The Concern of the Citizens, "Time to Change"

Political instability is the most concerned issue to all Cambodian residents. War, political conflict and economic crisis in the past along with border conflict, environmental problems and social issues still happen in this country catching the citizens' attention very much and make them so worried from day to day. 

Recently, the accuse of election fraud and the demonstration against CPP by CNRP get Cambodia down in term of the political stability because of the unbearable situation over the poor such as residential housing confiscation mainly in Phnom Penh and some parts of rural area, especially the flow of Vietnamese into Cambodia. Even though that is a relief that both parties has been on the table, there is still no resolution to solve the issue because of the different concepts; one still demands to find the truth with the equal power in the government while the other wish to run the government with today result in agreement with the king. Honestly speaking, the main trend for the change in the election poll is because of the running previous government without caring much about the social complaint on the government services and individually too powerful in the line of government officials. How could residents satisfy to such government in term of democracy and free market? Have the government officials ever asked themselves on how effectiveness and efficiency their leadership and management is? Do they serve the country with nationalism and best effort? If they do so, why such bad service still occurring in today government from low level to high level? Just an example, there is a comparison on Facebook between the service charge for doing passport in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia resulting the Cambodia in the highest pricing and long time service to get just this passport. Do they ever know how hurt Cambodian themselves get to see such comparison while the government is still too proud of their power? Cambodian has suffered from the war and political conflicts over decades, especially the bad sight from some foreign nationalities over Cambodia today. Who will take responsibility for this? All Cambodians will take this as the part of this nation. In the clear perspectives, the government is admirable from the start to stabilize the country and choose the right option for the economic development (free market); however, it is so disappointed with the corruption, the decrease of national resources, nepotism, the lack of food security check, the remarkable downward trend of food supply (fish), the rocketing number of Vietnamese plus many long term economic concessions, the low quality of educational system comparing to neighboring countries, and the bigger gap between the rich and the poor. This causes the political opportunism to CNRP newly created to get more votes from her residents. In contrast, CNRP shows the promise to people that they will change current situation and solve all the problems including the large number of illegal Vietnamese throughout Cambodia. On the other hand, there is also not fully trust to CNRP with just their promise; more and more people votes for them in exchange of the decreasing power of today government officials and the change for better; some regrets because of the view on the some political chaos lately. It is not sure for CNRP to be the best for Cambodia; it might be just the stepping stone for Cambodia to change for better meaning it does not matter whether to change the today leader or not, but the main purpose is to make the change to Cambodia in overall. 

In the conclusion, government themselves should reconsider for what kind of weakness they have and make a change of those in term of better Cambodian society and government service. It is not only simple criticism, but it is surely the complaint for better. Do not ever think that only you have the power of authority, but people are the main power of the country's leadership! You just get role to serve them, not to use them for yourself and family member! Similarly, CNRP should choose the right decision not only for power, but for better! The demonstration as well as other aims to hinder the the establishment of the new government is not the wise choice. Please accept the possibility and go on for better solution!

The National Election Day in Cambodia 2013 and Temporary Result

July 28, 2013 was the important day of the fifth national election process in Cambodia. After the unusual movement throughout Cambodia on Saturday to the election center was completed, the vote was done on Sunday from 7:00AM to 3:00PM with the cold weather and raining. One by one came to the center, but there were not many people during 7:00AM; they came to vote later until 3:00PM. Both election committee and voters cooperated very well in most of the election center. However, only some centers encountered the conflict because of the attendance of Vietnamese voters that caused Cambodian residents to get very angry, especially a center in Phnom Penh. There is no clear information yet regarding to this issue why Vietnamese voters appeared in these centers. Even though there was the bad information on the conflict in Phnom Penh, the other election centers completed their mission and got the vote from most of citizens until 3:00PM. Then the election committee in each center along with other stakeholder like COMFREL counted the vote for 8 political parties; only two parties showed the strong support are CPP (Cambodian People Party) and CNRP (Cambodian National Rescue Party). Within the Sangkat and Commune level, there is the tough competition of the vote in each province-city. At last, the temporary result from Bayon TV in the evening of July 28, 2013 showed that the winner is CPP for most of province-city while CNRP won only in 5 province-city such Phnom Penh, Kompong Cham, Kandal, Prey Veng, and Kompong Speu. It should be noticed that CNRP seems to get more support in the residential center than CPP. For instance, CNRP won the election at Sangkat Svay Por of Battambang Town. In short, there will be the real figure for who is the winner after the verification completed and internationally acknowledged as well as the right solution for the current issue occurring during the election process. Anyway, CNRP and CPP will be expected to hold hand for the next mandate since they seem to get similar seat; the political stability and strong economic growth are the things the residents wish for after this election. Personally, there is an appeal for all to use the peaceful method to solve any political conflicts for the benefits of Cambodia. “Please refer to the past experience before you take any actions!”

By: Pok Panhavuth

Ending of National Election Campaign and Going to Vote in Cambodia 2013

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