Politics can have a two-faced approach in The Kingdom of Cambodia.Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved
In an article written by Neth Pheaktra that appeared in the May 15th, 2009 online edition of The Phnom Penh Post, opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) lawmaker Mu Sochua maintained that she would not withdraw her defamation suit against Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Further, she urged the Cambodian Bar Association to act objectively in its investigation of her lawyer for misconduct, saying that she feared no one else would represent her if the organization banned him from practicing law.
"If Kong Sam Onn is disbarred, I don't know who I have confidence in and who would dare defend me in court," Mu Sochua said, referring to her lawyer, who is the subject of a complaint from Hun Sen's own counsel and former Bar Association president Ky Tech.
"Ky Tech made many comments about me that could be seen as an attempt to exert influence on the court. The Bar must show its independence.... This case is not about Mu Sochua; it is about justice," Mu Sochua said. "I do not intend to withdraw my case from the court. Please rest assured that I intend to go all the way," she said.
We know who Prime Minister Hun Sen is of course, and Mu Sochua is a former FUNCINPEC party member who headed the Ministry of Women's and Veterans' Affairs before she stepped down from her role in July 2004 citing corruption as a major obstacle to her work. Afterwards, she was elected to parliament as a member of the SRP where she still serves.
Mu Sochua sued Prime Minister Hun Sen seeking punitive damages of thirteen cents over remarks he made during a nationally broadcast speech on April 4th 2009. In her lawsuit, Mu Sochua alleges that Prime Minister Hun Sen defamed her by making "scurrilous references" to her in the speech. Although she was not named, the circumstances and references he made in his speech were so specific that they could refer only to her claims Mu Sochua.
In his rebuttal, Prime Minister Hun Sen claims, he does not "despise any woman at all” and said he did not attack Mu Sochua directly. The remarks he made in Kampot on April 4th 2009 about a woman behaving in a “provocative way”, who “lunged towards a man to kiss him, so much so that the buttons of her blouse popped out” were not about the SRP MP at all." he continued. Hun Sen has counter sued Mu Sochua for $2500 USD, claiming he has been defamed by Mu Sochua's filing of her defamation suit and has threatened to strip her of her parliamentary immunity. "To strip her immunity, "it is as easy as ABC" the prime minister said. If stripped of her parliamentary immunity and convicted, Mu Sochua could face a prison term.
Moreover, Kong Sam Onn, the lawyer representing Mu Sochua in Cambodia's courtrooms, faces disbarment because "of statements he made when outlining his client's case at an April 23 press conference called by Mu Sochua."
Mu Sochua is concerned with former Bar Association president Ky Tech fondness for kangaroo courts. According to a 2007 report prepared by Global Witness, Ky Tech is described by "well-placed sources" as an advisor to Hun Sen’s wife Bun Rany and he has close links with powerful players in Cambodia’s timber industry [89]. Ky Tech has represented Seng Keang, in various dealings related to her activities as a partner in the Seng Keang Company, Cambodia's most powerful logging syndicate. Her business partners include Hun Sen’s first cousin, Dy Chouch, (her ex-husband) also known as Hun Chouch, and Khun Thong, another well placed timber baron.
Ky Tech has attracted media attention for his vocal criticism of proposals to allow foreign lawyers to practice at the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders [90]. He is also reported to have said that Cambodian lawyers participating in training organized by the International Bar Association in support of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal are in breach of Cambodian law [91].
Global Witness wrote a letter to Ky Tech in February 2007 asking him whether these reported comments were an accurate reflection of what he said and, if so, to explain their meaning. As of the date of the report's publication in 2007, Ky Tech had not replied to the letter. Human rights workers expressed concerns that Ky Tech was acting on instructions from senior Cambodian officials who want to see the tribunal process stall or disintegrate altogether [92]
The Hun Sen government has opinions regarding court proceedings as proved by their latest public statement regarding the recent imprisonment of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma (Myanmar).
In their denunciation, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Koy Kuong said, "The stand of our government is that it hopes Mrs. Suu Kyi will be found innocent of these accusations and that she will not receive any additional punishment, because she has been punished already." He went on to say, "The junta has promised democracy and so far it has done nothing to show any concrete progress,"
What is Cambodia's corrupt government trying to achieve by aligning with the rest of the civilized world in their remarks while at the same time running a kangaroo court of their own? International credibility. Prime Minister Hun Sen and his inner circle have successfully pursued a two-faced approach to government since the late 1980s. Projecting a facade of liberal democracy is part of a strategic political propaganda campaign adopted to keep western monetary donations flowing in at the current rate of nearly 1 billion USD per year.
Hun Sen has successfully hoodwinked the rest of the world for years by issuing statements such as the above-mentioned while progressively tightened his grip on power, as witnessed by his treatment of Kong Sam Onn and Mu Sochua.
Since apparently Ky Tech knows how to act upon instructions from senior Cambodian officials, what do you think they have told him to do?
It's my assumption that Mr. Ky Tech has been commanded by Hun Sen to send first class transportation to Yangon (Rangoon) Burma to pick up a few courthouse kangaroos. After all, when Hun Sen, aka Captain Kangaroo, tells Cambodian people to jump, except for people such as Kong Sam Onn and Mu Sochua, the usual response he receives is, "How high?
Appendix
89 Interviews with two confidential sources, 2004.
91 Erika Kinetz, ‘Sok An Calls for UN ‘Dialogue’ On KR Defence’, Cambodia Daily, 18 December, 2006; International Bar Association, ‘Threats by Cambodian Bar Force Cancellation of IBA Training in Support of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal’, 24 November 2006. This IBA statement talks about Ky Tech threatening “measures” against Cambodian lawyers joining the IBA training sessions.
92 Human Rights Watch, ‘Cambodia: Government Interferes in Khmer Rouge Tribunal; Donors Should Recognize How Government Tactics Threaten Entire Process’, 5 December 2006, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/12/05/%20cambod14752_txt.htm, (last downloaded 10 April 2007); personal communications from two human rights workers, 2007.
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