Opposition Lawmakers Forgo Medal Ceremony
By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original re****t from Phnom Penh
08 April 2008
Twenty-four opposition lawmakers boycotted a ceremony Tuesday where
National Assembly members were giving themselves medals.
The medals were to be issued to each lawmaker for "positive work"
during the past legislative session. The next legislative session will
not take place until after July's general election.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said his party "did not want to receive
this kind of medal, because such medals are nonsense and valueless.
"Contrarily, I think that it is a shame for those who wear these
medals," he said. "It is not an honor, because, in general, those who
receive the medal are especially tainted, people with illegal
businesses, and we do not want to compare ourselves with those
people."
The party recommended in a statement that the National Assembly use
its time to strengthen its capacity in order to improve social and
moral values, through passing an anti-corruption law and pu****ng the
government to apply responsibility for the national interest.
Lawmaker Chiem Yeap, of the ruling Cambodian People's Party, said the
opposition's attitude, posting the statement and boycotting the
ceremony, was in contempt of the king.
"The king signed the royal decree allowing the medal, via a proposal
of the National Assembly medal committee," said Chiem Yeap, who is a
deputy in the committee.
The SRP said in its statement the medal was given to several people,
including foreign and Cambodian businessmen, as well as officials, and
among them were "good people" and "criminals," like drug traffickers,
smugglers, illegal loggers and land grabbers.
The medal did not represent merit, the statement said, but money and
power.
Tuesday's medal ceremony came at the end of this five-year legislative
term.
New lawmakers will meet again after the elections. The National
Assembly failed again this session to pass a much-anticipated anti-
corruption law.
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