Jun 5, 2022 | DFF, Opinion Articles
By Kasit Piromya.
At first sight, the upcoming commune and sangkat elections in Cambodia may resemble a democratic exercise, as 17 parties will be allowed to run, but one has only to scratch the surface to realize that the polls are prepared in a climate of intimidation against the opposition. The elections will yet again be an instrument for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to attempt to legitimize its increasingly dictatorial rule and maintain its hold on power in what has become de facto a one-party state.
This does not bode well for democracy in Cambodia as the country prepares for a legislative election next year. And there are many reasons why the international community should not be fooled by the electoral charade that will take place on June 5.
The main challenger to the CPP’s hegemony is the Candlelight Party, which has been allowed to present candidates for most of Cambodia’s 1,652 communes. But the National Election Committee (NEC), has removed more than 100 candidates from the party, leaving the CPP with no major competitors in some of the most important constituencies, including the capital, Phnom Penh.
According to the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC), an independent election watchdog, the candidate disqualifications were made after an unfair process in which the NEC failed to present evidence or witnesses. The NEC is hardly an independent body, as it is mainly made up of loyalists to the CPP and the prime minister, Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985. There are no opposition members on the body, even if by law they should have equal representation.
Moreover, the Candlelight Party has suffered harassment throughout the campaign, often reportedly at the hands of local officials. Most recently, the party’s campaign signs were vandalized and removed in the province of Siem Reap; in March, two candidates were arrested on allegations of forging documents, in a case which the party maintains was an example of the political harassment to which it is constantly subjected. In Kompong Cham, several candidates risk being disqualified after being accused by the CPP of buying votes.
In these circumstances, free competition and safe campaigning, necessary in any democratic process, are utterly absent. As the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) argued in a recent report, “undemocratic elements in the current legal framework continue to allow room for abuse, leading to a repressed civic space and a hindrance to a free and fair election environment.”
All this is part of a long and systematic pattern. Hun Sen and the CPP have controlled Cambodia for over three decades. To do so, they have dealt with any dissent with harassment, violence and political persecution. Draconian measures have been imposed to prevent the opposition from exercising its freedom of expression, association, and assembly. The most common method is judicial persecution; political disagreements with the ruling party are routinely taken to courts utterly lacking in any independence.
The culmination of this harassment came in November 2017 with the arbitrary dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the most serious challenger to Hun Sen at the time. The elimination of the party, which had won 43.8 percent of the popular vote in commune elections that year, paved the way for the CPP to win all 125 seats in parliament at national elections the following year.
Ever since, and to give the political coup de grâce to the opposition, dozens of members of the CNRP have faced judicial harassment, including the party’s president, Kem Sokha, who remains banned from political activities and is on trial for treason. In March of this year, 19 opposition politicians and activists were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison. Among them there are seven leaders in exile who were tried in absentia, including the former leader of the CNRP, Sam Rainsy, and its deputy, Mu Sochua.
The Candlelight Party, the current iteration of the opposition party founded by Sam Rainsy in 1995, may be allowed to take part in the electoral process, but only on a blatantly uneven playing field designed to assure victory for the CPP.
This unevenness is compounded by the muzzling of the independent media, and a tight control and harassment of civil society. And, to further limit the civic space in the country, in 2021 the government passed the Sub-Decree on the Establishment of the National Internet Gateway, through which all internet traffic would be routed through a single “gateway,” enabling the government to monitor any online activity. The gateway plan has been put on hold, but it has raised serious concerns among human rights organizations.
If it stays in its current path, Cambodia will continue to be a one-party state for the foreseeable future. And that has repercussions for the whole of Southeast Asia, which has recently taken a worrying authoritarian turn, most dramatically exemplified in the coup in Myanmar last year. As the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year, the Hun Sen regime broke from the group’s consensus and lent legitimacy to the Myanmar junta by meeting its leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, thus further undermining democracy in the region.
And authoritarianism is not only a dire threat to human rights and democracy, it is also detrimental to economic growth, as it fosters instability and undermines social cohesion. This is a lesson that democratic countries should take to heart when dealing with Cambodia and other authoritarian regimes.
There remain sections in Cambodian civil society that are committed to the promotion of human rights and democracy, despite the overwhelming odds stacked against them, and the international community should continue supporting them.
