phuketrichard wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 10:15 am was there any doubt?

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 10:15 am was there any doubt?
Cambodian daily called 90% seats for CPP

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 2:53 pm

Doc67 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 1:48 pm

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 10:15 am was there any doubt?
Cambodian daily called 90% seats for CPP

At least Cambodia has the democratic maturity and credibility to allow the winners to assume power, which they won fair a square and richly deserved, unlike some countries I could mention.

"..... Cambodia has the democratic maturity and credibility " LOL

no problem:
America
Thailand
both run by dinosaurs trying to hold onto power at all costs

xandreu wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 11:22 pm I think that as westerners, we sometimes place too much emphasis on democracy and we fail to understand that, let's say, different types of democrocies work better for different types of countries.

You only have to look at the state of American politics since Trump arrived on the scene, or British politics ever since Brexit, to know that we have lost the torch-bearer status of democrocy that we once held around the world. You might say that countries where there is only one party which is guaranteed to win every election by whatever means possible is a negative thing, and doesn't truly represent the will of the people, but let's face it, in most 'first-past-the-post' electoral systems like the US and the UK, we only have one more choice than those countries anyway.

In the UK, only the Conservatives or Labour ever win elections. Yes we have smaller parties, but because of the way the system works, they don't have a hope in hell of ever gaining power. The same goes for the US. Only the Democrats or the Republicans will ever win an election. Can we honestly put our hands on our hearts and say that these systems truly represent the will of the people?

It's not so much how governments gain their power, it's what they do with that power that counts. Since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the CPP (and it's former names) have offered Cambodia a level of political stability that took a while to take hold, but now that it has, foreign investors largely see Cambodia as a pretty safe bet when it comes to investing here, which is transforming the Cambodian economy in ways Cambodia could not do on its own.

But more importantly, is the way autocratic governments treat their citizens. Of course, a lot more can be done to solve the poverty issues here, as well as social services, healthcare and state education, all of which are serious issues which I'm not simply brushing under the carpet, but people generally aren't fearful of their government, so long as they don't cross certain lines, namely being too critical of them publicly.

The government don't seem to have any interest in exerting unnecessary control over it's people. Citizens aren't routinely stopped in the streets and asked for their papers, or treated with suspicion. The government don't seem to give two hoots about what people do, where they go, who their friends are, where that large questionable bank deposit came from. Despite the odd rogue police officer, (which you get in any country) the police aren't known for being overtly corrupt on a day-to-day basis. I'm talking about things like 'discovering' a bag of drugs in your car which leaves you with the option of paying the corrupt officer a large bribe or facing some jail time. From what I hear from the Khmer friends I know and have known, the police have a pretty good reputation here, which is more than can be said for my country.

People often ask me why I choose to live in Cambodia, and whilst the honest answer is that there is no one single answer, one of the main reasons is that I feel a hell of a lot freer in Cambodia than I do back home. I don't feel like the government is breathing down my neck all the time, either wanting my money, or wanting to know what I'm doing with my money. I'm not constantly tracked and spied on by CCTV every time I set foot out of my door. I feel free to do whatever I like, whenever I like and with whom I like, within laws that I feel are generally reasonable, not repressive and don't infringe on my freedoms, so long as I use some common sense when speaking about the government publicly, which to me, is a pretty good trade off.

Democracy is not all it's cracked up to be. I'm much more concerned with political stability, reasonably low crime rates, especially when it comes to serious crime, a sense of freedom, nobody abusing my human rights, and the right to go about my own business without having to explain myself at each and every step.

Cambodia pretty much ticks those boxes for me. So to be honest, I couldn't care less how those in power got there.