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In comparing the democratization of East Timor and Cambodia, it is essential to establish their short history of existence as a nation, their past wars and how the self-government of its people has started. Since democracy is not limited to just a set of constitutional rules and procedures, a government should exist but since government is only one element coexisting in a social composition of its people (institutions, political parties, organizations, and associations), it is important to determine the participation of its people in the exercise of their rights to form a nation based on the majority rule and protection of the rights of the minority. Pluralism exists when there is diversity and it assumes that the many organized groups and institutions in a democratic society do not depend upon government for their existence, legitimacy, or authority.

East Timor has a colonial past from Portugal, the Dutch and the Japanese (during the World War II). East Timor declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975 and was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces nine days later and became the province of Timor Timur (East Timor). There were two decades of arm struggle against the Indonesian government by which 100,000 to 250,000 East Timorese died. On 30 August 1999, in a UN-supervised popular referendum, an overwhelming majority of the people of Timor-Leste voted for independence from Indonesia. The Government of Timor-Leste held presidential and parliamentary elections from April to June 2007 (Taylor, 1991).

Cambodia has an imperial past (Khmers of the Angkor Empire). The French put Cambodia under its protection in 1863 and it became part of French Indochina in 1887 then the Japanese occupied the country during WWII, and was later declared independent in 1953 from France. In April 1975, Communist Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh and executed at least 1.5 million Cambodians. Vietnamese invasion followed which drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside and began a 10-year Vietnamese occupation. Cambodia nursed an almost 13 years of civil war. The 1991 Paris Peace Accords mandated democratic elections and a ceasefire, which was not fully respected by the Khmer Rouge. The UN-sponsored election in 1993 gave birth to a coalition government but was later ended by factional fighting in 1997. The second round of national elections in 1998 led to the formation of another coalition government and renewed political stability, the remaining elements of the Khmer Rouge surrendered in early 1999. The July 2003 election was relatively peaceful, but it took one year of negotiations between contending political parties before a coalition government was formed. In October 2004, King Sihanouk abdicated the throne due to illness and his son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, was selected to succeed him (Chandler, 2007). Their latest election was last July 2008.

Hence, some elements of democracy should exist in order to determine the democratization of the two countries at case. The first consideration is the sovereignty of the people. Both of the countries gained sovereignty (to a certain degree) in some point of their histories. Their history of independence from their colonizers (East Timor from Portugal in 1975 while Cambodia from France in 1953) is distinct and actually provides a clear statement that both countries have achieve some degrees of sovereignty. Nonetheless, their democracy as to sovereignty of the people exists.

The second aspect of the democracy on this comparison should be the government formed by its people. The government based upon consent of the governed and it should have a free and fair elections. Although both countries held several elections under the United Nations and international peace keeping coalition, they have elected their own leaders. However, it is important to note that internal conflicts from factions undermine the peaceful electoral process of both countries. It is also impossible to ascertain the degree of independence and veracity of the election result (as it is always common in third world countries to those who are in position or the powerful to manipulate the votes of the people). During the last election in Cambodia, the electorate voted through: in the Senate, 57 members are elected by functional constituencies to serve 5-year terms, 2 members are elected by the National Assembly to serve 5-year terms and 2 members are appointed by the monarch to serve 5-year terms. In the National Assembly (Radhsphea Ney Preah Recheanachakr Kampuchea) 123 members are elected by party-list system with proportional distribution of seats to serve 5-year terms (International Foundation for Electoral Systems, 2008). On the other hand, the recent election in East Timor had been a close race. With nearly 47% of the East Timorese people opting for one of the other 12 parties or coalitions. These voters turned to other smaller parties, from Christian-influenced parties, through to parties with traditional-based ties, through to the leftist Socialist Party of Timor (PST). The National Unity Party (PUN), which had not run in previous elections, gained nearly 5%, in part due to tacit approval of its policies from the leadership of the Catholic Church (Lamb, 2007). In other words, both of the countries have exercised their right to vote for their leaders and established a government led by the personalities chosen by the populace. As to the question if it was fair and free election, it should be noted that Cambodia had a more military influence and have greatly affected the free will or the outcome of the election, alleged widespread fraud and irregularities and more than 300 complaints have been lodged against partial returns from individual vote counting stations (Gluck, 1998) although East Timor is far better than Cambodia having noted that “over 500 observers from 15 countries and international organizations, including Australia, were in East Timor for the elections and overwhelmingly characterized the elections as peaceful, fair and democratic” (Downer, 2007).

