Rainsy Vows to Return to Fight

 Khmer Times | 17 December 2015

In an exclusive interview with Khmer Times’ French edition L’Hebdo, opposition leader Sam Rainsy guaranteed that he will return to the country before the next elections, explaining that he still has faith in the “culture of dialogue,” saying it must be “preserved and developed.” It is the only alternative to the culture of violence that is undermining Cambodia, he said. 

 As opposition lawmakers returned to the National Assembly on Wednesday after a two-month boycott, Mr. Rainsy has remained in self-exile in Paris since November 16. The end of the boycott does not mean the political crisis is over and does little to indicate the next moves of Mr. Rainsy. 

The Cambodia National Rescue Party president speculated that the reasons for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s increasing combativeness with the opposition were the “foreseeable difficulties to manipulate the next election” and his “vague desire to derail the electoral process.” 

 Mr. Rainsy was adamant the opposition is still united and that it will remain so in order to win the next elections and to make the changes “that we all want.”

The political situation is heating up ahead of commune elections due in 2017 and national elections the following year.