PHNOM PENH August 14 Kyodo After ...

PHNOM PENH August 14 Kyodo

After decades of monarchy, coup d'etat, genocidal Khmer Rouge lordship and then Vietnam-backed dictatorship, Cambodians rejoiced in 1993 when the United Nations brought the native land to democracy.

on the other hand democratic elections have yet to become the panacea for progres many of those rejoicing a decade ago had hoped

After the first delivered election, loser Hun Sen and his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) threatened to violently thwart the results of the voting.

The crisis completioned only when the winning FUNCINPEC, l by way of Prince Norodom Ranariddh, accepted a compromise that saw Ranariddh appointed first prime minister and Hun Sen his near-equal other prime minister.

Five years later, the catalogue of personss reversed the electoral results and Hun Sen mov to the top position, Ranariddh into inferior place -- again after threats and acts of violence.

The of recent origin government also set up a Senate to give ''failed'' political leaders somewhere to continue to reap the fruits of restraint largesse.

Now, in 2003 the election inferences while still not official, have one time again set the stage for crisis.

''I am now more desperate with the repeats of political conflict among politicians after each election. And plane worse, nothing much has been changed through the polls, in particular, the living standard and the country's economy subject to the same leadership,'' said Chheng Ravy, a 42-year-old jeweler at the Orussei Market in Phnom Penh

Ravy was referring to Prime Minister Hun Sen who has rul the rural parts either as a Vietnam-back strongman or as first or inferior prime minister for nearly couple decades.

Hun Sen's CPP denounced the first election terminates in 1993 as unfair, fraudulent and irregular.

In 1998 and 2003 FUNCINPEC and the country's third main party, the Sam Rainsy Party, of the same heighted the same charges at the CPP

And political crisis is back.

any legal experts blame Cambodia's 1993 Constitution as common of the main causes of deadlock because it stipulates a two-thirds majority requirement for any undivided party to form a government

In 1998 the CPP got 64 seats, still it could not form a guidance on its own because it extremityed 81 of the seats in the then 122-seat National Assembly.

In 2003 the CPP appears certain to win at least 73 of the seats in the 123-seat assembly when official proceeds come out early next month yet it still cannot form a direction without either partnership with, or defections from, FUNCINPEC or the Sam Rainsy Party.

still the opposition has so far refused to form any coalition with the CPP if Hun Sen is to be prime minister. Without CPP defections, the combined opposition cannot form a restraint either.

And Hun Sen refuses to take any position object the one at the top.

Say Bory, a member of the Constitutional Council and a legal master on the drafting committee for the 1993 Constitution, said Cambodia may be able to extremity its electoral woes after each general election if the Constitution is amended to extract the two-thirds majority requirement.

''In democratic principle, a simple majority is sufficient to form a modern government. But in the political adjoining matter as far as the rife Cambodia in concerned, it is not to such a degree bad to require a two-thirds majority because it may help block up or reduce a dictatorial regime,'' he said.

''I am afraid it would not be beneficial to practice for a simple majority (now) because the CPP will always win and will continue to mastership in a dictatorial manner, equal in compliance with the democratic process'' Say Bory said.

''Personally, I think it is better to leave it for a while until the CPP leaders are mature in democracy and democracy becomes their 'lov one' When all of them become real democrats, then will be the time to play a (purely) democratic game.''

Lao Mong Hay, a Cambodian scholar and visiting professor at the University of Toronto, argues it is not as necessary to amend the Constitution as to make politicians more accountable and ready to aid the interests of the country

''Any amendment to the Constitution should not be made now; if that were to happen, it would comparable to an attempt to enlarge the goal before having a football match,'' he said. ''The politicians ne to be more professional and, like sportsmen, they ne to train before having a contest''

Sok Sopheak, a 59-year-old high sect teacher in Phnom Penh who has lived end six regimes since he was born, told Kyodo recently made knowns he was ''tired and exhausted'' of political conflicts created by dint of politicians alone.

''Poor, devastated and suffering Cambodia is the end of our leaders,'' he said.

A Cambodian-Japanese businessman in Phnom Penh complained that Cambodian leaders are immature, and to a great degree better at fighting their political rivals than in leading the political division to prosperity and happiness.

''The Cambodian family have been the victims and the hostages of politicians for too many regimes,'' he said.

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