week 572

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 572

Another five years term starts for the National Assembly and for the government – but it does not seem to start with a similar enthusiastic expectation than at former election times – especially in 1993, and still in 1998. In spite of different hopes expressed by the mutually not cooperating parties who could not expect to make it close to the top – there is now some talk that they discuss common actions and approaches. Like before any previous elections, mutual cooperation was not on their agenda, and so they received their divided answers. The Cambodian People’s Party continued their trend to be the majority party even more so than before.

But will there be much change in the political field? One newspaper reported what many people seem to expect anyway: that the new government might not change the old structures much. Only the future will show whether there will be again a coalition government between the Cambodian People’s Party and Funcinpec. The bigger power has already announced who in the smaller – possible – partner’s leadership is acceptable, and who is not.

But in terms of formalities, it is premature to talk about the election results – only preliminary figures were released by the National Election Committee shortly after the elections, and they were almost completely confirmed by the presumptive final results released on Saturday – pending formal complaints by political parties by Tuesday “to the National Election Committee or to the Constitutional Council,” as it is reported.

There seems to be confusion – not only on election day, when a friend called me in the afternoon and said that his mother could not vote, because the officers at her voting station claimed that she had already voted (though she had not, and she tried to prove it, as she had no ink mark on her fingers), and another friend called and said that only one among three family members was able to vote (their names were no longer on the list, though they had voted at the same place last time and had not moved their residence). Who will be encouraged to complain, when there are two different procedures proposed, and there is a press report that the Constitutional Council has already rejected a complaint by a party, arguing that the complaint is not within the competency of the Constitutional Council.

Nobody has clear figures how many people were prevented to vote – friends who told me about their mishap were even more frustrated that it was so difficult and not obvious and transparent how to register a simple complaint. To foster the growth of a democratic society requires also that the relevant institutions invite and help the citizens to use them. We look forward to see how the political parties and the institutions of the state, created from the voter’s votes, will use the coming five years – and not only the election campaign at the end – to show what lessons were learned.

But for this to happen, it is also necessary that the citizens and the society, and especially the media, are actively promoting such learning throughout the coming five years.

There are many specific opportunities for society to show interest and for citizens to raise their voices – we just take some examples form the past week:

• Was there an improvement, or was there no improvement at the examinations? There are different voices: the Ministry of Education said that the High School Diploma Examinations proceeded smoothly, while the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association claimed there was no improvement – test results were again leaked and sold.

• “Siem Reap customs officers seized pigs from Thailand, then they released them after being bribed” – there are often similar allegations reported; in most cases we do not know whether they are true or not. It would be interesting to see a systematic record of all similar reports – and an equally systematic follow-up about what happened later.

• “Citizens are concerned about Vietnamese boats entering to fish illegally in the Khmer Sea” – but some weeks ago we carried a report that Cambodian officials at the same area get bribes from the foreign fishing enterprises not to raise objections. A society cannot have it both ways at the same time – but who will dare to start to handle both problems at the same time?
• “Cambodia and Kuwait may start cultural exchange programs – there should be exchanges of delegations on different levels so that citizens of both countries learn to know each other, in order to build up cooperation.” – Given the many years of isolation and later of limited international exposure, and the degree of international misunderstandings, such efforts – on different levels! – need to receive every possible encouragement and support.
• “Cambodia and Thailand agree to negotiate again on 18 August 2008” – but will these negotiations continue to be covered quite differently in the Thai and in the Khmer press? In Cambodia with regular reference to old documents, and in Thailand pointing to agreements and detailed Cambodian commitments signed in June, to supersede some of the old documents.
• “Thailand contacted France, Japan, the United States of America, China, and India, to tie the Khmer legs regarding the border dispute” – a surprising comment. Nothing similar was said when the Cambodian government approached the members of ASEAN and considered to appeal to the UN Security Council.
• “A son of a high ranking official drove a car and hit a man to death; then he escaped” – there were strange related reports, that the police removed the number plate from the wrecked car, assisting to hide the identity of the driver. The Prime Minister had announced repeatedly in the past that nobody, whatever the rank or position, should avoid being called to justice. In the past, it did not work always.
• “The attempt of a journalist, who was hit by a military police officer in Sihanoukville, failed a second time to lodge a complaint” – some societies, concerned with justice, have created special institutions to listen to grievances, when the normal structures do not work. Might an office of an Ombudsman also have an important role for Cambodia? It cannot be forever that in a society to be governed by law very often “might is right.”