Pressure should be applied to the regime while keeping in mind the needs and vulnerabilities of an already impoverished population. For instance, the European Parliament justifiably condemned the arbitrary dissolution of CNRP earlier this month while also calling on the government to put an end to the persecution of political opposition, journalists, and human rights defenders.
Cambodia needs democracy for its own sake, but also for an ASEAN that faces continued economic, public health, human rights, and environmental challenges. It is incumbent on its democratically-minded neighbors and partners to send a clear message that these faux elections will not result in legitimacy for the CPP – especially while fundamental freedoms and human rights are trampled over on a daily basis.
Kasit Piromya is a former Foreign Minister of Thailand, and a Board Member of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
This article first appeared in The Diplomat.
Jun 3, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia express their condemnation of the campaign of harassment and intimidation to which the opposition in Cambodia has been subjected during the campaign for the Communal and Sangkat Elections that will be held in the country on Sunday, 5 June.
As Cambodians prepare to vote for their representatives at the local level in 1,652 communes throughout the country, candidates of the Candlelight Party, the main formation in the opposition and the only one positioned to challenge the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), have been harassed in recent months, often with the reported connivance of local officials or directly by them.
Most recently, on 31 May, the authorities arrested Ir Channa, a former Cambodian activist and naturalized Norwegian citizen, who returned from exile and reportedly joined political activities associated with the Candlelight Party, on spurious charges of conspiracy to commit treason. Meanwhile, the National Election Committee (NEC), controlled by the CPP, has removed more than 100 candidates from the party, leaving the ruling party with no serious competitors in the most important constituencies, including the capital, Phnom Penh.
“It is impossible to hold free and fair elections in an ongoing climate of persecution against the opposition. Even if 17 parties have been authorized to run, these polls cannot be regarded as an exercise in pluralism and democracy when the CPP led by Prime Minister Hun Sen is not allowing anyone who can challenge their power to campaign freely and safely,” said Maria Chin Abdullah, Member of Parliament in Malaysia and APHR Member.
The campaign of intimidation against the Candlelight Party includes the vandalization and removal of its signs in several provinces and judicial harassment on trumped-up charges against many of their candidates.
The current iteration of the Candlelight Party emerged from the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was the main opposition party until it was arbitrarily dissolved in 2017. One year later, the CPP won all 125 seats in parliament at the national elections held in 2018, turning Cambodia into a virtual one-party state controlled by Hun Sen, in power since 1985.
“The intimidation of the opposition we are witnessing now is nothing new. It is part of a long pattern in which Hun Sen and his party have maintained and increased their control over Cambodia, closing the space for opposition and rights defenders to dissent without fear of reprisal. This does not bode well for the future of democracy in Cambodia. The outcome of this local election will pave the way for next year’s national elections and will determine who will control the country’s overall political power.” said Ms. Abdullah.
Apart from persecuting the political opposition, in recent years the Cambodian government has silenced the independent media, and increased its control over civil society.
The many authoritarian restrictions, including against the election monitoring work by independent civil society organizations, will likely result in a missed opportunity to have elections which honor the constitutional rights of the citizenry and the people’s power to choose their representatives in a free and fair environment.
Also of note is the regime’s passing last year of a Sub-Decree on the Establishment of the National Internet Gateway, through which all internet traffic would be routed through a single “gateway,” enabling the authorities to monitor any online activity. For now, the gateway plan appears to be put on hold, but this and other recent restrictive legislation has raised serious concerns among human rights organizations.
“Cambodia’s neighbors and the international community at large should maintain a critical eye on the country’s electoral developments and not be fooled into believing that the elections this Sunday will be a democratic exercise. They should put pressure on Hun Sen and his government to take Cambodia back into a democratic path, and see the polls as what they are: another attempt by the CPP to legitimize its increasingly dictatorial rule,” said Ms. Abdullah.
May 16, 2022 | Internet Freedoms, Statements
We, the following 32 human rights organizations, call on the Cambodian authorities to revoke the Sub-Decree on the Establishment of the National Internet Gateway (NIG). Since passage of the sub-decree on February 16, 2021, the government has yet to address the serious human rights concerns raised by civil society groups and tech companies. At the same time, the government has been wholly non-transparent regarding the infrastructure, implementation, financing, and cooperating companies, agencies, and organizations involved in supporting the NIG.
