CPP’s Political Coding Plan Criticized

3 CPP stooges (Photo: Khem Sovannara)

Thursday, May 20, 2010
By Yun Samean
The Cambodia Daily

Opposition parties yesterday criticized the ruling –CPP’s nationwide effort to identify and record the political preferences and affiliations of citizens, calling the project a throwback to the country’s communist past.

Information Minister and CPP government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said that details of the plan had been misunderstood.

According to a CPP document and party officials, the ruling party launched the project last year to determine the strength of allegiance of CPP members and other residents at the commune level throughout the country in preparation for the 2012 nation elections.

According to the document, people are to be color coded as either black, gray or white based on their loyalty to the CPP. Those categorized as “white” are considered strong ruling party supporters.

“The strategy reminds us of the Khmer Rouge regimes,” SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said, adding that classifying individuals according to their political preference was harmful to national unity.

Human Rights Party President Kem Sokha said that creating lists identifying individual political preference was a violation of a person’s right to privacy.

“Political parties shouldn’t spy on people,” Mr Sokha said. “This shows the CPP’s nature. This is the communist style.”

Government spokesman Mr Kanharith denied that the CPP was classifying individuals according to their political affiliations, saying that the CPP’s chief for Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district Krouch Phan, who signed the document outlining the monitoring plan, was confused.

Individuals would not be assessed for their loyalty to the ruling party, just entire communes, Mr Kanharith said.

“We don’t highlight people because we don’t know their minds. This is confusion,” he said, adding that the “black” “gray” and “white” classifications were applied to communes according to how the CPP had fared in national and commune polls.

“This strategy, the CPP has been doing for the last 10 years,” he added.

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Pa Socheatvong on Tuesday confirmed the ruling party’s color categorization project, but said that people rated as “black” should not be concerned, as they would not be considered enemies of the CPP.