Decentralization has failed and the Ministry of Interior is not responding to opposition party members’ complaints regarding sharing power, opposition commune officials said Monday.
Speaking in front of 72 of the 76 elected commune officials from the Sam Rainsy Party, Sok Sarin, 44, the first deputy chief of Boeung Kak I commune, said the CPP commune chief has not followed the commune’s administrative regulations.
On Monday, officials from the Sam Rainsy Party distributed the results of an informal survey of Sam Rainsy Party commune officials in Phnom Penh, which looked at the level of cooperation Sam Rainsy Party officials received from the CPP commune officials. Forty percent of the Sam Rainsy officials surveyed said they have “no cooperation” from CPP commune officials.
“When we asked the commune chief about our responsibilities, the commune chief said we do not need to know anything,” Sok Sarin said. “I filed a complaint about these things two times to the Ministry of Interior, but they have not responded yet and they ignored [the complaints].”
Phoeuk Sothy, CPP commune chief of Boeung Kak I, denied the accusations that he would not share information or power with Sok Sarin. He said he put Sok Sarin in charge of finance and economy for the commune because “it was what the rule said.”
Sam Rainsy commented on donor countries’ willingness to finance a portion of the Feb 3 commune elections and decentralization, saying “the donors must know that decentralization only exists on paper—they have wasted their money.”
But one US Embassy official said decentralization is a long-term process and one election could not implement decentralization all at once.
Japanese Ambassador Gotaro Ogawa agreed, saying that decentralization is an ongoing process. Japan contributed an estimated $3 million to the commune elections and the decentralization process.
(Additional reporting by David Kihara)