The NIG sub-decree paves the way for the establishment of a digital gateway to manage all internet traffic into and out of Cambodia. Provisions in the sub-decree allow government-appointed NIG operators to block or disconnect any online connections (article 6), retain traffic data for a year and provide other network information as requested by authorities (article 14), and issue overbroad penalties for non-compliant telecommunications operators (article 16).
The sub-decree states that the purpose of the NIG is to facilitate and manage internet connections to strengthen revenue collection, protect national security, and — in terms that are overbroad, ambiguous, and prone to misuse — to “preserve social order, culture, and national tradition” (article 1).
While the exact technical infrastructure and how it will be operated is still unknown, there is little doubt the NIG’s true purpose is to enable the Cambodian government to tighten the noose on what remains of internet freedom in the country.
In April 2021, three independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council expressed concerns that the sub-decree “poses risks to the fundamental freedoms of individuals, namely the freedoms of expression and opinion and the right to privacy and may expose individuals’ personal information without their consent, which would contravene international human rights instruments and Cambodian laws.” They reiterated this call to the government on February 1 2022, warning that the NIG “will have a serious negative impact on internet freedom, human rights defenders and civil society in the country, further shrinking the already-restrictive civic space in Cambodia.”
Cambodia is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 17 of the ICCPR protects the right of every individual against arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy. Article 19 of the ICCPR protects the right to freedom of expression. This right includes the “freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds.” Any measures the state takes that would interfere with these rights must be provided for by law, be non-discriminatory, and be strictly necessary and proportionate to protect the rights of others, national security, public order or public health or morals.
The government has repeatedly rejected all human rights concerns about the NIG. The government has also refused to explain how the NIG’s restrictions on freedom of expression and access to information are necessary to achieve any of the legitimate aims, and failed to address the lack of proportionality of the measures. Instead, the internet gateway is poised to restrict these rights in an overly broad manner, without any apparent limits. As UN experts, tech company representatives, and human rights advocates have pointed out, the sub-decree lacks procedural safeguards, independent oversight, and data and privacy protections.
There are grave concerns that the gateway will supercharge the government’s censorship capabilities, allowing it to scale up its website blocking. The gateway is also likely to have a chilling effect on online communications and generate self-censorship online among critical voices and independent media outlets who fear increased surveillance, harassment, and reprisals.
The sub-decree poses risks to data protection and data privacy, requiring government gateway operators to retain and share metadata. In the absence of a data protection law in Cambodia that would protect internet users from misuse of their data and provide certainty about where and how long data is retained, and who has access to it, the NIG will facilitate the authorities’ ability to identify users’ internet activities and habits, ultimately risking identifying the users themselves. Data retention without sufficient protection for data security will increase risks to data security from third-party interference, or hackers. Centralizing internet traffic and data under the NIG also creates a vulnerability for malicious acts, without guaranteeing service providers’ capacity to adequately address the resultant increase in data security needs.
In a press statement issued on February 15, 2022, Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that it had conducted an “extensive study on infrastructure models from different countries around the world and found that most countries have internet gateways.” No information has been provided to back these sweeping assertions, such as which infrastructure models the authorities considered, what their benefits and disadvantages are, and whether the study was done with reference to Cambodia’s human rights obligations under various international human rights treaties.
In Cambodia, the government’s rushed adoption process of the sub-decree establishing the NIG was plagued by a lack of transparency. The authorities failed to hold any consultations, much less wide and inclusive ones, and did not invite inputs by experts, civil society groups, private actors, business groups, and other interested parties prior to the sub-decree’s adoption. The NIG appears designed to function as an authoritarian tool that will facilitate the government’s efforts to curtail free expression, association and privacy online as well as offline, and facilitate targeting of online expression by members of civil society, independent media, and the political opposition.
On February 15, 2022, the government revealed that implementation of the NIG, set to start the next day, would be delayed. No new date for the NIG implementation has been set. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications told the news outlet Nikkei Asia on February 15 that the delay was due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, another ministry spokesperson told the news outlet VOD that technical difficulties in implementing the NIG was the cause of the delay, stating that “we have to prepare to install and order equipment in order to prepare and create the gateway. And we have to give licenses to any company that the government understands that has the ability to create the gateway.”
