Cambodia must wait half a century?

kang

Still waiting for a political change in Cambodia ... because: ex-King Sihanouk said that people wishes him to live more 1,000-year-old, and PM Hun Xen said that he wants to hold onto power until he is at least 90-year-old

31 August 2009
Op-Ed by Sopheak
Originally posted in Khmer at http://sopheak.wordpress.com
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

The Japanese people recently welcome a new prime minister who is issued from the Japanese opposition party which won a landslide election at the beginning of this week. It is a fact that, in Japan, the change of premiership is not a big deal, and for someone to become the prime minister is also not a big deal in Japan. However, what impressed the world was the turning of new chapter in Japan when the opposition party won the election and the premiership position after more than half a century long delay.

Turning back to Cambodia, the situation here is not that much different. In Cambodia, besides the same political party winning the election time after time, the [government] leadership also remains unchanged: always the same man (sic!). Up to now, under four consecutive mandates, the ruling party in Cambodia is still holding its grip on power here. Come to think of it, four mandates is equivalent to a full 20-year of ruling, [and it seems] that this tendency will continue on for several more years to come.

As for the opposition party in Cambodia, questions remain as to whether it has the strength or the ability to replace the current ruling party or not? The path is still very long for Cambodia’s opposition, it could be that it may disappear even before it has the chance to rule (sic!).

This is not normal: it will require another 30 years or 6 legislative mandates to achieve a half-century length! Even though we cannot predict the future, what is foreseeable is that there is no clear sign showing that it would take a shorter period of time for Cambodia’s opposition party to get a grip on power. In fact, in Cambodia, change of leadership or premiership is a strange event (sic!)!

For Cambodia, can we assume that we need to wait for 50 years, or rather that we have to wait, wait, wait, and still waiting?

Note: In Cambodia, one legislative mandate lasts 5 years