Prime Minister Hun Sen appears with Jiang Jianguo, a member of the central committee of the Communist Party of China, at a meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Phnom Penh. Facebook |
Government sounds off on critics in report, claiming detractors twist facts
The Phnom Penh Post | 13 April 2017
The
Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday issued a scathing and wide-ranging rebuttal
to longstanding accusations of human rights violations and political
persecution, calling these allegations a campaign of misinformation led by
foreign governments and institutions, particularly the United States, bent on
regime change.
The
report, titled To Tell the Truth and released late on Monday night, points
directly at Washington, its local embassy, NGOs and the opposition for mounting
a sustained campaign fuelled by the “distortion of facts, lies and
amplification of minor issues” to discredit government achievements over the
years.
“Cambodia
has been submerged, months after months, years after years, by reports from
opposition media, biased NGOs and misinformed institutions, which twisted
historical facts and events in an attempt to portray a negative image of
Cambodia and to lay the blame on the government,” the report reads.
The
extraordinary diplomatic outburst is the most strident in a series of critiques
of the US, NGOs and media which analysts see as a combination of a strategic
move towards China and also setting the tone for contentious local and national
elections.
It
accuses the US of funding regime change and using civil society to foment
change in Ukraine and Honduras and says Cambodia will draw the line on its
sovereignty. It even starts with a quote from libertarian former US congressman
Ron Paul: “It is not democracy to send in billions of dollars to push regime
change overseas. It is not democracy to send in the NGOs to rewrite laws.”
The
report also criticises local media, including The Phnom Penh Post, as being
biased but still permitted to operate freely.
While
laying out what it characterised as the government’s successes in reversing the
country’s course after the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in the mid-1970s, the
report proceeds to call out the US and Western governments for supporting the
ultra-Maoist regime and their reluctance to acknowledge the Vietnamese-led
government that replaced it – a government that evolved into the present-day
Cambodian People’s Party.
On this
point, it makes special note of the UN’s Special Rapporteur to Cambodia Rhona
Smith’s statement last year that the “time to blame the troubles of last
century for the situation today is surely over”.
“Ms.
Smith’s reckless statement demonstrates the sheer contempt towards Cambodia’s
reality inasmuch the indifference of many international officials who prefer to
judge and condemn rather than trying to understand and help,” the report reads.
In
response, Smith yesterday said she was cognisant of the genocide and war crimes
inflicted on the country but was also highlighting the international
responsibilities the country had years later.
“My
comment reflects the fact that twenty-first century Cambodia has accepted a
raft of international human rights treaties and now has the resources to
address them. My role concerns contemporary human rights in Cambodia,” she
said, via email.
The
ministry’s report goes on to defend the government’s record on land issues –
citing the 4.3 million land titles handed out as of last year – and the
controversial Law on NGOs (LANGO), which was formalised after 20 years of
“debates and dialogue”. However, it also lambasts the US Embassy and NGOs it
funded for rejecting the final draft.
Sam
Chankea, spokesman for rights group Adhoc, said the report was more excuse than
truth, adding that the government was blind to the rights abuses documented
over the years.
As for
LANGO, he said the law was specifically being used to curtail the activities of
groups rather than enable them. “They said they uphold the rule of law and
protect human rights, but the laws are being approved to only hurt the weak
people,” he said.
Turning
to the opposition, the report says the government’s recent changes to the Law
on Political Parties – which Prime Minister Hun Sen had implied were meant to
target the CNRP – had precedence in other regional and Western countries.
It takes
particular umbrage at what it characterises as Sam Rainsy’s use of double
speak, alleging that the former opposition leader espouses democratic values to
an international audience, while using a more divisive and racial rhetoric with
the Cambodian people.
The CNRP
has in the past used anti-Vietnam rhetoric [based solely on the one word "Yuon"], which some [ignorant foreigners and understandably the CPP] have called outright
race-baiting in a country with troubled ties with its eastern neighbour.
“I have
been sometimes falsely and unfairly accused of having a racist inclination towards
the Vietnamese people only because of my firmly defending the legitimate
interests of the Cambodian people against a neighbouring country that does not
respect them on many occasions,” Rainsy said in response.
Government
spokesman Phay Siphan, meanwhile, said the statement was meant to set the
record straight with international governments and groups, and to push them to
look beyond what he maintained were media-generated falsehoods in order to
understand “Cambodia’s definition of democracy”.
“Our democracy
depends on the constitution and rule of law,” he said. “We don’t need to choose
any other international standards.”
Political
commentator Cham Bunthet said the government seemed to have taken a page out of
US President Donald Trump’s playbook by ignoring the facts and painting itself
as the victim of a conspiracy.
“They
seem to be telling the international community, ‘Hey, you are looking at us
with the wrong perspective’,” he said.
Nonetheless,
governments and the CNRP would have to find a way to work productively with the
government, otherwise, given the Cambodian government’s mindset, they could “do
whatever to stay in power”.
Human
Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson called the Foreign Ministry’s latest “screed” a
“piece of art”, and a classic CPP strategy to pre-emptively strike at donors
and diplomats looking to chastise the government for its increased repression.
“Anyone
who has been watching closely for even a short period of time will not be
fooled.”
No comments:
Post a Comment