CNRP’s Next Challenge—How to Compromise
Over the past three days, the CNRP conducted one of the most significant campaigns of mass demonstrations against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government in years. For three days, more than 20,000 people packed into Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park for daily appearances from opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha. And though the opposition showed that it can mobilize its supporters en masse, the demonstrations failed to push Mr. Hun Sen’s ruling CPP any closer to reaching an agreement with the CNRP to form a joint committee to investigate July’s contested election results. … The CPP is adamantly opposed to cooperating in an investigation that might see its election victory overturned, political analysts and civil society leaders say, adding that the CNRP must now face a new challenge in terms of satisfying their supporters while conducting difficult negotiations. “The CNRP and the people have flexed their muscles, but the CPP has not budged because they are not used to respecting public opinion,” said Thida Khus, chairwoman of the nonpartisan Committee to Promote Women in Politics. … A more likely scenario is that the CNRP will continue to use the threat of mass protests, in Phnom Penh and in the provinces, as a tool to bring about reforms from the CPP before it agrees to join the National Assembly, according to Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia. “To be realistic, I think that [an investigation into election results] is a very difficult demand,” he said, explaining that making this a condition of forming a new parliament and government would likely stifle further negotiations. … Still, he [Preap Kol] said that “it is possible to include a joint investigation committee to do a fact-finding mission and investigation into the election as part of a mechanism for electoral reform,” adding that the CNRP was almost certainly pushing for reforms of the media, judiciary and anticorruption bodies in its ongoing negotiations with the CPP. … Although the CNRP’s three days of demonstrations may not have achieved their stated goal, they have ramped up pressure on the CPP for reform and set a precedent for mass public protest against the government that the opposition can continue to leverage over the next five years. “The demonstrations were not just about telling the decision makers to do something, but they also created a new culture where Cambodian people gather to make their demands heard,” said political analyst Kem Ley, adding that the tactics would likely spread across the country as the CNRP continued to strengthen and expand its reach. …
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/cnrps-next-challenge-how-to-compromise-42580/
