Cambodia lawmakers approve bill threatening opposition party

AP / Boston Globe | 20 February 2017

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodian lawmakers passed a measure Monday to allow the government to apply to the courts to have a party dissolved, an act aimed at the sole opposition group in Parliament.

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party boycotted Monday’s 90-minute debate on the legislation and subsequent vote, in which all 66 lawmakers from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party who were present voted in favor.

The amendments now need approval from the Senate, a formality since the chamber is controlled by the ruling party.

Long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen suggested the amendments earlier this month, in what is seen as an attempt to shore up his party’s strength ahead of local elections this year and a general election in 2018. The opposition staged an unexpectedly strong challenge in 2013’s general election.

 The new provisions allow the Supreme Court to dissolve parties whose leaders have criminal convictions and bar the leaders from political activities for five years. Critics charge that Cambodia’s courts are under the political influence of the ruling party.

In addition, the Interior Ministry would be allowed to suspend parties whose activities incite national disintegration, a catch-all clause similar to those in other laws that are used against the government’s critics.

‘‘The passage of these amendments marks the final consolidation of absolute power in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party,’’ said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

‘‘Hun Sen’s election strategy is clear: bulldoze what’s left of Cambodia’s democratic institutions by using laws like this one, while simultaneously intimidating civil society into silence with arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders and threats to deregister troublesome [non-government organizations],’’ Robertson said.

The Cambodia National Rescue Party, in a statement issued before the debate, said the changes violate the principles of liberal and multiparty democracy.

‘‘The proposal of the amendments was done too quickly and with the aim of intimidating and destroying the rival party,’’ it said.

There were political consequences even before the amendment was passed, with longtime opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who has been in self-imposed exile since late 2015, resigning from the Cambodia National Rescue Party because he was convicted in a defamation case and has several other cases pending.

Rainsy ban to protect airport, official claims

Heavily armed Royal Cambodian Armed Forces members stand guard at the Phnom Penh International Airport in November last year after rumours Sam Rainsy would be returning to the country. Heng Chivoan

Hun Sen’s government in the past year has increased pressure on its critics and political opponents, keeping them tied up in court, sending them fleeing into exile, or sometimes jailing them.