Tuesday 17 September 2013


The meeting has reached an agreement on three points:
1. Respect the king's message dated 16/9/13 calling for calm and peace after a day of violence between police and protesters.
2. Both sides agreed to set up a mechanism for the reforms of the elections in the future.
3. Both sides continue to talk at all levels to resolve national issues. 
Khmerican's comment: In my opinion, the agreement is worth the paper it is written on. The first point is effectively calling for a stop of the protests. If there is no protest, there would not be police presence and therefore there will be no violence, hence protests must cease first. Hun Sen won on this point.
The second point, Hun Sen won again. The agreement did not set a specific time frame. The election reforms will take place "in the future". The future can mean anything -10, 20 years. Hun Sen is notorious for reneging on agreements. He will forget this point after he is appointed PM, so Sam Rainsy should insert clauses that state specifically the time frame, say "the reform must commence immediately after the new government is formed", etc.
The third point, Hun Sen won again. It said both sides continue to talk, but again did not set a specific time frame (date) when the talk has to start. Hun Sen can just procrastinate or ignore this point altogether after he is appointed PM.
Again, Rainsy must remember that Hun Sen is notorious for reneging on agreements. As soon as he got what he wanted, he will forget everything about the agreements. To conclude, in my opinion, this agreement is a no-agreement, it's meaningless as far as Hun Sen is concerned.

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