Potemkin Democracy - Hun Sen's Cambodia - page 102

the reform of the NEC and the sharing of power at the village level. More provocatively,
they called for Hun Sen and his powerful right-hand man, Sok An, to step down. Rainsy
proposed a new coalition be formed under Chea Sim, presumably hoping to divide the
party along factional lines.
It was never likely to happen. Hun Sen laid out the usual assortment of carrots and
sticks. To lure them back into government, he promised new jobs for Ranariddh's men at
every level of government. Some Funcinpec officials could literally not afford to stand on
principle. During the 2003 election, CPP-aligned tycoons had bankrolled the campaigns
of a number of royalist politicians, saddling them with debts and obligations they could
only pay back by securing lucrative government posts. Steve Heder described the party as
“a partly-owned subsidiary of the CPP and its tycoons,” a fact which alienated the young-
er, more idealistic politicians in the SRP. 38 As the negotiations dragged on, Cambodia
effectively had no functioning government. But since the government did so little for the
people in any case, most of the country barely noticed.
Om Radsady was not a man given to extravagance. He lived modestly and drove a beat-up
old car. Everyone who knew him described him as generous, humble, and warm-hearted.
In fact, if there was one Cambodian politician who could convincingly claim to be uncor-
rupted by his office, it was Radsady. Radsady, who had served as a member of parliament
with Funcinpec from 1993 to 1998, often ate at a small restaurant a short walk across
the park from the National Assembly building, near the Kabko Market. It was a popular
place, which served simple Khmer dishes and chipped pots of jasmine tea under brightly
colored plastic awnings.
At noon on February 18, 2003, Radsady had just finished a meal at his usual spot when
an unknown assailant walked up and shot him several times in the chest. After walking
away, the killer calmly returned to take Radsady's mobile phone, to provide “evidence”
for later claims that the killing was motivated by robbery. The killer escaped on a motor-
bike. Radsady died four hours later. Ira Dassa, Keith Schulz, Evan Gottesman, and Brad
Adams, four legal consultants who had worked with Radsady during his time in parlia-
ment, penned a moving eulogy in the pages of the Phnom Penh Post : “It's hard to imagine
a more unlikely target for an assassin's bullet … The irony that someone as gentle and
open to discussion as Radsady was silenced in such a violent way is beyond contempla-
tion.” 39 Two soldiers were arrested and admitted to the “robbery.” Rights groups claimed
they were scapegoats; even the Ministry of Interior didn't believe the official story. It
formed an emergency committee to investigate the killing further, but little progress was
ever made. 40 In October the two were sentenced to 20 years prison for the shooting. One
SRP lawmaker described the trial as “a show.” 41