Election
is becoming more important in the concept of all residents in Cambodia.
Historically, Cambodia already went through the national elections since 1950s
even though it was not described as the proper arrangement while most of
Cambodian did not really understand what the election was for and how the
evaluation criteria should they consider before making decision. Anyway, there
was more than one political party at that time to do the campaign for the
election.
Dividing
by the war period of 1970s, the first national election in 1993 of the second
Kingdom of Cambodia was conducted with the assistance from the United Nations
and the large population of Cambodian going to vote. We could see that two
political parties won at the same time resulting Co-Prime Minister mandate, but
at last in 1997 only one political party stood by and got more supporting vote
again and again until today. Besides the conflict of politics, the social
welfare and economic growth were seen as better than before. However, the most
concern about Cambodia nowadays is related to the corruption, the conflict of
interest, the confiscation of residential housing in various places (Boeung
Kok, Borey Keyla….), the long-term land concession, deforestation, the weak natural
resource and mineral management, social security, the increasing of Vietnamese population
throughout Cambodia, the effect of Xayaburi Dam of the upper Mekong River over
Cambodia in the future, salary, the long-term autocracy and the territorial
border conflict with neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. That’s
it leading towards the slogan “Change or Not” in the 2013 national election
campaign while the new political parties running by Mr. Sam Rainsy just getting
royal pardon as well as more supports in term of the good leadership. Around 1
month of the national election campaign by many political parties, only two
main competitors appear to get strong support from residents, one led by Mr.
Sam Rainsy and other led by current Prime Minister Hun Sen. At the public area,
people asked each other about the election, “Change or not?” becomes more
common among all Cambodian citizens and more people in this mandate seem to get
interesting about the election and participate as the sign to set the destiny
of Cambodia by going to the search for their name in the website of voter list
(www.voterlist.org.kh). Surely, the
campaign just ended yesterday and today all residents are going to do the
movement to their election center. The hope and new perspectives will tell them
which criteria are good and they are looking forward to finding the right
political party for the next mandate.
In
the conclusion, the election is meaning as the way to lead the country by
choosing the best leader in order to find the right solutions for the today important
issues, especially improving social welfare and the strong economic growth. It
has been about 20 years Cambodia has been going on the journey towards the development
in the condition of the world free market and the democracy. Whatever it is,
the lesson from the past political and development situation must be in the
mind of each leader what kind of strategy should be used and how to make those
in reality in compliance with the current situation of Cambodia. Foreign support
is good, but the independence and the creative idea of each leader might be
much better for the sake of Cambodia. “Thanks all for the Best Effort to better
Cambodia!” “Strongly support for the good
leadership towards the better future of Cambodia!” “Yesterday is History!
Tomorrow is Mystery! But Today is a Gift!”
By:
Pok Panhavuth
