Sam Rainsy was in his element. The muddy water in his political party’s compound courtyard was knee-deep. Perched precariously on the porches of the buildings surrounding the courtyard were 500 people waiting for something to eat.
While party workers scrambled to pull together a meal for the poor—many of whom left flooded homes for what was drier ground until this week’s rains—Sam Rainsy was talking about the commune elections scheduled for 2001, and suggesting the whole process was barely treading water.
“It is crystal clear the government doesn’t want elections,’’ he said. “They can only lose. If they lose only one seat out of 1,600 around the country, it’s a loss.”
A draft law for the commune elections still awaits action by the National Assembly, and it’s not at the top of the agenda when legislators return to work Monday.
“That’s why I will use every ounce of my energy to push for elections,” said Sam Rainsy, who recently returned to Cambodia after two months abroad. “People need to know that development of this country goes hand-in-hand with grassroots democracy.”
As the country’s most outspoken critic of the government, Sam Rainsy is not known for keeping quiet about issues affecting Cambodia.
But in an interview with the Bangkok newspaper The Nation in August, Sam Rainsy hinted he might make some changes in his conduct, perhaps be a little less confrontational in his arguments with the government.
An early indication may come Saturday morning when he dedicates the newest version of a stupa constructed in memory of the 1997 grenade attack, which killed at least 16 people who were gathered to hear him speak.
“I don’t need to be provocative,” he said this week. “I don’t need to tell people how bad [Prime Minister] Hun Sen is. They know.
“It’s time for me to stop telling people why we have to do things, and start telling them how we are going to do things.”
Perhaps the biggest issue he’ll talk about is the commune elections, which is seen as one of the most important steps in the country’s efforts to decentralize and democratize its government.
“A democratically-elected communal head can make all the difference,” Sam Rainsy said. “He will ring the alarm bell when problems arise. He will do an inventory of natural resources, and defend those natural resources.
“When people see a commune run like this, they will understand precisely what democracy is. It will become natural to them, and once it becomes natural, you can’t take it away.
“Local officials can deliver for their people. We just have to get it through the heads of donors and everyone else how important this is.”
The Sam Rainsy Party received 700,000 votes in the 1998 national election, 14 percent of the total cast. The opposition leader knows it will be an uphill battle if elections are held.
“The CPP seems overwhelmingly powerful,’’ he admits. “They claim they have three million party members. They control the police, the administration and the media. They have lots of money.
“But if you could look into the hearts and minds of Cambodians, you would discover another reality. There’s a clear distinction between what you see on the surface and what is going on underneath.”
So Sam Rainsy finds himself trying to take care of his own party.
“On my way back from Europe this week, I stopped and worked with the lawyers on the Sok Yoeun case,” he said, referring to the Sam Rainsy Party supporter being held in Thailand for possible extradition to Cambodia. Sok Yoeun is wanted on charges relating to a 1998 Siem Reap grenade attack that Hun Sen’s supporters call an attempt on his life.
“This is a very important case to our party psychologically. If Sok Yoeun is sent back here, it sends a highly symbolic message that if you support the Sam Rainsy Party, you can go to jail. That’s why I have to be able to help him settle in a third country.”
Sam Rainsy returned from two months overseas the same week that Telstra reluctantly handed over its international telecommunications network to a government-affiliated enterprise, and Bangkok Airways announced it would start a new airline designed to compete directly with Royal Air Cambodge.
“There’s millions of dollars to be made on phones, and there will be no transparency,” Sam Rainsy said.
Though he has pledged to temper his speech, Sam Rainsy’s comments still slip easily to the accusatory as he explains RAC’s troubles as the result of petty political squabbles. “RAC has been Prince Ranariddh’s baby, and now Hun Sen wants to fire the final shot and kill the baby.”
Plans by the Ariston Company to erect a new $100 million gambling complex in Phnom Penh is “another political fight,” which he said will only hurt the Cambodian people. In Sihanoukville, an elaborate development plan by Ariston has yet to move forward.
“When I read that the company says Cambodia is a mature market for casinos, I think to myself what an insult that is to the Cambodian people. In six years [in Sihanoukville], the rock remains rock, the sand remains sand, and the people remain poor. Nothing changes.”
