On 14 March I wrote an “opinion” on the onslaught of the burgeoning democracy in Cambodia by Surya Subedi and then by The Committee for Free and Fair Election (Comfrel) in Cambodia under the title, “After Subedi is Comfrel, and what is or who is next?” I have the answer. It is NDI!
It is clever for NDI to use the expression: “Audit of the voter registry in Cambodia-2013”. The word “Audit,” itself implies high standard of ethics, having qualified and certified auditors to conduct the audit, involving on-site and field audits, and sharing the audit findings with the audited organization allowing the latter to reply and bring the evidences to clear all questionable situations before issuing the audit report.
I wish that NDI would share its “auditing process” with the public for scrutiny before expressing and showing arrogance with a well known “always go on offensive” tactics, by slamming others for “failure to understand the auditing process.” I will look into the established criteria of the NDI auditing process for reliability and credibility. I believe I have the right to ask because the media and the NEC’s press release to the public had elevated the accusation of the NEC by NDI that “the NEC had failed to understand the content of the damning report and the audit process,” as reported by The Cambodia Daily on 25 March 2013 to be an interesting case of “who is right, and who is wrong?” that the public can learn a great deal from the sparring of the titans. I have also learnt that the NEC, in the afternoon of 21 March 2013 had requested that NDI forward (some) data, which I am not in the position to know whether or not they were given by NDI and they were received by the NEC.
If, on the other hand NDI’s “audit report findings” are intended to give the last rounds of ammunition to Sam Rainsy to slash and burn Cambodia, after Subedi and Comfrel had failed, then it was not bad to try. Some members of the European Union Parliament and a number of politicians in a number of foreign countries were aware that Sam Rainsy cooked up “the 17% of disfranchised voters,” back in February 2012, and then he cooked up “the 10% fictional voters,” in January 2013 in order to create an illusion that the opposition “must be projected to win the July 2013 election” when adding the 31% of popular vote that the opposition received during the last Commune Election.
It seemed that NDI thinks that it is still possible to rescue Sam Rainsy and not allow “the investment” goes to waste without a good and until last minute fight, despite that Sam Rainsy, himself had tossed the white towel into the ring, saying lately that it is not important for him to return to Cambodia for the up-coming national election.
For Sam Rainsy, the “audit” by NDI that Sam Rainsy called “inquiry” for some justifiable reasons, perhaps was another rare breath of fresh air to insult the whole world, especially his foreign supporters for being totally stupid in maintaining relations, diplomatic, cultural, and commercial for decades with a country that “is run by an illegitimate government” with his vicious call for the “international community to burn the bridges with Cambodia”. The insult will backfire. Sam Rainsy is burning his own bridges.
The NDI numbers that are reported by The Cambodia Daily, that are questionable in the first place by the NEC, and questionable as well by the public if NDI does not reveal timely its “auditing process” and does not share the “data” needed and requested by the NEC for verification.
If NDI does not come clean, the two specific numbers of “NDI’s audit results,” that are “1 in 10” and “9 percent” would be seen as being manipulated in order to give Sam Rainsy a shot in the arm for the latter to come up with two new and simplest but illogical zero-sum-game equations by taking away 20% from CPP and giving 20% to the opposition in order to arrive at “a projection” that the opposition would win 57% and CPP would win only 43% at the up-coming July national election.
A chain has been built with all the links that are closed to form a circle or a close chain that each link feeds the other and lives by the other. So far, the four recognizable links are: Suriya Subedi, Comfrel, NDI with associates NICFEC and CAS, and of course Sam Rainsy. The relevancy of Sam Rainsy does not depend on Surya Subedi, Comfrel, NDI with associates NICFEC and CAS, but on the Cambodian people’s will to live in peace, in harmony with economic and social progress. Who will be or what will be the next recognizable link of this infamous chain?
03 April 2013
Professor Pen Ngoeun,
Advisor
University of Puthisastra, Phnom Penh, Cambodia