Opposition is concerned about the loss of democracy in Cambodia

SRP MPs press conference held on 20 August (Photo: Ly Meng Huor, RFI)

20 August 2010
By Ly Meng Huor
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Komping Puoy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On Friday 20 August, a group of SRP MPs expressed their great concerns by declaring that Cambodia could lose her democracy. SRP MP Son Chhay indicated that the 4th mandate National Assembly (NA) is placed under the thumb of the ruling party and opposition MPs are discriminated and have no duties in the NA at all. Furthermore, government officials do not properly respect the letter of the law when it comes to replying questions asked by MPs, either in writing or verbally.

The concerns over the loss of democracy in Cambodia stems from the fact that SRP MPs saw that the NA is losing its role. The current NA is becoming much weaker and it also lost its role in following up the work performed by the government, for example, pushing the government to accept its responsibility, to perform its work efficiently and with transparency, all of these were not done properly at all.

In this morning press conference, Son Chhay, the SRP whip, indicated that the 4th mandate NA has been organized differently from previous mandates. The NA is now under the organization control and the exclusive leadership of the ruling party, contrary to any NA in a multipartite democratic nation. Furthermore, the role of the opposition MPs in the NA is not respected and the opposition is also facing discrimination as well.

In today’s statement, the SRP indicated that government officials do not properly respect Article 96 of the constitution in their response to questions asked by MPs, both in writing and verbally. At the same time, the government continues to hide public documents, including trade agreements, the grants and concessions, the various development plans, and the government made decision without any transparency and without the participation from the representatives of the people.

According to Son Chhay, for the past 17 years, starting from 1993 until now, only 6 ministers came to provide verbal replies to the NA and some ministers do not even bother to reply to questions asked by the MPs. In 2009, the opposition sent questions to the government through 132 letters, but the government only replied to 39 of them. In the eight months of 2010, the SRP MPs sent 47 letters to the government, but only 15 of them received an answer.

Nevertheless, Tith Sothea, the mouthpiece of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit (PQRU) of the Council of Ministers, indicated that in the past, government officials usually replied in writing to the questions raised by MPs according to the law, and sometimes, they even provided verbal reply to the NA floor.

Tith Sothea added that the CPP government received the majority of the voice in the NA, and that it is leading the country democratically (sic!) by respecting the rights of the people (sic!), the owner of the votes, according to democracy (sic!), and that it is not a lawless dictatorial regime (sic!).