LETTER TO THE EDITOR

sustainable development adhering to the multiparty liberal democratic system and respecting the rule of laws, despite many challenges.

In the last 25 years, short timescale of democratisation process, in Cambodia the democratic tree had been planted and is growing, rooting and consolidating. The courts still function, the opposition still speaks, the media still do their jobs, and above all, the Cambodia people have a strong and enormously influential voice. What Cambodia needs now is cooperation and collaborations and efforts to move this country forward to achieve sustainable development goals. We have the aspiration to become the high middle income country by 2030.

The only mission of the defunct opposition party, in all these years of their creation, is one and only to remove Samdech Hun Sen from power and nothing else. No political program for the development of the country, nor their long term vision for Cambodia.

They are fully aware that they cannot succeed in democratic elections and that is why they are in collusion to use ways to topple this government non-democratically. But the law of karma applies. They did not and will not succeed. The former leaders of defunct opposition parties and allies are desperate, weak and irrelevant. They are affected by “diaspora’s decease” but they are still capable to manage using some foreign diplomats to act as their agents and as spokesman on their behalf.

They represent them well, regardless of all facts and explanations be- ing provided. Every word they speak is very much the statement of the outlawed in exile under the name of upholding democracy and human rights. As such these foreign diplomats are not helping to consolidate democracy in Cambodia, instead they are joining hands to pull apart the fabric of democratic principles and the rules of laws in this poor country, which we have spent so much resource to invest.

Cambodia is not a country without problems, but yes, something positive is happening here. Cambodia’s achievements in socio-economic transformation are remarkable, but success also brings us new challenges.

It is not easy to build a poor and under-developed country into a prosperous one, if on top of that, the country is emerging from war. This is a clear case for Everything But Politics to be applied to Cambodia.

However, with strong commitment and determination from the Royal Government of Cambodia to overcome obstacles and challenges, and with the continuing support from our development partners, Cambodia will be graduating overtime. Cambodia is moving up the value chain, and we have the aspiration to become a high-income country by 2030 and by then we would not need EBP and EBP, which should be given to another country.

The most striking difference between the development of democracy in the old democracies and the new or emerging ones is that of timescale, pre-conditions and legacies. In most of the old democracies,