Editor,

In a period of time of less than a week, from August 10 to 16, the Phnom Penh Post managed to publish two articles with biased and misleading comments on the opposition CNRP.

In CNRP casts its shadow (August 10), controversial political analyst Ou Virak alleged that Mr Kem Sokha and myself (Sam Rainsy) tended to “always grab the limelight”, thus making the CNRP appear as “a two-man show”.

This kind of comment reminds me of the time when the Sam Rainsy Party, the first parliamentary opposition party I founded in 1998, was seen by those who only superficially knew it, as a “one-man show”.

As a correction to their misjudgment, I just suggested that they ask themselves the following question: “How come one person alone could manage to collect up to 2 millions popular votes at that time for a political party whose popularity had been steadily growing for 15 years, even when the man in question in the so-called “one-man show” (Sam Rainsy) was not even in the country?”

From 2005 to 2013, I had been effectively forced into exile twice for a total of five years. This leads to the issue of organisation: Any undertaking happily becomes a real and effective organisation when it can hold on its own and continues to progress even without the physical presence of its founder(s).

This remark that applied in the past to the Sam Rainsy Party then wrongly considered as a “one-man show”, is even more valid now for the CNRP that some people wrongly consider as a “two-man show”, even after half of the nation had enthusiastically expressed its support for this organisation representing Cambodia’s first-ever united democratic opposition.

In another article, in CNRP to hold regular discussions of policy (August 16), the reporter wrote, “Rainsy regularly posts pictures of himself on social media – recently visiting vineyards in the French countryside or, to show his support for the Black Monday campaign, riding a bicycle through Paris.” This is a distorted report on some of my recent Facebook posts.

On August 15, I did post a picture of myself on a bicycle in Paris but the written explanation – intended to be educative for my 3 millions followers in Cambodia – was in fact, “In Europe’s big cities such as Paris, municipalities build special lanes for bicycles, which often have priority over cars when it comes to traffic regulation.” Therefore your comment that associated that picture of mine with the Black Monday campaign in Cambodia, is grossly inaccurate and irrelevant.

Moreover, in the same August 16 article, the same controversial political analyst Ou Virak already quoted in your August 10 article, again insolently attacked the CNRP and myself by saying, “It doesn’t appear that Rainsy has any ideas or policies” in leading the CNRP.

This is an insult to the some 3 millions Cambodian citizens who bravely and intelligently voted for the CNRP at the 2013 national elections. Mr Ou Virak seems to imply that those 3 millions citizens voted for the united democratic opposition out of stupidity and in total ignorance of where the CNRP wants to lead the nation to.

In trying to discredit the CNRP for his self-promotion, Mr Ou Virak is only discrediting himself as a biased and unreliable “political analyst”. He deliberately and shockingly ignores the “100 Measures” proposed by the Sam Rainsy Party as solutions to fix the various problems facing the nation up to 2012, as he ignores the CNRP’s very popular “Seven-Point Message” and our whole political platform covering all fields of national interest and broadly publicised prior to the 2013 national elections.

Over a more recent period of time, Mr Ou Virak chooses to also ignore the 67-page CNRP’s updated political program for the 2017 and 2018 local and national elections that has been reported in the press after its being completed with the technical assistance of Germany’s respected Konrad Adenauer Stiftung foundation.

He also chooses to ignore countless analyses, articles and letters of mine as published in the press and on my Facebook page over the past 12 months, which elaborated on the many reforms I advocate for Cambodia.

Here are some of the topics I have addressed: “Job creation policy”, “Productivity and Value Added as the two determining factors in winning the battle against unemployment and low salaries”, “Well-paid jobs based on the development of modern and competitive industries”, “Importance of good quality education and professional training”, “Seven concrete measures to increase agricultural productivity in order to reduce poverty in the countryside”, “Helping migrant workers find stable lives in Cambodia”, “Raising the minimum wage for garment workers”, “Solving the crisis in the local rice sector”, “Establishing an effective public health policy” and “Balancing development with preserving indigenous ways of life”.

For a short summary of my “ideas and policies,” Mr Ou Virak should at least read and remember my well-titled letter Misguided Analysis Ignores CNRP’s Many Policy Proposals published in the Cambodia Daily on August 10, 2016.

For a more indepth look at my policy proposals, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/zlarez7

Sam Rainsy

CNRP president