Sam Rainsy Party គណបក្ស សម រង្ស៊ី Kanakpak Sam Rainsy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Kong Korm [1] |
| Founder | Sam Rainsy |
| Founded | June 1995 |
| Headquarters | Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
| Ideology | Khmer nationalism Liberal democracy Populism |
| Political position | Centre |
| Regional affiliation | Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats |
| International affiliation | Liberal International |
| Website | |
The Sam Rainsy Party (Khmer: គណបក្ស សម រង្ស៊ី; SRP) is a personalist liberal party in Cambodia. The party was a member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, Liberal International, and the Alliance of Democrats.
Khmer or Cambodian is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. With approximately 16 million speakers, it is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language. Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through Hinduism and Buddhism. The more colloquial registers have influenced, and have been influenced by, Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, and Cham, all of which, due to geographical proximity and long-term cultural contact, form a sprachbund in peninsular Southeast Asia. It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon–Khmer family, predating Mon and by a significant margin Vietnamese, due to Old Khmer being the language of the historical empires of Chenla, Angkor and, presumably, their earlier predecessor state, Funan.
Personalism is a philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of 1) God as Supreme Person or 2) a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation to animals. One of the main points of interest of personalism is human subjectivity or self-consciousness, experienced in a person's own acts and inner happenings—in "everything in the human being that is internal, whereby each human being is an eyewitness of its own self".
Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is 181,035 square kilometres in area, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. The sovereign state of Cambodia has a population of over 16 million. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, practised by approximately 95 percent of the population. The country's minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams and 30 hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh, the political, economic and cultural centre of Cambodia. The kingdom is an elective constitutional monarchy with a monarch, currently Norodom Sihamoni, chosen by the Royal Throne Council as head of state. The head of government is the Prime Minister, currently Hun Sen, the longest serving non-royal leader in Southeast Asia, ruling Cambodia since 1985. In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name "Kambuja". This marked the beginning of the Khmer Empire, which flourished for over 600 years, allowing successive kings to control and exert influence over much of Southeast Asia and accumulate immense power and wealth. The Indianised kingdom facilitated the spread of first Hinduism and then Buddhism to much of Southeast Asia and undertook many religious infrastructural projects throughout the region, including the construction of more than 1,000 temples and monuments in Angkor alone. Angkor Wat is the most famous of these structures and is designated as a World Heritage Site. After the fall of Angkor to Ayutthaya in the 15th century, a reduced and weakened Cambodia was then ruled as a vassal state by its neighbours. In 1863, Cambodia became a protectorate of France, which doubled the size of the country by reclaiming the north and west from Thailand.
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The Sam Rainsy Party, founded in 1995 as the Khmer Nation Party and given its current name in 1998, constitutes the official opposition to the ruling Cambodian People's Party. Since the decline of the junior coalition partner, Funcinpec, in the 2008 National Assembly elections, the Sam Rainsy Party is now considered the second largest party in Cambodia. It is the largest opposition party in Cambodia.
The Cambodian People's Party, founded as the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party, is the current ruling political party of Cambodia. It was the sole legal party in the country at the time of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979–1989) and during the first two years of the State of Cambodia. Its name was changed during the final years of the State of Cambodia, when the single-party system as well as the Marxist–Leninist ideology were abandoned. Having governed Cambodia since 1979, it is one of the longest-ruling parties in the world. The General Secretary of the party from 1979 to 1981 was Pen Sovan. The KPRP was originally a Marxist–Leninist party, although it took on a more reformist outlook in the mid-1980s under Heng Samrin's leadership. In the 1990s, the KPRP officially dropped its commitment to socialist ideology altogether when it renamed itself the Cambodian People's Party. It is also currently the oldest active party in Cambodia. Since 2018, the party commands all 125 seats in the National Assembly, and 58 of 62 seats in the Senate. Hun Sen, the Prime Minister of Cambodia, has served as the party's President since 2015.
The Sam Rainsy Party won 15 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly in the 1998 elections, 24 seats in the 2003 elections, and 26 seats in the 2008 elections with 21% of the vote. The SRP won two seats in the 2006 Senate elections.
In 2009, it formally allied with the Human Rights Party in the Democratic Movement of Change.
The Human Rights Party or was a Cambodian political party founded on 22 July 2007 led by Kem Sokha. Critics allege that its foundation is meant to weaken opposition parties and is driven by the ruling party. This sentiment, however, seems to be driven by the ruling party themselves as Kem Sokha has long been a very vocal critic of the ruling CPP party.
The Democratic Movement of Change is a Cambodian electoral alliance between the two main democratic opposition parties, the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party founded in early 2009 to run together in the 2012 local and 2013 general elections.
In 2008, party activist Tuot Saron was arrested on a charge of "being an accomplice to unlawful confinement". [2] International human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International described the charges as a politically motivated attempt to intimidate other SRP activists. [2] [3] Tuot Saron was released on 26 November 2010, following a Royal Pardon decree. [4]
Tuot Saron is a Cambodian activist for the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP). He was imprisoned from 2008 to 2010 on a charge of "being an accomplice to unlawful confinement". Amnesty International called the charges against him politically motivated and named him a prisoner of conscience.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures some governments, policy makers and human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and the group often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants and political prisoners.
Amnesty International is a London-based non-governmental organization focused on human rights. The organization says it has more than seven million members and supporters around the world.
In the 2012 Cambodian Senate elections, the Sam Rainsy Party gained nine new seats in the Senate. Although it merged with the Human Rights Party to form the Cambodia National Rescue Party, it still remains active due to still having seats in the Senate, with Kong Korm as its leader. It will fully integrate into the CNRP and officially disband in the next Senate elections. [5]
The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of Cambodia. It is a legislative body composed of 62 members. Fifty-eight of the Senate seats are elected every six years by the commune councillors from 24 provinces of Cambodia and members of the National Assembly. In addition, the King nominates two Senators, and the National Assembly nominates two, ending with a total of 62 Senators. The Senate performs its duties as determined in the constitution and law in force. The Senate is chaired and presided by the President, currently Say Chhum of the Cambodian People's Party and assisted by two Vice Presidents.
The Cambodia National Rescue Party, commonly abbreviated as CNRP, was a major political party in Cambodia. It was founded in 2012 as a merger between the Sam Rainsy Party and Human Rights Party.
Kong Korm is a Cambodian politician and Senator. He is a member of the Sam Rainsy Party and currently serves as its leader after Sam Rainsy resigned to lead the Cambodia National Rescue Party. He was formerly a member of the Cambodian People's Party and served as foreign minister from 1986 to 1987.
Its motto is "Integrity, Truth, Justice". [6]