Cambodia’s internet gateway greatly risks restricting the free flow of information between Cambodia and the rest of the world while establishing a system that will cast a wide net of surveillance across the country. Foreign governments, technology and telecommunications companies, internet service providers, business groups, UN agencies and others concerned should come together to seek to halt this wholesale attempt at information control.
Signatories:
Access Now
Amnesty International
ARTICLE 19
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
Association for Progressive Communication (APC)
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC)
Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI)
Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR Centre)
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Civil Rights Defenders
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Digital Reach Asia
Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF)
ELSAM: Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy
Freemuse
Foundation for Media Alternatives
FORUM-ASIA
Japan Computer Access Network (JCA-NET)
Human Rights Watch
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC)
Manushya Foundation
Open Net Association
PEN America
Ranking Digital Rights
SAFENet – Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network
Thai Netizens Network
WITNESS
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Jan 21, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – As the trial of Kem Sokha, leader of the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), resumes after a two year delay, Southeast Asian parliamentarians have reiterated their call for Cambodian authorities to immediately and unconditionally drop the treason charges against him.
“The arbitrary arrest and politically-motivated treason charges against Kem Sokha have no place in a normal and functioning democracy. This is just another example of how the rule of law has existed by name only under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government. The arrest of Kem Sokha in 2017, and the subsequent dissolution of CNRP, was clearly aimed at eliminating any true political opposition for the 2018 elections, and beyond,” said Kasit Piromya, a Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), and a former Thai Member of Parliament (MP).
Since Kem Sokha’s arrest, rights groups, including APHR, have expressed concern about his trial, including questionable or unfair judicial processes within Cambodia’s highly politicized courts, for charges that should have never been filed in the first place. The politically-compromised courts have allowed the case to drag on, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the delays, as prosecutors fail to produce substantive evidence, fully aware that a prolonged trial could mean stopping Kem Sokha’s participation from any political activity, APHR said.
Speaking to media before his trial re-commenced, Kem Sokha expressed hope that the court will drop the charges in the name of “national reconciliation and national unity to develop our country”.
“Prime Minister Hun Sen’s administration should immediately drop the charges against Kem Sokha and all other CNRP leaders and activists, stop abuses against other elected CNRP officials and activists, including intimidation, violence, arbitrary arrest, and unjust imprisonment, and restore their civil and political rights,” said Piromya. “The international community, including ASEAN and the UN, must not allow Hun Sen to continue to trample over any semblance of democracy or space for fundamental freedoms in Cambodia with impunity. These continued rights abuses are especially shameful as Cambodia takes over the chairmanship of ASEAN for 2022.”
Without any positive progress in the cases of Kem Sokha and other CNRP leaders under arrest and/or facing judicial charges, and while space for political participation and other fundamental freedoms is closed, the upcoming Commune Elections in June 2022 and General Elections in 2023 will unfortunately result in another meaningless electoral exercise where the Cambodian people are denied a true democratic alternative to the decades-long rule of Hun Sen, APHR said.
Background
Following significant gains in commune-level elections by the CNRP in 2017, Cambodian authorities detained CNRP President Kem Sokha on 3 September 2017 on trumped-up charges, and several CNRP members fled the country in exile fearing arrest. In November 2017, a Supreme Court ruling dissolved the CNRP for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government, and banned 118 of its members from politics for five years. In July 2018, Cambodia held widely discredited elections in which the CNRP was not allowed to compete.
After a year in Cambodia’s Tbong Khmum Correctional Center, Kem Sokha was released and placed under house arrest following strong international pressure. In November 2019, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court released an order relaxing his bail conditions allowing him to leave his house but still restricted him from traveling outside Cambodia and participating in any political activity.
His trial began on 15 January 2020, however, authorities suspended them in March 2020 citing COVID-19 related concerns.
Jan 9, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s official visit to Myanmar, his meeting with the self-declared State Administration Council leader Min Aung Hlaing, and their Joint Press release, are a brazen and dangerous attempt to seize the initiative away from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN’s) collective approach to the crisis in Myanmar. These two coup makers are conducting another coup within ASEAN that threatens to split the organisation itself. The other eight members of ASEAN must jointly demand that Cambodia adheres to the Five-Point Consensus and works within the collective framework of ASEAN to tackle the multiple urgent crises in Myanmar.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Min Aung Hlaing agreed in April 2021 to the Five-Point Consensus as ASEAN’s approach to the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Myanmar. Almost immediately, Myanmar’s junta broke the agreement by escalating the violence and has failed to make any genuine progress on the agreed plan. Even before Cambodia took over the Chairmanship of ASEAN, Prime Minister Hun Sen signalled his disdain for the Five-Point Consensus, declaring he had his own plans. It is deeply concerning for the whole region that he has subverted the ASEAN process, and is hijacking the Chairmanship to oppose the will of the people of Myanmar who have made their stance clear for close to a year that they will not accept junta control.
