A not-so-fine line exists between foreign
support to foster democratization and the direct funding
of a single political party. The first type of democracy
promotion helps create a level playing field for
governing and opposition parties alike; the second
undermines democracy by interfering in the process from
afar. In Cambodia, the International Republican
Institute (IRI) has crossed far over this line in its
support of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).
Cambodia
has three major political parties. In addition to the
opposition SRP, the other leading political parties are
the post-communist Cambodian People's Party (CPP), led
by Hun Sen, and the royalist Funcinpec party under
Prince Ranariddh. These latter two have uneasily shared
power for the past decade. Meanwhile, the nationalistic
SRP, named after its leader, has risen in the polls. The
most recent elections, last July, saw the CPP win a
majority of seats in the National Assembly but less than
the two-thirds required by Cambodia's constitution to
form a government. Funcinpec narrowly out polled the SRP
for second place.
On the whole, US policy
supported the electoral process in a neutral fashion.
The US Embassy in Phnom Penh funded long-term election
observers in many Cambodian provinces. Several other US
government-funded agencies, including the Asia
Foundation and the National Democratic Institute (NDI),
sponsored non-partisan debates, distributed voter guides
and funded domestic election monitors. IRI, by contrast,
channeled its funding and technical assistance to the
SRP, which it refers to as "the democratic opposition".
Rainsy has repeatedly been guest of honor at IRI events
in Washington, such as a banquet last April co-hosted by
the Heritage Foundation.
In October 2002, IRI
channeled a US$450,000 grant from the US Agency for
International Development (USAID) to start the Cambodian
Center for Human Rights (CCHR), a non-governmental
organization led by a former Funcinpec senator, Kem
Sokha. Cambodia already has a number of respected,
neutral human-rights organizations, but CCHR operates in
"partnership" with IRI and provides reporting of rights
abuses that are of particular political utility. When
CCHR allegations of pre-election violence differed from
that of other organizations, for instance, IRI routinely
quoted CCHR's reports. Conveniently, the CCHR expatriate
adviser is married to the IRI country director.
IRI's support for Sam Rainsy is accompanied by
its visceral hatred of Prime Minister Hun Sen. This
animosity dates back to a 1997 grenade attack on an SRP
rally in which 13 Cambodians were killed and an IRI
operative, Ron Abney, was injured. Cambodia's
lackadaisical and corrupt judicial system never arrested
any suspects, but IRI and Abney say they are "confident"
that Hun Sen was himself responsible. IRI statements
repeatedly call for further investigation of the attack
while leaving no doubt about who they believe is to
blame.
IRI's vendetta is supported by key
Republican leaders in the US Congress, most vehemently
by Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is majority whip and
chair of the Senate's Foreign Operations Subcommittee.
McConnell's chief of staff, Paul Grove, is a former IRI
representative in Cambodia and Asia director at IRI in
Washington. In one extraordinary series of op-ed
articles published in 2002 and early 2003, McConnell and
Grove wrote, "It is in America's interests that the
opposition win ... it is time for the State Department
to take sides." This was followed by calls for "regime
change" and attempts to link the "paranoid evil
dictator" Hun Sen to the "war on terrorism".
In
an Asian Wall Street Journal op-ed last May 20,
McConnell argued directly that "technical and material
assistance should be provided to opposition political
parties", of which there is only one of any serious
stature. In a May 22 letter to Senator McConnell, the
Sam Rainsy Party-USA stated: "We understand that the
political clout your office can bring to bear on the
ruling party in times of crisis is paramount to our
success. For the partnership forged between SRP and your
office, it will play a pivotal role in safeguarding the
livelihood of our party."
On June 26, McConnell
and two colleagues introduced the "Cambodia Democracy
and Accountability Act" (S 1365), which provides for
resuming full foreign assistance to Cambodia - provided
that elections are "free and fair" - and "that Prime
Minister Hun Sen is no longer in power". In effect,
McConnell proposed using $21.5 million of US government
aid to reward, if not to buy, a certain election result.
The bill was relegated to committee and never acted on.
However, the 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act (HR
2673) contains "up to $4 million ... for activities to
support democracy [in Cambodia], including assistance
for democratic political parties".
In an
interview last July with the Australian Broadcasting
Corp, IRI's Asia director, Daniel Calingaert, said,
"We've provided some additional assistance to the Sam
Rainsy Party because they are at a disadvantage in that
they are not in the ruling coalition and don't have the
access to state resources that the other parties have."
Calingaert refused, however, to reveal the exact amount
of IRI support for the SRP. On election day in July, SRP
activists in rural villages proudly displayed IRI
notebooks and T-shirts, leaving no doubt about their
funding source.
The IRI election observer
delegation was led by Christine Todd Whitman, who had
recently stepped down as chief of the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). At a post-election press
conference, Whitman and IRI's president, George Fulsom,
expressed caution about broad generalizations about the
outcome and denied that IRI had partisan favorites.
Whitman later admitted that the results were "relatively
free of irregularities" with "more open expression of
political opinion and lively campaigns". Nevertheless,
they concluded that the elections "did not meet
international standards" - a statement that IRI has
since used as justification for its partisan political
operations in Cambodia and for its condemnations of the
Hun Sen government.
Most observers expected that
a multi-party coalition similar to the previous one
would be formed soon after the election. However, IRI
advisers urged both the Sam Rainsy and Funcinpec parties
to reject the election results while at the same time
calling for Hun Sen's resignation. The SRP and Funcinpec
formed an "Alliance of Democrats" dedicated to removing
Hun Sen. On September 10, Sam Rainsy and Prince Norodom
Sirivudh (representing Funcinpec) visited Washington and
met with Senators John McCain (a Republican from
Arizona) and Mitch McConnell. During the visit,
McConnell told the two party chiefs that they could
count on "America's support in ensuring new leadership
comes to Cambodia". Furthermore, McConnell said, "The
demand of the Alliance [of Democrats] that Prime
Minister Hun Sen step aside is reasonable and
realistic," all the while ignoring the fact that Hun
Sen's party won the election.
Several weeks
later, IRI issued its final election assessment, citing
"pre-election intimidation and an inequitable political
playing field in Cambodia's failure to meet
international standards". The IRI blamed the entire
post-election impasse on the CPP for not acceding to the
demand that Hun Sen be removed as prime minister.
IRI's carefully worded statement assured Sam
Rainsy of continued support in blocking the formation of
a new government. When an agreement with the Hun Sen
government seemed near in November, Rainsy and the
Alliance backed out. IRI was reportedly included in
Alliance strategy meetings about how to proceed. In late
February, IRI hosted Rainsy's wife, Tioulong Saumura
(identified only as "a leading SRP member"), at a
luncheon in Washington and arranged for her to meet with
senators and the State Department.
In spite of
these efforts, the CPP and Funcinpec appear to have
reached an understanding in early March to form a new
"two-and-a-half-party" coalition including several SRP
members and with Hun Sen continuing as prime minister.
It is reasonable to conclude that without IRI prodding
and "technical and material support", the eight-month
political deadlock in Cambodia could have been resolved
much sooner. Finally, as the administration of President
George W Bush increasingly stresses the US commitment to
foster a "global democratic revolution", it is worth
considering how the US public would react if a foreign
government funded an opposition political party in the
United States.
Andrew Wells-Dang is the
Indochina representative of the Fund for Reconciliation
and Development, an independent non-profit organization
supporting normal political, economic and cultural
relations between the US and Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and
Cuba. He served as an official observer during the 1998
and 2003 Cambodian elections. This article is posted
with permission from theInterhemispheric Resource Center.
