POLITICS-CAMBODIA: Gov’t Finally in Sight, 11 Months after Poll

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jun 4 2004 (IPS) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appears days away from ditching the tag of ”caretaker”’ and laying claim to the official mantle as the head of the country’s government.

That follows a deal struck this week between the South-east Asian country’s two major parties – the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the royalist FUNCINPEC party – to end 11 months of political uncertainty following the last general elections, in July 2003.

Under the deal agreed between the two parties on Thursday, Hun Sen will continue as the country’s prime minister, while Prince Norodom Ranariddh will take over as chairman of the 123- member National Assembly.

”This is a relief and the result of months of negotiations,” Kao Kim Hourn, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, a Phnom Penh-based independent think tank, told IPS.

”There are a still some outstanding issues that need to be ironed out, like reforms,” he added. ”But the prospects of having a government soon are far better now than immediately after the elections.”

A statement issued by the two camps echoed this optimism, since it confirmed the common ground that had been reached between the CPP and FUNCINPEC over most of the 73 items on their political agenda.

The outstanding issues – ones deemed highly sensitive – include calls to fight corruption and judicial reforms.

By settling for this arrangement, Ranariddh appears to have overcome his occasional outbursts against Hun Sen, including many statements following last year’s parliamentary election that his party – the royalist FUNCINPEC – will not form a coalition with Hun Sen’s CPP.

He was more in favour of forging a democratic alliance with former minister Sam Rainsey, who heads another popular political party that bears his name, the Sam Rainsey Party.

At the July, 2003, poll, the CPP garnered most votes to win 73 seats, followed by FUNCINPEC, with 26 seats, and the Sam Rainsey Party, with 24 seats.

But Hun Sen could not translate that into power due to the requirements specified in Cambodia’s 1993 constitution stating that a political party needs to have a two-thirds majority of seats in parliament to form a government.

That meant the CPP had to have 82 seats to get the reins of power.

He thus continued to head a caretaker government till a ruling coalition was created.

Hun Sen first became prime minister of his war-ravaged country in 1985, when it was under Vietnamese occupation. Following a U.N.-brokered peace deal in 1991, two elections have been held, where Hun Sen muscled his way into the premier’s post.

The coalition governments that were formed following the 1993 and 1998 elections were made up of Hun Sen’s CPP and Ranariddh’s royalist FUNCINPEC party.

The 11-month absence of a functioning government put on hold a range of vital programmes for the battle-scarred Cambodia, since laws could not be passed in the legislature.

Among them is the legislation needed to be passed by the new parliament to create the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal to prosecute former leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.

On Friday, Prince Ranariddh announced that the deal his party forged with the CPP calls for a rapid approval of the war crimes tribunal law in the National Assembly.

”Most of the laws have been discussed so there is little that is unknown,” said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, a Phnom Penh-based group that is gathering evidence about the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Between 1975 to 1979, when the Khmer Rouge was in power under its leader Pol Pot, over 1.7 million Cambodians died from either torture, starvation or illness.

”I am optimistic that if things continue smoothly from now, the tribunal should start by mid to late 2005,” added Youk.

But he said funding remains an outstanding issue in addition to the laws being passed.

According to current estimates, this trial, to be held in the Cambodian capital, is expected to cost 50 million U.S. dollars.

The war crimes tribunal will only examine the brutality that occurred between Apr. 17, 1975 and Jan. 6, 1979 – the years when Pol Pot unleashed his reign of terror on his country.

Although Pol Pot died in 1998, thus escaping the hands of justice, his other leaders are due to face the judges at the tribunal. They include Ieng Sary, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ta Mok and Kaing Khek Iev.

According to Kao, the analyst, delays to pass the war crimes tribunal law and approve much needed development projects in parliament were to be expected due to the fractious nature of Cambodia’s political culture.

”This was part of a political process we had to respect in a country like ours, but a lot of people were never prepared for the negotiations to set up a government to take this long,” he said.

But whatever the delay, the script appears perfect for Hun Sen, who has been faulted by rights groups for the tough and, at times, autocratic methods used to achieve his political ends.

The Cambodian prime minister continues to be this region’s longest-serving head of government, having stepped into the position of prime minister 19 years ago.