Cambodia: A Year of Consolidation

Summary

Cambodia has, time and again, proved wrong the doomsmen who predicted that the coalition government formed by the two former battlefield enemies, the royalist FUNCINPEC (National United Front for an Independent, Peaceful, Neutral and Co-operative Cambodia) party and the former communist Cambodian People's Party (CPP), would collapse within six months of its formation in 1993. The coalition royal government held firm throughout 1995, and betrayed no sign of self-destructing. The odd dissenters who broke ranks with the coalition were quickly ousted, as was witnessed in the removal of outspoken Finance Minister Sam Rainsy from the government in 1994, and his subsequent removal from the party in May 1995, and the National Assembly in June 1995.

DOMESTIC POLITICS AND SECURITY

Democracy versus Authoritarianism

In an unequal battle between the forces of democracy and authoritarianism, the latter prevailed. While many within the CPP and FUNCINPEC viewed the growing strength of the coalition as a sign of national unity and a basis for economic growth, equally many among the smaller opposition parties fretted that a strong coalition was a harbinger of an emergent dictatorship that showed scant respect for the country's fragile democracy and press freedom.

A strong coalition, in turn, made the likelihood of a coup quite remote as it prevented a single individual from monopolizing political power. This led to the question: Who really ran Cambodia? It was not a marriage of equals. The CPP was the dominant force and FUNCINPEC the weaker partner in a power equation that was likely to be skewed even more in the former's favour on account of further expected defections from the latter. The CPP and FUNCINPEC shared the ministries equally between them, but the former controlled much of the provincial administration.

Stung by media criticism of its policies, the government in December 1995 issued a statement listing its achievements and accusing the press and some non-governmental organizations of slander by “wrongly interpreting facts … in a bid to tarnish the reputation of the royal government and the Cambodian people”.