Long wait over for rookie MPs + Eyes turn to legislation passed without CNRP

[geovalin]

Long wait over for rookie MPs

Wed, 23 July 2014

Sean Teehan, Charles Delacollett and Joe Freeman

As the nation yesterday celebrated the end of a nearly year-long political deadlock, Rotana Pin, a first-time lawmaker elected under the Cambodia National Rescue Party umbrella, was quietly relishing his party’s chance to finally push back against months of unchecked power.

“Now it’s going to become a legal parliament, and I think we have a new weapon to work against the [Cambodian People’s Party] and limit them from what they want to do,” said Pin, who came back to Cambodia to win a seat in parliament last July after spending nearly three decades in the US.

“We cannot control them, but we can hold them back,” he said.

The long-awaited agreement between the two parties means about 20 first-time members will take their seats alongside Pin, CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said.

In addition to ending a year of at times excruciating political tension, Long Botta has personal reasons to want to get in the assembly.

Botta was appointed under the Norodom Sihanouk and Lon Nol regimes of the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. He fled Phnom Penh just five days before it fell to the Khmer Rouge.

“This couldn’t keep [up] longer,” Botta said, referring to the boycott but noting why the party felt it was necessary. “[i’m] impatient of course, but I want to be sure I have free hands to work.”

Whether or not the party got what it needed in the deal was an open question for some lawmakers.

For Pin, the promised redistribution of seats in the National Election Committee made the holdout well worth it.

“I think we’ll make a lot of gains [if] we change the NEC,” Pin said. “So now . . . we want to prepare ourselves for the next election.”

But while stopping short of criticising his party as being too quick to accept its rival’s terms, freshman Prey Veng lawmaker Lagh Lachlittay said he worried the deal may have been made too quickly.

“[Joining Parliament happened] too fast,” Lachlittay said. “But we cannot say yet, because there are so many details to figure out.”

Despite his concerns, Lachlittay said that he looked forward to more immediate change.

“We will liberate Freedom Park – that’s the first thing,” he said, referring to a public gathering site known more for violence and barricades since January.

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Eyes turn to legislation passed without CNRP

Wed, 23 July 2014

Stuart White

After months of decrying the one-party National Assembly as illegitimate and vowing to amend any flawed legislation passed during a parliamentary boycott, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, by agreeing to take its seats yesterday, is about to get its chance.

In the roughly 10-month period since the boycott began, several laws have sailed through the Cambodian People’s Party-dominated Assembly, including many that could hold vital interest for the CNRP.

Three laws ostensibly aimed at judicial reform were roundly lambasted as undermining the independence of the Kingdom’s courts. Two laws concerning legal cooperation and extradition with Vietnam are sure to agitate party supporters who fear Vietnamese influence. And one, the National Strategic Development Plan 2014-2018, will guide government policy and spending for the rest of its current mandate.

However, CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday that while the party will review all of the new legislation in due course, the party will be taking a “wait and see” approach.

“This is work that we have to do later on. We cannot finish a lot of things in one night,” Sovann said.

“The people make the laws and the people can change the laws. It’s a matter of time.”

Observers yesterday differed on whether such an approach was wise. Political analyst Chea Vannath, for one, recommended that the opposition try to take advantage of its “honeymoon” with the CPP while it lasts.

“During that honeymoon, it’s wiser not to tackle the legal issues, but in the long range . . . if they are patient, then the CNRP might raise the issues one by one,” she said, warning that bolder moves might curdle the relationship with the ruling party.

“An aggressive approach doesn’t work,” Vannath added. “I hope that the CNRP is wise enough not to rock the boat when the boat is barely afloat.”

Fellow analyst Kem Ley, however, argued that the party should make its push immediately, before the most controversial laws are signed by the King and put into effect.

“They need to meet with all the members of the commissions; they need to call back those laws, especially the [judicial laws],” he said. “Don’t wait to amend it.”

If the CPP refuses, he continued, the CNRP can use its new parliamentary status to hold public consultations.

“The CNRP can show to the people what is wrong and what is right with the laws,” he said. “The CPP will have no choice. They’ll have to bring those laws back to the National Assembly.”

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Deadlock broken, CNRP pols released

2014-07-23 02:33 by Koam Chanrasmey, Tat Oudom, Griff Tapper and David Boyle

The longest parliamentary impasse in Cambodian history looks to have ended with the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party agreeing to take their seats in parliament exchange for political concessions from the government.

On the same day seven CNRP lawmakers-elect accused of serious crimes including insurrection, were released from prison on bail.

The CNRP has held out for almost a year to try and secure concessions from the government, the most significant of which is an overhaul of the highly criticized National Election Committee.

Have they got what they wanted?

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national