Cambodia in 2013: The Winds of Change

Summary

For a Cambodia that has revealed few surprises over the last two decades, 2013 proved to be a year of unprecedented volatility. Along with persisting conflicts and violence over land grabs, labour exploitation and environmental degradation, Cambodia's political landscape of 2013 was taut with tension in Thai-Cambodia relations over the Preah Vihear temple that even the November ruling of the International Court of Justice at the Hague has yet to quell, and anxieties engendered by the national elections in July that locked the country in a political impasse, setting off mass mobilization at a level it had not seen in decades. King Norodom Sihanouk's cremation in February marked the end of an era, evoking an ever-looming question about the role and future of the monarchy in Cambodia. The year closed with the theft of the Buddha's relic from Udong, the historic final resting place for Khmer monarchs, that brings to the fore concerns about corruption, lawlessness, and general moral failings of the nation where the overwhelming majority of the population is Buddhist.

Politics

While many looked on in anticipation with the customary dose of jadedness, this year's elections, with eight contending parties, brought both a replay of previous election dramas as well as some unexpected developments. Despite the nervous atmosphere that preceded and followed the casting of the ballots on 28 July, marked by pre-emptive deployment of military police units from the provinces to the capital, and despite early instances of violence directed at peaceful protestors, there was a noticeable restraint on the part of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), once again the declared winner of the elections, that can be read as a sign of the system's increasing political maturity or the astuteness of a regime that recognizes the volatility of the situation.

The decline in political violence notwithstanding, the elections were marred by irregularities, intimidation of members and leaders of the opposition parties, suppression of the media, allegations of fraud, overall lack of accountability and utter disregard for recommendations repeatedly made by the United Nations and donor countries for electoral reform; failure of Phnom Penh to heed earlier appeals had led British election monitors to refuse involvement in the recent elections.