The Democratic Process and a Communist Capital

On Sunday, July 27, Cambodia held its fourth national election since the United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTAC) ended its mandates in the country. I served as an international election monitor and spent the day traveling to dozens of polling stations recording my observations. I reported to the LICADHO office at 5:45 in the morning, and met up with Sophie (the other LICADHO intern) and Sophath, a Cambodian employee of LICADHO -- he helped us understand what was going on and served as our translator when we needed it. Our duty was to observe the set-up and procedures at each station and record any problems or inconsistencies we saw (we had forms from a monitoring agency to fill out). We had to visit the same polling station at the opening and closing of the polls and had to stay for the vote-counting process. It was quite an interesting window into the democratic process in a developing country, and I was surprised to see many Cambodian observers (who had credentials through different organizations). Also, each political party is entitled to station their own observer at each polling place. There are 11 registered political parties in Cambodia, but each station only had 3 or 4 party agents, usually only from the few largest parties. The “party agents” observed the process throughout the day at the station and could file complaints if they saw anything they thought was unfair. They were also present for the counting of the votes and were eligible can contest the vote total if they think it is inaccurate. Voters did not vote for individual candidates, but instead for which political party they supported. The winning parties fill the seats in the national assembly and the party (or coalition of parties) with more than half of the total vote gets to choose the prime minister. Seats in the national assembly are filled proportionally to the vote totals for each party in each province.

We didn't observe any major problems during the election, but there was a very large number of people who complained that their names were missing (or had been removed) from the voter rolls. We met several other international observers (mostly from America, Canada, and Europe) at various points, and one man (from an international NGO called the National Democratic Institute) told us that his organization had done an audit of the voter lists in June and had found that 57,000 "real" names had been removed for no apparent reason ("real" names were those of people who were eligible to vote -- not too young, not aliases, not those of the deceased, etc.). NDI informed the National Election Committee in June, but they said it was too late to correct the problem. Other than that, there weren't any major instances of violence or big problems anywhere in the country. The Cambodian People's Party (the CPP is the ruling party here, and their prime minister, Hun Sen, has a tight grip on power) won about 60% of the votes nationwide and will maintain control of the national government. The CPP has far less support in Phnom Penh, but their control comes from major support in the rural provinces. The entire process was fascinating to watch, and Naly (my boss at LICADHO) said that one of our major roles as an observer was just to be present so that our "white" (western) faces would deter any foul play.

The next weekend (the first weekend in August), Ian and I flew to Hanoi on Friday evening and took a minibus (a large van that serves as a shared taxi) into the city and walked a couple of blocks to our hotel. The shared taxi was cheaper than a private one. We got some food and then went to sleep because we had to get up really early on Saturday to see everything we wanted.

On Saturday, we left the hotel around 7:15 and had a traditional Vietnamese breakfast of pho (noodle soup) with beef. After breakfast, we went to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where we shuffled in a long line to see the preserved body of the communist leader. His glass casket was in a cold room with Vietnamese soldiers guarding the display, and visitors proceed silently and respectfully in a U-shape around three sides of the case. After the viewing, we snapped a few pictures outside and then saw the Ho Chi Minh stilt house (a wooden two-room house where he lived a simple life for a decade of his rule) and other buildings used by the leader, such as his garage and another living quarters. Then we went to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which has displays on the "virtues" of the leader and the "successes" of the communist revolution in Vietnam. The propaganda was quite entertaining, but it only got better later in the day. Then we went to the Temple of Literature, which was a university in the 12th century (the oldest university in Vietnam). The complex includes some of the courtyards and gates that defined the land, as well as a collection of carved stones displaying the names of graduates from various classes. Next we took a cab to the Museum of Ethnology, which has displays on the various indigenous people who live in the different regions of Vietnam. The displays included reconstructed traditional houses from all over the country and presentations on traditional handicrafts, musical instruments, and clothing. After we grabbed some lunch we went to the Hanoi Hilton (also known as the Hoa Lo prison), where the North Vietnamese held American POW pilots who were shot down, the most famous of which was John McCain. Before the prison held American POWs, it was used by the French colonists to imprison Vietnamese criminals and rebels. Most of the displays in Hoa Lo focused on this time period and the "unjust" actions of the French, as well as the "brave" escape attempts by the Vietnamese prisoners. One small display, in two little rooms, housed information about the American POWs. Their life at the prison was depicted as quite pleasant, even enjoyable. They even had pictures of the POWs being presented with "souvenirs" (some sort of traditional illustrations) upon their release (so they could presumably fondly remember their time there?). There was no mention of torture or impropriety; in fact, just the opposite was on display, with pictures of POWs playing basketball and having Christmas dinner. After the Hanoi Hilton, we visited the Jade Mountain Temple (also known as Ngoc Son Temple) on Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Restored Sword). The Temple is out in the middle of the small lake and you must cross a bridge to get there. The lake was once home to a number of large turtles. Legend has it that emperor Le Loi used a magic sword to win a revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty, and the Golden Turtle God in the Hoan Kiem Lake emerged and took the sword, returning it to its origin deep in the waters, thereby giving the lake its name. Today the temple showcases the preserved remains of a giant turtle, even though none have been spotted in the lake since 2006. That evening we had dinner at a place called Cyclo, where the chairs are made from converted cyclo seats (the three-wheel bicycle carriages).

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Halong Bay, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After a three-hour drive to the coast of the Gulf of Tonkin, we arrived at Halong Bay, a body of water with 3,000 tall limestone islands. We took a four-hour cruise around the bay on a junk boat (a traditional boat popular in Chine and Southeast Asia), stopping at a floating village where about 30 families live and work as fishers. The children even attend a floating schools docked near the floating houses. We also visited two caves on one of the larger islands before heading back to the dock. After another three-hour drive to get back to Hanoi, Ian and I had dinner at a restaurant specializing in different types of spring rolls. We took an early flight back to Phnom Penh on Monday morning and got back around 1:15 (after our layover in Saigon).