The Cambodian Youth Party – whose litigious leader Pich Sros first initiated the proceedings against the now-dissolved CNRP – released a short policy document last night promising better education and health services in the country, while also presenting a plan to build roads along its borders.
The tiny party garnered outsize attention last year thanks to Sros' penchant for high-profile legal complaints, filed against members of the funeral committee of slain political analyst Kem Ley, against now-jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha and finally against the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party itself, in a complaint that parroted ruling party rhetoric by requesting the party's dissolution for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government.
Since the CNRP's widely condemned dissolution, the CYP was awarded some of its commune council positions, and the minor party is also contesting the upcoming Senate elections next month.
Sros posted a policy document on his Facebook account Monday night promising to promote education and create more jobs with salaries of at least $300 per month. The current minimum wage, applicable only to the footwear and garment sector, is $170. The party also proposed focusing development on villages along Cambodia’s borders by providing paved roads and better access to far-flung regions.
“All politicians are just looking at the border markers and map but not looking at the real land,” Sros said in an interview today, adding that road access to the borders would allow Cambodians to monitor “bad neighbouring countries from stealing our land”.
“This policy is not the big thing. If we look at the US ... [President] Donald Trump protects his country’s border and he promises to build the wall along the border, but for us it is easier to just build the road,” he continued. “When our Khmer people will live at the border they are the equivalent of living border markers – markers which will have spirit.”
