Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 4, 1993 TAG: 9306040463
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yesterday, with his opposition FUNCINPEC party clearly in the lead, Prince Norodom Sihanouk announced he would head a new interim government, in alliance with the currently ruling party.
Trouble may still be in store. But the results for the moment are happy - and the happiest result of all is the apparent marginalization of the odious Khmer Rouge.
According to nearly complete returns, the FUNCINPEC party will have 57 of the 120 seats in the assembly that is to adopt a new constitution. The ruling Cambodian People's Party, led by current Prime Minister Hun Sen, will have 52. A Buddhist party, one of a multitude of smaller parties (including the Khmer Rouge), will have 10.
As important as the voting breakdown was the tremendous turnout: Almost 90 percent of Cambodia's 4.7 million voters defied Khmer Rogue threats and went to the polls. The thirst for democracy is not limited to the citizens of prosperous nations with high literacy rates and well-rooted democratic institutions. Indeed, Cambodia suggests, the thirst for democracy may be even keener among people who have seldom enjoyed it.
The extent to which Cambodians rejected the Khmer Rouge should come as no surprise. In the late '70s, the Khmer Rouge killed at least a million Cambodians. The impact of the horror lingers not only in Cambodian memories, but also in a ruined physical infrastructure and the near-absence of an educated professional class.
Yet for reasons of realpolitik, the international community long pretended that the Khmer Rouge retained a measure of legitimacy. The Khmer Rouge - the name means simply "Cambodian communists" - were actively supported by the Chinese, accepted as border neighbors by the Thais, and tacitly tolerated by Western countries, including the United States, as part of a broader anti-government coalition.
Though nothing like the crimes of which the Khmer Rouge is guilty, both the People's Party and FUNCINPEC tote baggage of their own.
The People's Party is the party of the government installed by the Vietnamese invaders who ended the Khmer Rouge terror. Its strength lay in its commitment to keeping the Khmer Rouge at bay. Its weakness lay in its identification with Vietnamese communists, who represent not only a failed ideology but also Cambodians' historic ethnic enemy.
The strength of the FUNCINPEC party lay in its pro-democracy stance and its ties to Sihanouk, an honored figure remembered by older Cambodians as the national leader during Cambodia's last era of peace. Its weakness lay in its (and Sihanouk's) willingness, in the past anyway, to accept uneasy accommodation with the Khmer Rouge.
Some People's Party statements - and Hun Sen's apparent willingness to join a Sihanouk-led government - suggest acceptance of the election results. But other statements, and apparently unfounded allegations of irregularities, suggest resistance.
And some FUNCIPEC statements, perhaps inspired by the obvious lack of political support for the Khmer Rouge, suggest the Sihanouk party has no desire to include the Khmer Rouge in any government. On Thursday, however, Sihanouk said he would continue to seek peace with the Khmer Rouge, which may imply power-sharing.
If the work of diplomacy and the United Nations is to have enduring meaning in Cambodia, steps toward democracy cannot stop with an election. Losers must abide by the results, winners must respect the political rights of losers - and the Khmer Rouge must be kept powerless.
by CNB