Cambodia

Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Fri Mar 17, 2017 7:44 pm

Cambodia: towards single party dictatorship?
http://www.newmandala.org/cambodia-towa ... tatorship/
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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:28 pm

Hun Sen’s grip starts to slip

The Cambodian strongman’s party keeps control

But in local elections the opposition makes a strong showing

THE day after Cambodia held its five-yearly local elections, both sides could claim some kind of victory. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) celebrated because, according to preliminary results—which both sides appear to accept—it won 1,162 of the country’s 1,646 communes.

But the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) did remarkably well, increasing the communes it will now control more than tenfold, from 40 to 471. Unofficial totals suggest that it won 46% of the popular vote, up from the 30% the opposition won in 2012.

The CPP eked out a slim majority with 51%. Voter turnout was an impressive 89.5%. Final results will not be released until June 25th.

As a general election looms next year, the results have given cheer to the CNRP. Yim Sovann, a party spokesman, notes that in the past the opposition’s share of the vote in national elections outpaced its local showing by 15 percentage points.

On that pattern, he says the CNRP—formed when two opposition parties merged and appeared on the ballot in 2013—should get three-fifths of the votes in 2018, winning power for the first time.

Yet hang on. Even if the opposition wins, the CPP may not cede power. Hun Sen, the country’s strongman, has been in charge since 1985, making him one of the longest-serving leaders in the world. The CNRP believes that the ruling party rigged the 2013 election, in which the CNRP appeared to fare well.

Since then Mr Hun Sen has led a broad crackdown on dissent and civil society. Opposition parliamentarians have been beaten. One critic, Kem Ley, was murdered (a crime Mr Hun Sen condemned).

Though the election itself was largely peaceful, during the campaign Mr Hun Sen threatened to “eliminate 100 or 200 people”, and warned that “war will happen” if his party loses. His defence minister threatened to “smash the teeth” of protesters.

Naly Pilorge, who heads LICADHO, a Cambodian human-rights watchdog, alleges that soldiers were trucked out to vote in contested rural communes, village chiefs told people whom to vote for, and some polling stations barred observers and counted ballots behind closed doors.

Much now rests on how the CNRP handles its new influence. The party pursued a risky strategy: Kem Sokha, its boss, vowed to boost commune budgets from the current average of $57,000 a year to $500,000, equivalent to around a fifth of the national budget.

Yet the CPP controls that budget. Mr Yim Sovann gingerly describes this arrangement as “linking campaign promises to national elections”—in other words, trusting voters to understand that the pledge will be fulfilled only if the CNRP wins next year.

That may prove challenging. A small party allied with Mr Hun Sen has already vowed to open communal offices “to provide consultation to people to demonstrate” against communal leaders who fail to carry out their campaign promises.

Mr Hun Sen’s star may be fading, particularly among young Cambodians sick of one-party rule. But do not expect him to go gently into that good night. “We’re glad nothing violent happened on election day,” says Ms Pilorge. There was a lot of intimidation beforehand, however, she says; and she expects a lot more in future.

Source: The Economist
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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:29 pm

Cambodia Daily newspaper closes in government tax row
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41141473
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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:19 pm

Cambodia Formally Charges Opposition Leader Kem Sokha with Treason
http://time.com/4926792/cambodia-opposi ... d=homepage
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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Sat Oct 07, 2017 5:36 pm

Cambodia opposition politician Mu Sochua 'feared arrest'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41518527
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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Sat Nov 18, 2017 8:22 pm

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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Fri Dec 22, 2017 10:17 pm

Dark days

Cambodia is systematically squashing all forms of dissent

Unions, NGOs and environmental activists are all feeling the squeeze

“THE logical approach now”, reckons Naly Pilorge of LICADHO, a Cambodian human-rights watchdog, “would be to continue attacking.” She is talking about a crackdown on all forms of political dissent launched in August by Hun Sen, who has been prime minister for 32 years and says he intends to remain in the job for another decade.

Not content with securing a ban on the main opposition party, he is now persecuting unions, NGOs and anyone else who criticises the government.

The scale of the crackdown is unprecedented, says Ou Virak, a political analyst who once worked at the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, which the government recently threatened to close. Gatherings of more than five people are banned.

All non-governmental groups and associations need to notify local officials before organising any kind of activity, according to a directive from the Ministry of the Interior disseminated in October.

Legislation on unions, passed almost 20 months ago, makes re-registration almost impossible for the handful of independent outfits that exist in Cambodia. Without proper registration, in turn, they cannot represent their members in disputes at the country’s Arbitration Council. Efforts to resolve matters at the council are required legally before a union can strike.

Sar Mora of the Cambodian Food and Service Workers’ Federation, which has more than 4,000 members, describes baser forms of intimidation too. At meetings government goons take photographs and ask for copies of the agenda. Police watching the union’s rackety offices burst in if they see too many scooters parked outside.

“Sometimes we call a meeting and workers are afraid to come to the meeting. We lost membership. And it is so hard to organise new members now,” he explains.

Environmental activists challenging the looting of natural resources are another target. The loss of tree cover accelerated more in Cambodia than in any other country between 2001 and 2014, the result of illegal logging, gold-mining and the seizure of land from villagers for rubber plantations.

But groups that point out such destruction, and the harm it causes locals, risk official ire. Two members of Mother Nature, a grassroots environmental network, were arrested in September after filming ships they suspected of involvement in illegal sand-mining operations.

Even reporting on resistance to the crackdown is difficult. In the past four months the government has closed two American-funded radio-news services, dozens of broadcasting frequencies and one of the country’s best independent newspapers on trumped-up tax charges.

Many correspondents have fled; others nurse cheap beers in Phnom Penh’s bars and fret over finding new employment. They are the lucky ones. Two former radio journalists, Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, face 15 years in prison for supplying information which “undermines national defence”.

The voices of ordinary Cambodians are kept quiet too. Social-media posts calling for political change land their authors—frequently students—in prison.

Many of the organisations and individuals targeted by the government have had links of some kind with America. The United States is therefore making more of a fuss about the repression than Japan and the European Union, other big donors to Cambodia.

On December 6th America announced visa restrictions for anyone deemed to be “undermining Cambodian democracy”. This follows a move last month to cut funding for Cambodia’s election committee.

Mr Hun Sen has little reason to worry. The economy is thriving, tax revenues are soaring and friendship with China provides diplomatic and financial comfort. (Chinese businesses, the largest source of foreign investment, had pumped a cumulative $12bn into the country by the end of 2016.) His party will romp home in elections in July. He may even feel secure enough to loosen up a bit before the vote.

In the long run, however, Alex Gonzalez-Davidson of Mother Nature is optimistic. Membership of his “ragtag army” increased by a third after the arrests of those filming the sand barges. Cambodians may not have any outlet for displeasure with the regime, but that does not mean they are blind to, or tolerant of, its faults.

Source: The Economist
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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Mon Feb 26, 2018 6:40 pm

Cambodia’s Ruling Party Just Held Senate Elections. It Won Every Seat
http://time.com/5175197/cambodia-senate ... d=homepage
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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Mon Jun 18, 2018 3:45 pm

Cambodia Prince Ranariddh injured and wife killed in car crash
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44511982
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Re: Cambodia

Postby behappyalways » Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:42 pm

2018.08.11【文茜世界周報】 柬埔寨參院大選 一場沒有對手的選舉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byIjyY1 ... -pKgdwMSAU
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