OPINION
COMFREL’s
November 2013 ERA Report:
Why
the full report is not made in Khmer, but in English only?
What
is the usefulness of the Report?
For
whom, was it made?
In November 2013 the Committee for Free
and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL) issued a 64-page report in English, it
called “Joint Report on the Conduct of the 2013 Cambodian Elections – The
Election Reform Alliance (ERA)”. Up to December 22, an identical full “Joint
Report” in Khmer had “not yet” been made public, following an inquiry with
COMFREL except for a 12-page Summary Report in Khmer that the COMFREL disclosed
in a press conference and posted in its website, and was reported by some media
outlets in Cambodia.
The question was why the full report is
not made in Khmer? Unless COMFREL gives the reasons as to why, the way of doing
things by COMFREL concerning Cambodian electorate and supposedly serving the
interests of millions of Cambodians opens up the field for a wide range of
speculations, the most poignant would be that COMFREL does not care about
telling the whole discovery by COMFREL on past elections to the Cambodian
people for fear that the latter would read in Khmer, would understand and would
find by themselves the holes in the report, and would ask questions and would
raise doubt about the contents of the report. Another line of speculation is
very critical of COMFREL for having looked down on the Cambodian people, by
thinking that the Cambodian people have no ability to understand any way, why
COMFREL should care about issuing the full report in Khmer? Just give them the
summary and that is the gospel.
If it is not made for the Cambodian people to read, what is the usefulness of the full report in English? Of course, it benefits COMFREL and ERA in the eyes of the non-Cambodian organizations that were funding the activities of COMFREL and ERA that are very critical of the conduct of the elections in Cambodia. It scores points for future funding for providing the ammunitions to various international and national NGO’s to use the unverifiable findings of COMFREL’s full “Joint Report” to shoot at will at the government of Cambodia and the official organization, the National Election Committee (NEC) that runs the election.
The impact of COMFREL’s full “Joint Report” in English on the Cambodian electorate is questionable, or none. Admittedly, it is good enough for international funding. A COMFREL’s full “Joint Report” in Khmer would likely damage COMFREL’s standing among the Cambodian electorate, otherwise COMFREL would issue an identical full “Joint Report” in Khmer at the same time. It is unwise for COMFREL to ignore the Cambodian electorate and to care only about the interests of foreign organizations and COMFREL’s own foreign or international funding.
December 31, 2013
Roeung Sovannpheakdey
Socio-political observer