In less than an hour, ruling party members of Cambodia’s National
Assembly yesterday passed contentious amendments to the Law on Political
Parties that could see their chief rivals rapidly dissolved, a step
observers said was the latest in a string of legislative attacks on
rights and freedoms in the Kingdom.
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday sat impassive at the plenary session –
which was boycotted by the Cambodia National Rescue Party – and remained
silent on the widely criticised changes, which would see parties
disbanded if their leadership hold criminal convictions, a routine state
of affairs for CNRP members given a litany of court cases widely
believed politically motivated.
Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who quit the CNRP last week in
anticipation of yesterday’s vote, took to Twitter proclaiming that the
swift passage of the law “marks one of the darkest days for Cambodia
since the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991”.
“The [international] community must address the fact
that they paid for a democratic system which is now lurching towards a
one-party state,” he said.
Reached yesterday in Paris, Rainsy defended his former party’s no-show
at the vote, saying “there was no point in them showing up for a CPP
rubber-stamping”.
“At this stage, the option to dissolve the CNRP is still in the realm of
threat. It would be reckless in the extreme, and in complete disregard
of the popular will, for the CPP to implement it,” he added.
In response to a question posed by Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin
during yesterday’s session, asking if parties could still be dissolved
if a lawmaker was stripped of their leadership role, fellow lawmaker
Chheang Vun responded: “If this law is issued and a party has a problem,
it is necessary that [we] must enforce it absolutely according to the
meaning of this law.”
Opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua yesterday said the “limited debate” was
why her party refused to “legitimise” the process with their attendance.
“The huge, huge danger is that this law kills democracy in Cambodia,
this law divides the nation,” she said, adding that even a woman wearing
a black shirt on a Monday, as with recent “Black Monday” protests,
could be deemed a “threat to national security”.
“It is so very clear that they are using the judiciary to determine the fate of the political parties.”
Other small political parties, such as the Grassroots Democratic Party
and the Khmer Power Party, yesterday slammed the changes, saying they
gave unprecedented powers to the Ministry of Interior and violated the
spirit of the constitution.
“This government is not walking the road to democracy, it is on the way
to a dictatorship,” said the KPP’s Sourn Serey Ratha, himself previously
convicted, then pardoned, for “treason”.
That sentiment was echoed by Chak Sopheap, executive director of the
Cambodian Center for Human Rights, who said the amendments to the 1997
law “could sound the death knell for multiparty democracy in Cambodia”,
and that the human rights ramifications were “grave”.
Sopheap said in the wake of the shock success of the CNRP in the 2013
elections, the CPP has adopted legal tactics – including last year’s
Trade Union Law and 2015’s law governing NGOs, as well as imprisoning
political activists and human rights defenders – to restrict fundamental
freedoms.
“The slew of regressive legislation, which has characterised the fifth
mandate of the National Assembly, constitutes an attempt to legitimise a
campaign designed to silence critical voices and legitimate
opposition,” she said via email.
Phil Robertson, of Human Rights Watch, yesterday said the laws signalled
“the final consolidation of absolute power in the hands of Hun Sen” and
“the triumph of dictatorship”.
“The silence of foreign governments and aid donors to this move has been
profoundly disheartening, reflecting a failure to stand up for
democratic principles and human rights when facing a determined,
dictatorial plan,” he said in an email.
The US Embassy issued a statement saying it was “deeply concerned” with
the step and that banning political parties would call into question the
legitimacy of upcoming elections.
National Assembly spokesman Leng Peng Long, meanwhile, defended the 22
changes, which he said would create “a proper political atmosphere”.
“In every country, the majority parties are the passers of the law,” he
said, adding that if another party won in 2018, they too could alter the
law.
Meas Sokchea and Erin Handley
The Phnom Penh Post, Tue, 21 February 2017
The Phnom Penh Post, Tue, 21 February 2017
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