Cambodia: A Decade after the Coup

Summary

The year 2007 began with a controversy that threatened the credibility of the already fragile Khmer Rouge tribunal and ended with the high-profile arrests of surviving senior Khmer Rouge leaders — Noun Chea, Ieng Sary, his wife Ieng Thirith, and Khieu Samphan. In many aspects, these developments, marked by fits of promise and deflating setbacks, characterize much of Cambodia's post-UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) development. A decade after the sanguinary coup led by the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) that dealt a decisive blow to its coalition partners, Cambodia's progress report is an uneven mix of stability and faltering democratization, of impressive economic growth and widening disparity, and of hopeful steps but limited prospect for systemic change in the foreseeable future.

Politics: Commune Elections and Multi-Party Democracy

In the political arena, the commune elections in April, framed by sporadic sparks of pre-election violence and post-election protests against procedural irregularities, consumed the attention of Cambodia watchers. By most accounts, the months leading up to the elections were considered relatively calm as compared with the political climate of 2002. Politically motivated violence appeared to have declined, both in terms of the number of occurrences and of their flagrancy. Despite these noted improvements, widespread irregularities before and during the elections were reported. Concerns continued to register regarding the CCP's virtual monopoly over the political machinery, including the media, the police and the military, with its vast political networks extending deep and wide into communes and villages, and bigger electoral coffers. Allegations of vote buying and inconsistent, and largely partisan, application of electoral rules, especially regarding voter registration and identification, and overt intimidation campaigns ranging from the illegal presence of officials (or their kin) at polling stations to a grenade thrown at the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) headquarters, dogged the election process. An appeal was jointly made by the principal monitoring agencies (COMFREL, NICFEC, YCC, PEFOOJ, among others) to the National Election Commission, which has been accused of partisanship, “to take these complaints seriously, and make serious efforts to resolve in a transparent manner issues at commune polling centres where the percentage of voters was below 50 per cent”.