The same song is sung-- the song of unity

Reading the PPP news below, one cannot help, but to notice that the same song is sung again.

This song was sung not too long ago before the 2008 election--the song of political unity.

People have learned that the so-called convention (to call for a unity) was nothing more than the "show your hand" approval of pre-written statements to complete the process. There has been no true democratic practice allowed to reflect the will of members. Members were coached to do and say whatever top leaders wanted.

HRP knows the valid stance of SRP regarding the party’s name and other conditions it demands. SRP has already rejected the stipulations prior to the 2008 election. Today there is less chance that SRP will accept such requests knowing that HRP is in chaos and it is not a threat to SRP as previously thought.

New party without Sam Rainsy's name is a ticket to the destruction of SRP as we know it today. The CPP will break the “new party” like it has done to other parties in the past.

There are numbers of political observers who have been questioning why HRP is insisting to have SRP change its name and or to have a term limit. The pushing for the agreements for such stipulations is likened to a pre-arrangement to have SRP fall into the CPP’s trap. It cannot be for the reason that Kem Sokha loves democracy more than Sam Rainsy does; since there is no such practice inside HRP anyway, except a lot of theories and lip services.

If the merger will happen, there is no guarantee that Kem Sokha will not be the one who will be picked by the CPP to split the new party into pieces; after all the speculation that Kem Sokha had previously received funds from the CPP to create HRP is still unresolved. Between Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha, Kem Sokha is much closer to the CPP than Sam Rainsy. His siblings, relatives and friends are with the CPP. Questions of trust remain as real problems with many SRP members.

It appears that what HRP is doing now is putting pressures on SRP to accept its stipulations. If SRP ignores the requests, then HRP will want to be seen as a true advocate for political unity, hence SRP will be the bad guy.

In reality, the future of HRP is grim. It cannot survive without defecting to some parties. For SRP, the defection of HRP top leaders can be problematic. It’s better off to wait for the defection of lower level members, when HRP disintegrates. Can SRP afford that?


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HRP votes to proceed with SRP merger if conditions are met
Monday, 20 July 2009 14:03 Meas Sokchea
At its first national convention, Human Rights Party officials listed three conditions, including that the resulting party assume a new name.UPHILL BATTLE
The Cambodian People’s Party won an overwhelming majority of National Assembly seats in last year’s elections: 90 out of 123 seats.The Sam Rainsy Party won 26 seats, while the Human Rights Party, which was founded in 2007, won just three seats.THE first national convention of the Human Rights Party voted Sunday to push forward with plans to merge with the Sam Rainsy Party, increasing the chance that a newly named opposition party will challenge the ruling Cambodian People's Party in the 2012 commune elections.
The decision to work towards the merger, however, was contingent on three stipulations:
that the resulting party would have a new name
that the new internal party structure would be jointly decided by the SRP and HRP
and that there would be term limits for the party president. HRP President Kem Sokha said at a press conference at HRP headquarters that any merger would need to involve a true marriage of the two parties, drawing a distinction between that and a disguised defection to the SRP. For this reason, he said, the new party should have a new name. "If the SRP does not want a new party, it means they do not want to merge," he said. "They only want others to defect to them."Despite previous divisions between the HRP and SRP, Kem Sokha said he believed the parties could no longer afford to be divided, saying only a united front would be able to defeat the CPP.
The resulting party should be a real merger... not a defection to the SRP.
"If we really have the will to merge, we will not be divided. In other countries, democrats merge and can win an absolute majority," he said.The HRP president said he would not challenge a move to nominate SRP President Sam Rainsy as the party's candidate for prime minister.Sam Rainsy could not be reached for comment Sunday, but SRP spokesman and lawmaker Yim Sovann told the Post that the SRP would welcome any parties that wanted to join the SRP. He said changes to the structure of the party would need to be made by the entire party. "We need to ask our supporters to decide," he said. Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said Sunday that the CPP did not care about the proposed SRP-HRP merger, arguing that the new party would not pose any threat to CPP control of the National Assembly."We are not surprised that they may merge. It could increase their votes ... but it will not affect our victory," he said. "The CPP is strong. We have internal unity and new blood from SRP and HRP. What the SRP and HRP may do, we already did a long time ago."