Radio Free Asia spoke with former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans on Wednesday, ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election in Cambodia.
Evans is the architect of the 1991 Paris Peace Accord, which ended war in Cambodia and promised democratic freedoms and human rights. It led to the 1993 U.N.-sponsored election that was contested by multiple political parties.
Thirty years later, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s relentless campaign to co-opt dissenting voices and effectively ban the main opposition Candlelight Party from participating in this year’s vote has been a “shameless, disgraceful, indefensible” development, Evans said.
The response from the international community should lie in applying serious, systematic targeted sanctions against current Cambodian leaders and ruling elites, he said. As for opposition activists, Evans suggests to “keep the flame alive and wait for the times and circumstances to change.”
RFA: Cambodia will have an election next Sunday. And as you know, just a few weeks before the election, Hun Sen amended the election law banning those who fail to cast their ballot from running for office in the future. We want to hear your view on that.
Gareth Evans: Well, obviously, the recent electoral law changes are shameless, disgraceful, indefensible. It's obviously designed to avoid any opportunity for a boycott. Not that boycotts have been very successful in the past, but it's entirely consistent with the increasingly autocratic character of the Hun Sen regime.
We’ve seen this. We’ve seen this play out so many times before in so many different ways. This is just the latest version of it, a complete crackdown on anything resembling decency, anything resembling decent democracy. It’s a very, very unhappy development, but something that I’m afraid we’ve become used to.
RFA: Even though there are 18 political parties contesting the election, the main, credible opposition party, the Candlelight Party, has been banned by the National Election Committee, saying that it had failed to provide an original registration document. But as you know, this is an attempt from Prime Minister Hun Sen's party, the CPP, to eliminate any possible opposition party in the election.
Gareth Evans: Yes, we've seen this play before with the banning of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (in 2017). We've seen it with the criminal proceedings against Sam Rainsy. We've seen it with the criminal proceedings against Kem Sokha, and we've seen it now, of course, with the banning of the Candlelight Party.
So, although notionally we have, as you say, a lot of small parties still contesting the election, the reality is that the only serious opposition to the CPP was the major parties of the major players, the major spokesmen, and they have been completely suppressed now by these measures.
Again, I say with the rest of the world, this is shameless. This is disgraceful. This is indefensible. And it’s just a fundamental assault on democracy. And I can’t understand anyone who cannot be very, very unhappy about that, particularly given the whole history of Cambodia and the efforts that we went to at the time of the peace settlement, the Paris Peace Accords, to entrench democracy and human rights in the Cambodian constitution and the Cambodian system. So it’s unfortunately been a very unhappy story ever since.
RFA: Even though this is an unhappy story, Hun Sen survives all the time. He lost the 1993 election. He managed to hold onto power as the second prime minister, and then he conducted a coup (in 1997) and chased out the first prime minister.
As you know, five years ago he banned the CNRP from contesting the election. He won that election. The whole world refused to accept the election result as soon as the result was announced. But then the world has to work with him. Is it enough for the international community just to not accept the result of this sham election?
Gareth Evans: No. I think the international community has to do more. In fact, when I think back on it, I mean, the real trouble started back in 1993 with that first election result, which was a demonstration of how much the Cambodian people really wanted democracy, really wanted to have a say in how they governed.
But of course, Hun Sen refused to accept the election result then. We went along with his objections and allowed him to become the second prime minister. And the rest is history. So we’ve performed very badly as an international community all these years.
And I think the solution is not in the multilateral organizations. I mean, people talk about reconvening the Paris International Conference and somehow, you know, getting the terms of the agreement re-enforced. But the most that could happen if that were to take place, would be simply to refer the issue back to the competent UN organs, back to the Human Rights Council. So we would just go around and around in circles, as you say, making occasional statements, occasional resolutions of international bodies, but nothing really happening.
So, I think the solution lies essentially with individual countries, not so much the multilateral intergovernmental organizations, not the UN itself, not the Human Rights Council. I think it depends on individual countries applying quite serious sanctions.
RFA: What would be your advice to opposition leaders and to the Cambodian people in general? How much longer can they continue to fight? And what would be your advice so that the effort can be sustainable?
Gareth Evans: Well, of course, that's the situation at the moment. It's very bleak, It's very desolate and it's very dangerous for opponents of the regime internally. And it's difficult for me sitting comfortably in Australia to be telling, you know, people who are unhappy with the situation in Cambodia what to do.
But all I can say is you just have to keep that flame alive. You have to keep that flame burning and wait for the times and circumstances to change. I don’t believe there is anything in the Cambodian water that is hostile to democracy, that’s in favor of authoritarianism, that’s in favor of paternalism.
I saw for myself in 1993 how badly how badly the people of Cambodia wanted a say in their own government, wanted a return to normality and decency. That spirit is there, and it just has to be quietly nurtured, supported by overseas countries like Australia and the United States, helping at the margins.
Optimism is self-reinforcing. Pessimism is very self-defeating. And unless you believe the change can happen and will happen over time, then the change is never going to happen. You just have to go on believing in it and staying committed. And I know there are a great many decent Cambodians doing just that at the moment, and I wish them every possible success.