold her rice field to a rich farmer, threatened her with a gun and even took her to court. This is injustice.
Her story is the same for many hundreds of villagers in the commune. The SRP team put aside the membership registration and explained to her the articles in the land law, her right to land and the need for change if people want to regain their land grabbed by local officials or rich individuals. The SRP team leader was urged to visit the next village where over 1000 families have been threatened and cheated by some military officers who promised to de-mine the forest for them, in exchange for a plot of land to grow crops. The stand off between the villagers and the army officers has led to violence in the last few weeks and more violence is expected. The army officers are clever enough to incite hatred among the villagers.
The SRP team splits up in two so the membership registration can be completed and the urgent request of the villagers is addressed. Before the SRP team leader drove off his motorcycle to the next village, the villagers reminded him of the land mines. “Stay on the main path and avoid un-cleared land”, he was told.
SRP activists spent the night in the Five Tamarind Trees commune. The two days of hard work earned them a total of : 584 new members. The night was spent around a fire with discussions about justice and how to rebuild Cambodia.
The Five Tamarind Trees commune
North-West of Cambodia
A day in the life of an SRP activist
March 16, 2006
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