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On the 16th of November, Cambodia’s Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the country’s main opposition party, marking another blow to the state’s commitment to democracy. In its ruling, the court banned 118 members of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) from politics for five years for conspiring with foreign powers to stage a revolution. The party’s 489 commune chiefs, who were elected at June’s election, were stripped of their positions. The CNRP’s leader Kem Sokha was previously arrested in September for alleged treason. As a result, the Prime Minister of 32 years, Hun Sen, and his Cambodian People's Party can effectively run unopposed in next year's national elections.
The ruling has already received condemnation from advocacy groups and the wider international community, with Brad Adams, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, saying that democracy in Cambodia has “died”. Meanwhile, the dissolved CNRP dispute the legitimacy and fairness of the court ruling given that Chief Judge Dith Munty is a member of the Cambodian People’s Party. The CNRP has accused the Supreme Court of "robbing the people”, and states that it refuses to accept the "politically motivated" ruling. Currently many members of the CNRP have fled the country or are in hiding, however CNRP Deputy Vice President Mu Sochua insisted that the democratic movement for change inside and outside Cambodia will be “stronger than ever”. Despite the controversy surrounding the decision, Prime Minister Sen praised the Supreme Court’s ruling in a televised address, noting that the country has many political parties, and that the ruling “will ensure the peace, stability, independence and sovereignty”.
Since 1993, Cambodia has functioned as a nominal democracy. This follows decades of turmoil and deadly power struggles in the wake of a long civil war in which 150,000 Cambodians died, the majority of which were civilians. However, in recent months Sen’s rule has become increasingly autocratic, with Sen having shut down independent newspapers and radio stations in the country and is infamous for paying Cambodian citizens to vote for his party. This recent Supreme Court ruling marks a continued effort to undermine the democratic ideal of free and fair elections, significantly undermining voter choice and the democratic nature of Cambodia. Analysts have argued this is an effort to suppress the momentum generated by the CNRP during local elections in June, where they received 43.83% of the votes.
For decades Cambodia has received international investment and aid in order to modernise its infrastructure and open its economy in its emergence from war, however Thursday’s ruling looks set to undermine it. Sweden, the third biggest EU donor-state to Cambodia after France and Germany, has stated that it will stop giving aid to the state, except in education and research.
Sweden has given Cambodia an estimated $100 million in aid over the last five years. The US has cut also funding for the Cambodian National Election Committee, despite the fact that in April the US embassy announced a $1.8 million grant to assist Cambodian local elections. The White House has stated that Cambodia’s actions had significantly set back its democratic development and placed its economic growth and international standing at “risk”.
However, such Western donors have less sway in Cambodia than they once did, as China has emerged as the state’s biggest aid donor and investor. In October 2016 President Xi Jinping made an official visit to Cambodia and gave $237 million in new aid, whilst in April of this year China gave Cambodia a $150 million grant for the construction of a new sports stadium in the capital. Unlike many Western donors, China has continued to support Cambodia, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi telling his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhon in a meeting on Monday that China supported the government’s actions. As a result of China’s monopoly in Cambodia, it looks as if there is very little that the international community can do in order to hold Cambodia to its commitment of democracy.
Written by Natasha Rega-Jones. Edited by Keval Dattani.