Their joint press statement announces a number of apparent breakthroughs in their talks, but no one should be fooled that any actual progress has been achieved. The military has made no substantive concessions and there has been no dialogue that could lead to a tenable ceasefire. There is no mention of imprisoned elected officials such as President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, nor of the National Unity Government formed by elected representatives who were unconstitutionally ousted from power by the military. The apparent humanitarian initiative agreed to by Hun Sen and Min Aung Hlaing places aid in the hands of the same military that is blocking and destroying humanitarian aid to those in need, conducting the war that has killed, injured, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, while impoverishing millions more. No progress can be made, unless the military junta’s campaign of terror against the Myanmar people is stopped and the Myanmar people and their elected representatives are consulted and included. An enduring solution to the crisis cannot be reached with the junta setting its own conditions.
“The joint statement released by the Cambodian Prime Minister with the leader of the illegal junta, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is a misguided and dangerous attempt to deceptively portray a breakthrough, when in fact, his unilateral actions have dramatically weakened ASEAN’s collective leverage to solve the Myanmar crisis. It is a brazen attempt by these two coup leaders to hijack ASEAN for their own authoritarian purposes, undermining the Myanmar peoples’ fight for democracy and human rights,” said Charles Santiago, Chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.
It is clear that Myanmar’s military has displayed a flagrant lack of respect for ASEAN, and in fact since its coup attempt on February 1, 2021, it appears to have used the bloc to try to gain legitimacy while at the same time intensifying brutal reprisals against the people of Myanmar, PM Hun Sen has chosen to be complicit in their strategy by recklessly attempting to legitimise the junta against the collective will of ASEAN leadership.
“Hun Sen should know better, having lived through the Khmer Rouge genocide, than to act as an accomplice to the Myanmar junta that is accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Hun Sen and the junta’s attempt to deceive the world that they are making progress to resolve the situation is blatantly dishonest, and Myanmar people are not fooled by it. The last thing we need is another dictator supporting Min Aung Hlaing’s campaign of terror. Has Hun Sen forgotten the millions of Cambodian people who suffered through their own genocide? Hun Sen’s hijacking of ASEAN through its Chairmanship should not facilitate continuation of the junta’s own killing fields against the people of Myanmar. This is unacceptable and ASEAN leaders have the responsibility to stop this,” said Khin Ohmar, founder of Progressive Voice.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights and Progressive Voice call on the other eight members of ASEAN to jointly demand that Cambodia, as ASEAN Chair, adheres to the Five-Point Consensus and works within the collective framework that has been maintained since its founding 55 years ago. If no urgent actions are taken, the other members risk colluding with Hun Sen in furthering the destruction of the unity, integrity, and credibility of ASEAN, while the junta continues its terror campaign against the people of Myanmar.
We call on ASEAN leaders to reiterate their commitment to support the Myanmar people’s aspirations to achieve peace, freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights in their country.
Note to Editors:
Progressive Voice is a participatory rights-based policy research and advocacy organization rooted in civil society, that maintains strong networks and relationships with grassroots organizations and community-based organizations throughout Myanmar. It acts as a bridge to the international community and international policymakers by amplifying voices from the ground, and advocating for a rights-based policy narrative.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights is a regional network of current and former parliamentarians who use their unique positions to advance human rights and democracy in Southeast Asia. We seek to help create a region where people can express themselves without fear, live free from all forms of discrimination and violence, and where development takes place with human rights at the forefront.
Both Progressive Voice and APHR endorsed the recent Joint Statement signed by more than 200 civil society organizations of Myanmar and Cambodia condemning Hun Sen’s support of the Myanmar Military junta.
For further information, please contact:
For Progressive Voice: Rin Fujimatsu, rin@progressive-voice.org
For APHR: Oliver Slow, oliver@aseanmp.org and Veronica Pedrosa, veronica@aseanmp.org
