Young voters
Sam Rainsy, a proponent of change, was sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison in 2010 on charges he says were politically motivated, but was given a royal pardon last month. His party’s campaign may have been marred by repeated use of the derogatory term “youn” to describe Vietnamese – a significant ethnic minority in Cambodia.
Borders between the ancient Khmer and Vietnamese kingdoms have moved east and west over the centuries, while Hun Sen rose to office on the back of a 1979 invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam, which ousted the brutal Khmer Rouge from power.
But first-time voters such as Lyav Ly Houng, who hopes to start her own business once she finishes university, were motivated by a desire to see Cambodia become more prosperous. She says that regardless of who forms the next government, there needs to be more opportunities for Cambodians.
“The main thing is that this country can develop and the people can earn a living,” she says.
Kalyanee Mam, an award-winning Cambodian filmmaker who fled the Khmer Rouge as a child before resettling in the United States, says that Cambodia’s next administration needs to do more to curb land grabs as well as improve working conditions in the garment sector and address the growing rich-poor gap.
“The big fear I have for this country is even if we continue to grow economically, we will just have a small group of very wealthy at the top, and a mass of poor underneath, with nothing in between,” she says.
Article Appeared @http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2013/0729/Cambodia-s-opposition-rejects-election-results-claims-fraud