HENG CHIVOAN
Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks to reporters at a news conference after the King opened the National Assembly on Wednesday. Twenty-six elected officials from the Sam Rainsy Party and three from the Human Rights Party - more than a fifth of the total 123 elected parliamentarians - were absent from the meeting of the National Assembly.
Prime Minister Hun Sen attributed their absence to infighting within the opposition bloc. "I think the internal problems of the SRP are growing," he told reporters, adding that the government would be formed with or without opposition officials.
SRP parliamentarian Yim Sovann said his party decided to join the inauguration ceremony Wednesday after the Cambodian People's Party, which controls 90 of the Assembly's seats, promised to improve the election law and give the SRP a "bargaining voice" in the assembly.
They withdrew Thursday, however, to protest the use of a single vote for all government positions, which Yim Sovann said the CPP used to "dictate" the process.
In one block vote, the National Assembly elected its prime minister and nine deputy prime ministers, along with chairpersons and deputy chairpersons for its nine committees. The CPP received all but one of the positions - Funcinpec stalwart Nhek Bun Chhay will remain as a deputy prime minister - in a dramatic consolidation of its authority.
The CPP dealt some secretary and undersecretary positions at ministries to its partner Funcinpec, which earned only two seats in the National Assembly.
...[the opposition parties are] not strong enough to pull off a boycott.
Get over it
Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, encouraged opposition parliamentarians to put aside their grievances and delve into the duties of their posts.
He described the SRP's previous plans to boycott as political manoeuvering to gain power and insisted "they were not strong enough to pull off a boycott".
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| Anonymous anti-king leaflets to be probed, prime minister says |  |  |  |
| Written by Vong Sokheng and Cheang Sokha | |
| Friday, 26 September 2008 | |
| Hun Sen says the offending political fliers that flooded the city prior to the opening of the National Assembly 'will not be tolerated' PRIME Minister Hun Sen has ordered an investigation into anonymous leaflets insulting King Norodom Sihamoni and leaders of the ruling Cambodian People's Party, which were distributed in Phnom Penh prior to the opening of the new National Assembly on Wednesday morning. The leaflets, a copy of which was obtained by the Post, insult the King, calling him "a puppet" of Hanoi and Beijing. They also label Hun Sen, Senate Chairman Chea Sim and National Assembly President Heng Samrin as "national traitors". "I thought [these leaflets] were a serious insult to the King. This issue cannot be tolerated and the authorities are beginning investigations," Hun Sen said. Touch Naruth, Phnom Penh Municipal police chief, said there were no suspects, but that the police have begun investigations. Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Yim Sovann told the Post that the opposition party and its parliamentarians were not concerned about the leaflets, adding that the SRP always made its criticisms publicly through the media. "I think someone is playing a trick and trying to put the fault on someone else," he said. "We didn't have any thing to do with the leaflets." Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said the leaflet expressed a marginal view, and that political leaders should ignore it. "The Prime Minister is wrong to concentrate on the leaflets," Ou Virak said. "The government should perform its role by focusing on corruption, education and other issues." |
