Cambodia Should Have a Law How to Manage Funds of Political Parties and of Campaigns – Saturday, 9.5.2009

Posted on 10 May 2009

The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 611
http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“The Committee for Free and Fair Elections released an article presenting its initiative for positive changes to solve political problems in Cambodia, and that new initiative suggests that Cambodia should have a law about the management of funds of political parties and of campaigns. This initiative is supported by most voices from different circles, especially from the opposition party.

“Based on the progress of the political situation in Cambodia, it is time to have a law to manage the funds of different political parties. The connection between politics and funds raises concern in many countries, because the amount of money or the sources of some funds are under suspicion. The most important thing for the draft of a law to manage funds of political parties is to ensure a minimum of reasonably used public resources for the intentions and benefits of elections.

“Political parties should have clarity about the sources and transparency to manage politics, especially transparency in the management of their resources. The Cambodian government had expressed the intention to fight corruption, but rules for the management of funds of political parties is an important part to solve various disputes and mutual suspicion among the parties over corruption. Many countries in Asia are interested in creating public funds for political parties. Those countries had had practical experiences with funds for political parties, and their management can lessen the possibilities for corruption in different sectors. There has been a strong struggle of opinions in Siam [Thailand] to eliminate the buying of votes, where political parties do this with voters during elections.

“In Cambodia, the National Election Committee does not exercise its power to monitor the expenses of political parties. This leads to strong suspicion and a loss of trust in the management of fair elections, eroding the trust in an efficiently working election process. Political parties play a great role providing strong leadership, and therefore the funds of those political parties should be made known. Do they originate from contribution of their supporters, or are funds of the citizens used?

“But what is a major problem is the huge influence of too much funds in politics and in elections, which might relate specially to illegal businesses, or to contributions including the use of national funds to buy votes and politicians, and to increase expenses for campaigns through the media. In Cambodia, influential oknhas, investors, and businesspeople contribute a lot of funds and materials to powerful politicians and to the ruling party. Funds from those people are used to build hundreds of schools and to construct different buildings which are declared as their achievements.

“The Cambodian government had better focus more on the funds of political parties rather than promoting a law to control non-government organizations, requiring non-government organizations to report their activities and funds to the government. The problem is that those political parties and politicians are on the way to control positions of state power, which sets policies and the fate of the nation. Furthermore, nowadays, the financing of some political parties is too high and it is not audited, and there is no information for the public and not even for their party members.

“In Cambodia, there is bureaucracy between the government and political machinations. Public administration officials do it, or they are required to put funds into a ‘party box’ which is sometmes also called a ‘black box.’ Government officials have to divide up the funds from corruption into three parts: one part for themselves, one for their superiors, and the other for the party box.

“An ambassador of a western country mentioned that the author of the book Patronage Politics and Hybrid Democracy: Political Change in Cambodia; 1993-2003 had reported that a former Phnom Penh governor had been reputed to have spent US$20,000 into the party box every month. The funds were used to build schools and to buy rice to be distributed to citizens. Therefore, the whole government became a network obliged to organize this flow of resources.

“There is an increasing number of countries in the world that have laws how to manage the funds of political parties. As for Cambodia, the opposition party expressed to feel double opposition against the creation of such a regularization; normally, such laws require political parties to clearly report their expenses, and especially the sources of their income. Dignitaries and officials of the ruling party had mentioned security problems, if they would openly declare information about their property, related to corruption.

“The will and dedication of politicians for the benefits of the nation are quite important for the creation of an anti-corruption law as well as for a law to manage the funds of political parties and of campaigns. Corruption occurs increasingly, disgracing the public image of most parties and elected politicians. If there is no action against this problem, gradually corruption and politics in general may lead to serious insecurity, instability, and social problems.

Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.16,#3753, 9-10.5.2009
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