Cambodian MPs on training ground

Cambodge Soir

22-10-2008

The UNDP set up a workshop to raise awareness among lawmakers of their roles for the fourth legislature.

On Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23, the United Nations Development Programme convened all Cambodian MPs for a workshop on better understanding their functions and responsibilities as representatives of the Cambodian people.

Members of Parliament, international experts, academics and worldwide participants are gathered by the UNDP to give presentations at the National Assembly.

For Heng Samrin, the National Assembly president, he declared on the opening day: “In the next five years, you [the MPs] will face challenges forcing you to make a choice between the needs of your constituency, of your party and of your family”. He went on to remind the MPs that “our Assembly like any other throughout the world requires the assistance of experts to draft laws”.

Mu Sochua, SRP (Sam Rainsy Party), Deputy General Secretary and opposition MP, “this workshop is good but in the past, the Parliament did not always practise democracy”, and added that her party does not play any efficient role in the decision making bodies of the lower chamber in this new legislature.

Leang Delux