City Hall says protests rising
revolution.”
Government and military officials have frequently used the threat of a colour revolution – a reference to largely non-violent popular movements that have toppled regimes in Eastern Europe – when referring to public demonstrations of dissent.
Black Monday was an effort by NGOs and civil society to push for the release of five jailed current and former human rights workers who were arrested last year in relation to a sex scandal swirling around opposition deputy leader Kem Sokha.
Measpheakdey yesterday said many protests backed by NGOs and political parties had the express aim of creating trouble for the local government and were often fomented by external groups.
“Some cases, we see that if the protesters just want a solution for their problem, it is easy to deal with,” he said. “With protests that are politically motivated, they [protesters] seem not to want a solution but something else.”
Labour advocate Moeun Tola said it was difficult to verify the authenticity of City Hall’s tally of garment worker-related protests, given the lack of transparency in the data gathering. “It is never consistent. [The discrepancy] is not surprising be- cause different ministries and different departments in the same ministry report different figures,” he said.
Sia Phearum, executive director of the Housing Rights Task Force, meanwhile, rejected the idea that NGOs were behind the protests, saying that NGOs were assisting people within the confines of the law and largely acting as monitors when visible at protests themselves.
“We dare not to do anything more than this, otherwise we will break our duty and be penalised,” he said. “But sometimes the government confuses us with [protesters] and sees us as part of the group opposing them.”