Over the weekend in Adelaide, Sam Rainsy met with Senator Penny Wong, as well as Federal MPs Nick Champion and Mark Butler. He also met with Shadow Minister for Health Chris Bowen in Sydney and MP Anne Stanley in Canberra to discuss the Cambodian political situation.
“I have talked [with those politicians] about the general situation in Cambodia. We want Australia actively involved in a role to restore democracy in Cambodia.”
He tells SBS Khmer he plans to meet more federal MPs in Melbourne early next week as he seeks to build international political pressure on the Cambodian government.
Rainsy says, “the Australian government has involved itself in the fight over Cambodia’s democracy, having signed a petition to condemn the Hun Sen government for violating human rights and killing democracy in Cambodia.”
Federal MP Chris Bowen(L) and Cambodian opposition leader-in-exile Sam Rainsy (R) Source: Facebook
He has asked the Australian government to actively continue this type of action and go further to join with New Zealand and lead other democratic countries, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, to restore democracy in Cambodia.
Rainsy’s hope is that enough pressure can be applied to force the Hun Sen government to release CNRP opposition leader Kem Sokha from house arrest and call fresh, unimpeded elections.
“I still have hope in Australians as they love democracy and they want other nations to have democracy like them,” Rainsy says.
Cambodia’s Supreme Court ruled to dissolve the CNRP, the only main opposition party in Cambodia, in November 2017, before the national election in July 2018.
Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) were declared victorious in the 2018 election, but those results were dismissed by nations such as Australia, Canada, the US, and EU countries. Hun Sen has remained Prime Minister of Cambodia since 1991, while the CPP has stayed in power since 1979.
The dissolution of the CNRP was followed by the arrest of its leader Kem Sokha in the middle of the night at his house in Phnom Penh in September 2017 on allegations of treason, based on a 2013 speech he delivered in Melbourne.
Rainsy has announced he will return to Cambodia on November 9, the same date as Cambodia’s Independence Day, when the nation declared itself independent from France in 1953.
“I call for all Cambodian people to be ready to stand up on November 9, 2019, on our Independence Day. We all will stand up and fight against dictatorial powers and against foreign puppets.
“We will open a new chapter of Cambodian history on November 9, 2019. We will bring our independence back and kick those dictators out from the power that they have used to destroy our nation over so many years.”
He has not yet explained how he will travel back to Cambodia, whether by road, sea or air, and concern remains that he will be imprisoned upon his return.
No Australian MPs have yet committed to join Rainsy in his journey back to Cambodia.
