The 8 parties running in 2013 In the car ride leaving Phnom Penh today (to go to our service project site), I realised that the village probably won't be like the city- political campaign wise. Even though I already wrote about politics and regardless of the fact that this is very similar to that entry, I just wanted to reiterate the aspects of the campaigns that surprise me most especially since, in the last few days, I have learned more about them than what I knew before.
What shocks me most is how much money goes into the campaigns and that by "campaigns", that isn't the parties giving speeches, debating or doing anything else to show their view on issues. Instead, it's more of a popularity contest based on
superficial things. No one sees the actual people who are running, only representatives from one party: the Cambodian People's Party. Representatives get paid about $5 a day to stand in the streets wearing CPP clothes and hats or to sit in expensive sort of... floats (? more like trucks) with someone singing songs about Cambodia. I find that silly. People find out about what each party does based on rumours and assumptions and, to be honest, with everything that I've seen, I don't think this is a solid system at all.
This, all of it, is just so interesting because I have never been anywhere where elections are held this way. Will we forget that there is the political campaigns going on when we are in the village? Or will there still be some part of the system that spreads even to the less developed areas of Cambodia? They vote too so.... how does it all work there? I guess I'll have to wait and see.
LM
What shocks me most is how much money goes into the campaigns and that by "campaigns", that isn't the parties giving speeches, debating or doing anything else to show their view on issues. Instead, it's more of a popularity contest based on
superficial things. No one sees the actual people who are running, only representatives from one party: the Cambodian People's Party. Representatives get paid about $5 a day to stand in the streets wearing CPP clothes and hats or to sit in expensive sort of... floats (? more like trucks) with someone singing songs about Cambodia. I find that silly. People find out about what each party does based on rumours and assumptions and, to be honest, with everything that I've seen, I don't think this is a solid system at all.
This, all of it, is just so interesting because I have never been anywhere where elections are held this way. Will we forget that there is the political campaigns going on when we are in the village? Or will there still be some part of the system that spreads even to the less developed areas of Cambodia? They vote too so.... how does it all work there? I guess I'll have to wait and see.
LM
