More New Political Parties Flooded into Next General Election

[New formed FORNCINPEC, Image www.stasiareport.com]

By Khmer Wathanakam
www.khmerwathanakam.blogspot.com

Since CPP and CNRP have agreed to work together in parliament and created "culture of dialogue" that produced a new NEC and discontent of some radical supporters of CNRP who accused the CNRP of adopting a soft stand against the CPP through a culture of dialogue, many  new political parties have been created over the past six months from some infamous politicians--a return of Prince Ranaridh to lead a new Forncinpec, the People Power Movement of Sourn Serey Ratha, Mom Sonando, a Beehive Radio Station owner, an independent political analyst Kem Ley, and Ms. Lac Sopheap, a former CNRP central committee member who was expelled by the CNRP disciplinary committee.  All these new emerged parties have no viable political strength not only to unseat Hun Sen from power but they will even fail to capture a single seat in the parliament.  Nonetheless, these new political parties have put more pressure on the CNRP more than on the CPP since these small political parties will split votes from CNRP, and they will create a more favorable opportunity for Hun Sen to win the next election again.  Should Khmer continue to play such a political suicide again and again until Cambodia will be wiped out from the world map like Kapuchea Krom and Champa?

All Khmer should learn a bitter lesson in every election since the 1993.  The CPP, which had been installed by Hanoi in 1979, has ruled Cambodia until the 1993 election and it still has managed to control the country until today through violence, intimidation, election fraud, and more critical than those is to break up all Khmer opposition forces by all means-- buying out, granting title and statues, sharing fake power, and encouraging to create and set up more political parties.  Since 1993 election the CPP has never won popular votes 50 per cent or more, but it won most seats in the parliament in every election.  For example in recent election 2013, the CPP got only over 200,000 votes more than the CNRP, but if all the opposition forces combine votes together, they would win by 300,000 votes more than the CPP.  However at the end, the CNRP lost majority in the parliament and more than 500,000 votes wasted by the other smaller parties.  Forncinpec gained nearly 250,000 votes but did not win a single seat in the parliament. A bitter lesson repeated again recalling the 2008 election when the CPP won landslide victory 90 seats in the parliament though it won popular vote less than 50 per cent. In that time the major players --Sam Rainsy, Kem Sokha, Ranarith, and BunChay-- each has his own party to compete with Hun Sen.

Now we have enough and enough lessons to learn from recent election, and we should avoid repeating that mistake.  Can we forgive one another for some mistakes? Can we set aside our personal differences and place national interest above everything? Or we still adhere to Khmer old attitude as Mr. Bun Chanmol, a Khmer nationalist, called, "Chareck Khmer" Khmer attitude which characterized as arrogant, boastful, personal pride, jealousy: no one is better than me, stronger than me, smarter than me... At the end all Khmer lost because we can't work together; we can't unite even though we see a great danger to our nation.  Khmer Issarak never won a major battle against the French colonizers since they were fragmented into many small bands while the Khmer Vietminh won many major battle against the French forces when they had strong leadership and unity under Hanoi supervision and support.  In the same way, now the CPP has its strong leadership and unity under Hanoi tutelage again, and it expects to win every election contest if all Khmer Democrats, Nationalists, Royalists, and Republicans can't work together or fail to create a loose political alliance to unseat a long time dictator Hun Sen who has ruled the country by his own will for nearly three decades and no sign of his loosening his power grip any time soon.

By looking back to the past failures and mistakes, all Khmer who have set up more new political parties should rethink about the way or mean they can help rescue the nation by asking themselves, "can I have ability to organize the mass of people to unseat Hun Sen?"  "Should I waste my time, my resources, and my energy to do thing that I knew impossible?"  "Should I join with other major parties that has more viable force to defeat the CPP first?"  Or "should we come together to talk about political alliance to defeat Hun Sen and rescue our nation first?  For the CNRP though it is only a major opposition party, it should not ignore or turn blind eyes on those small political parties.  The CNRP should reach out to all those parties to convince them to work together in order to rescue our nation by placing national interest above everything and set aside all personal differences until our nation is rescued first.  Don't forget that the 2013 election, those small parties wasted nearly a half a million votes that prevented the CNRP to win the election.

As more political parties flooded into next general election, they benefit  nothing to the nation but the ruling party CPP.   Hun Sen is ready to win a landslide victory again as if in 2008.  Those small parties which plan to run against Hun Sen instead they just help him to stay longer on  power.  Prince Ranaridh, a leader without principle, is more likely handpicked by Hun Sen to lead the new Forncinpec in order to split the votes from CNRP.  As we have seen only Forncinpec was allowed to use Koh Pec Center to conduct their party congress and was fully provided tight security by the government.  Sourn Serey Ratha, a fierce Hun Sen's opponent, used to called for election boycott in 2013 election, and now registered his party to run for the next election too.  Mom Sonando, a patriotic person, but he lacks leadership skill and is hard to get along with others.  He is not a polite person, and no educated people can work with him, for he likes to do thing on his own way.  Only few poor and lower educated people follow him.  For Mr. Kem Ley, he should continue to work as a political and social analyst rather than to jump into politics.  When he plays politics, he loses his reputation and respect from people.  As a political analyst, he already miscalculates his political future.  Only a few radical supporters of CNRP follow him, and he has a slim chance to win a single seat in the parliament.  For Ms. Lac Sopheap, she should spend her time and save her resources and energy for her family rather than waste it for nothing.

The next general election in early 2018 must be dead or alive for our nation, so all opposition forces should stop creating more political parties and set aside all their differences, joining and supporting the CNRP, the only potential and viable force to unseat Hun Sen in the future.  Though currently the party has adopted its culture of dialogue with the CPP but its has never given up its principle of rescuing our nation from dictatorship and foreign domination by bringing true democracy, independence, and social justice to our people.  A culture of dialogue is just a new political strategy of the CNRP in dealing with the CPP in order to avert violent confrontation and to solve some problems peacefully.  The CNRP doesn't want to see a situation in Thailand happens in Cambodia when Gen. Prayuth, a coup leader, bans Ms. Yingluck from running for prime minister post in the future and baseless accuses her of corruption that may end up in jail for years.  Sam Rainsy or Kem Sokha can't afford to stay in jail since a struggle of two countries is so different.  In Thailand, the struggle is between the conservative and elite group with the pro-democracy and rural poor.  No matter who rule Thailand, Their national sovereignty and independence has been fully protected. In contrast, the struggle in Cambodia is between the de facto communist dictatorship and foreign lackeys with the pro-democracy and nationalist group.  Thus all Khmer should unite to unseat a dictator and foreign lackey first then we can solve our differences later.