US Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Ed Royce (R-Calif.)Original report from Washington
26 November 2009
[Editor’s note: Two US Republican congressmen, Chris Smith and Ed Royce, have admonished Cambodia’s recent lifting of opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity. The suspension, which follows criminal charges against Sam Rainsy for incitement and destruction of property, has deep implications for the development of democracy, they say. Smith recently sat with VOA Khmer for an interview in Washington.]
Q. What is the impact of Sam Rainsy’s immunity suspension on democracy and the opposition?
A. Removing the immunity and criminalizing [the opposition] as they have done on some defamation cases is a way of further marginalizing the opposition parties and clearing the way for your party to do whatever it wants, without having to be held accountable.
We have what we call free speech and debate clauses in the Congress, which allows us to speak on any subject without fear of prosecution, and it is precisely the free speech and debate clause that allows us to be protected from defamation and the criminalization of differences of viewpoints.
We obviously can be sued elsewhere, but it allows for the most vigorous of debates in Congress, so we can say what we want to say without fear of being criminalized by the opposition party or by someone else. And it really has made an enormous difference in this democracy called the United States of America, in having the most robust debates imaginable.
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