Foreign 2008-09-24 15:24
Mysinchew.com
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Cambodia's newly elected lower house of parliament
held its inaugural session Wednesday (24 Sept) that saw the ruling
party's already firm grasp on power grow even tighter in the
impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
Prime Minister Hun Sen's party now holds 90 of 123 seats, ensuring that
the Cambodian People's Party will have a free hand in virtually all
legislative matters.
"They have been ruling the country single-handedly, and they still are,"
said Ou Virak, director of the nonprofit Cambodian Center for Human
Rights. "Their one-party rule is just more legitimate than before."
An election on 27 July election handed Hun Sen's party 17 seats beyond
the 73 it already held, further cementing the CPP's majority.
Ou Virak and other rights activists say the virtual one-party system
risks damaging the country's fragile democracy and giving unfettered
power to Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who has dominated the
country's politics for decades.
They say the ruling party's supremacy will weaken an already limited
system of checks-and-balances and make it more difficult to voice
dissent and air grievances about social injustices.
Hun Sen is a former soldier in the Khmer Rouge movement that wreaked
havoc in Cambodia when it held power from 1975-1979. He has been at the
center of the country's politics since 1985, when he became the world's
youngest prime minister at age 33. He has held or shared the top job
ever since, bullying and outfoxing his opponents to stay in power.
The parliament will vote Thursday ( 25 Sept) on a new Cabinet _ an
exercise seen only as a formality given the domination of Hun Sen's party.
King Norodom Sihamoni presided over Wednesday's event at the Nation
Assembly, and called for the lawmakers to "succeed in fulfilling your
duties for the great benefit of our nation." Sihamoni is a
constitutional monarch who holds no executive power.
The lawmakers were dressed in green silky wrapped skirts and white
turtleneck, long-sleeved shirts _ the traditional Cambodian outfit used
in functions attended by the king.
The Sam Rainsy Party, Cambodia's main opposition group, has 26 seats in
the parliament. The other three smaller parties hold combined seven
seats. (AP)
MySinchew 2008.09.24
No comments:
Post a Comment