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Democracy is upon us

HumanBeing

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So the elections here in Cambodia turned out to be a bit of a surprise. More surprising is that opposition supporters actually seem to feel entitled to a voice, which I haven't witnessed on any large scale in my roughly 10 years of living here.

The official results are due to be announced tomorrow, everyone knows the ruling party will "win", and the opposition has been busy getting its people worked up. My Khmer friends are all sending each other youtube videos of last year's Arab spring, along with comments aimed at insighting a similar violent uprising here.

The thing is, this isn't Egypt, the army firmly belongs to the ruling party, and there is no one to protect the millions of eligable voters who weren't allowed to vote and plan to protest it. Last time the opposition held mass protests was in the 90's, and it ended with grenades being thrown into the crowd of men, women, and children.

I seriously hope they find a good way out of this mess, but I'm not very hopeful about it. Hun Sen isn't going to give up power, and the people aren't going to put up with his **** anymore. Even if he did give up power, the opposition leader is a racist fanatic who blames all of the country's woes on immigrants, which won't get him very far if he ever actually gets into power.

Either way, it should all either kick off or blow over one way or the other during the weekend. I have a fully stocked fridge just in case :(
 
Be safe, man. Keep 'em peeled.
 
So the elections here in Cambodia turned out to be a bit of a surprise. More surprising is that opposition supporters actually seem to feel entitled to a voice, which I haven't witnessed on any large scale in my roughly 10 years of living here.

The official results are due to be announced tomorrow, everyone knows the ruling party will "win", and the opposition has been busy getting its people worked up. My Khmer friends are all sending each other youtube videos of last year's Arab spring, along with comments aimed at insighting a similar violent uprising here.

The thing is, this isn't Egypt, the army firmly belongs to the ruling party, and there is no one to protect the millions of eligable voters who weren't allowed to vote and plan to protest it. Last time the opposition held mass protests was in the 90's, and it ended with grenades being thrown into the crowd of men, women, and children.

I seriously hope they find a good way out of this mess, but I'm not very hopeful about it. Hun Sen isn't going to give up power, and the people aren't going to put up with his **** anymore. Even if he did give up power, the opposition leader is a racist fanatic who blames all of the country's woes on immigrants, which won't get him very far if he ever actually gets into power.

Either way, it should all either kick off or blow over one way or the other during the weekend. I have a fully stocked fridge just in case :(

Doesn't sound very promising. I hope you catch a break.
 
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