Sam Rainsy (JP/Jerry Adiguna)

Cambodia’s opposition leader-in-exile is calling on Indonesia to help reestablish his country’s democracy.

Sam Rainsy, who currently lives in France after being forced in 2005 to leave his homeland for the fifth time following Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s abuse of power, visited Indonesia from Sunday to Wednesday to speak with politicians, activists and members of the media in an attempt to gain much-needed support for his cause.

“Indonesia has been involved in Cambodia to help bring peace and democracy over the last 30 years,” he said during a visit to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. “Now Cambodia is in trouble again, so we turn to Indonesia again to restore democracy.”

Rainsy, accompanied by his wife Tioulong Saumura, also an exiled former lawmaker, said that as the largest democratic country in Southeast Asia, Indonesia should take a lead in reestablishing “democracy, independence and peace” by putting pressure on the Cambodian government to allow the now outlawed opposition to participate in elections scheduled for July 29.

“My main goals are to have a real election, to have an opposition that is allowed to take part in the election and to allow Cambodian people to decide how Cambodia is to be and where we have to go,” Rainsy said.

He said that despite Hun Sen’s opinion, Indonesia retained its responsibilities toward Cambodian democracy, conferred by it having been a co-chair with France during the talks that led to the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement.

In accordance with the agreement’s Article 29, Indonesia and France must “immediately undertake appropriate consultations […] with a view to taking appropriate steps to ensure respect for these commitments” whenever violations of the deal take place, adding that Cambodia must “follow a system of liberal democracy, on the basis of pluralism” with periodic, genuine and fair elections.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) last year issued a joint letter calling on Indonesia and France to fulfill their obligations following “the severe deterioration in the state of human rights and democracy in Cambodia in recent weeks and months”.

The Indonesian government, however, has not responded to the letter and by Tuesday evening the Foreign Ministry could not be reached for a comment about Rainsy’s assertion.

However, earlier in the day Rainsy and Tioulong spoke with House of Representatives deputy speaker Fadli Zon about Indonesia’s responsibilities. Following the meeting, Fadli on his Twitter account @fadlizon said the House would put pressure on the Indonesian government to do something about Cambodia’s deteriorating democracy.

“In response to that situation, the House of Representative will take part in persuading the government to encourage democracy in Cambodia and to reopen access for the opposition’s roles.”

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2017 of 167 countries, Cambodia changed from being a “hybrid regime” to “authoritarian” because of the government’s shuttering of independent media and the dissolution of the main opposition party.

“It is more than a deterioration,” Rainsy said. “Cambodia’s democracy has been killed.”

He said that Hun Sen, who has been leading the country since 1985, had been using his power to not only disband Rainsy’s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the main opposition, but also to arrest hundreds of opposition politicians and activists and even assassinate some of them.

“I myself have escaped many assassination attempts,” said Rainsy.

Hun Sen’s policies, Rainsy said, made Cambodia dependent on China and led it into heavy debt to several parties, including the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, making the country nearly bankrupt and weakening the government weak.

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