Since democracy should assure that the majority rule while the rights of the minority right are being protected as well, which form the third basis of a democratized nation. In Cambodia, there is a cloud of doubt in terms of having the majority rule principle. Based on their history, the factions have created an institutionalized affair of closed military governance and speckled with the powerful and mighty usually dominate. In a report by Ronald Bruce St John for the Foreign Policy in Focus regarding the failure of the government of Cambodia’s ability to withstand the demands of democracy, he states that, “Unfortunately, the international community has largely sanctioned Cambodia's failures. It has continued to provide substantial quantities of aid in the face of mounting evidence that even modest democratic reforms are compromised (St John, 2006). In addition, since there is a question of political reforms by which the participation of the majority through pluralism is lacking, St John added that, “Cambodia must curb executive powers as it develops an honest, independent judiciary and a concomitant respect for the rule of law. Active political parties remain important precursors for a sustainable, pluralistic order with a strong educational system a prerequisite for an effective democratic polity. These are only a few of the tough issues the international community must address if it is to succeed in promoting democratization in Cambodia and in other states with little or no democratic tradition, like Afghanistan and Iraq (2006).” This means that equal powers from the judiciary, legislative and executive must maintain the balance but something that does not happen since the Executive is overpowering the balance. On the other hand, East Timor has its own set of problems as regard to democratization. The institutionalization of democracy in East Timor faces major obstacles. Due to a long history of colonization, the East Timorese people have no experience of running a large modern democracy. Consequently, they have a lack of expertise in developing and maintaining democratic institutions. To set up the administrative systems that make a modern democracy possible requires money, time and skilled staff, none of which is plentiful in East Timor.

The guarantee of basic human rights in both countries is problematic. Their infancy in the arena of democracy has resulted to a certain degree of abuse of human rights. For a democracy to be effective, human rights need to be a priority. This means that the government must ensure that basic needs such as food, shelter and health care are met. Education should also be considered a human right and is an essential component of a healthy democracy. It is very difficult for people to participate in the political life of their country if basic needs like these are not met. These two countries are very poor, they lack the resources to provide equal opportunity for its citizens to access the basic services and attend to the basic needs of its people. According to a Joint Statement by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch during the 9th session of the UN Human Rights Council, “Lack of integrity and independence within the court system sits at the centre of Cambodia’s current human rights problems – its most notable impact is an escalating land crisis. Forced evictions further impoverish the marginalized, who are routinely deprived of redress. Violence against women goes unpunished. Freedoms of expression and association are compromised and human rights defenders, opposition journalists, and community activists defending land and natural resources are increasingly imprisoned on baseless charges, physically attacked, or murdered; the perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. The Supreme Council of Magistracy, established to ensure independence and effectiveness of the judiciary remains ineffectual, while the Constitutional Council has continuously failed to demonstrate its role to safeguard the constitutionality of legislation.” (Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch, 2008) While the human rights situation in East Timor is primarily effected by the Indonesian government, a report by Angela Balakrishnan noted that a report found Indonesia was guilty of carrying out human rights abuse on a grand scale during East Timor's 1999 break for independence (Balakrishnan, 2008).

The fourth defining element of democratization is the equality before the law, implementation of due process of law and existence of constitutional limits on government. Earlier it was noted in this paper that the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch delivered a report that Cambodia has continuously failed to safeguard the constitutionality of legislation. There is an overwhelming influence of the Executive power as it tips the balance of power. On the other hand, East Timor has shown its continued effort to provide the nation with a democracy but is constantly under siege by internal conflicts. The conflict in both countries, especially in East Timor has been devastating the peaceful implementation of the government of democracy while the government of Cambodia has continuously failed to curb corruption thereby causing inequality among its people. The corruption in both countries exist but Cambodia has more flaws in terms of its failure to reduce the surging rate of corruption while East Timor finds it hard to control the nation because of internal arm struggle and political conflicts.

The social, economic, and political pluralism in a democratized country must be evident. Active political participation can only emerge in democracies that are able to solve more fundamental problems of major economic inequalities and poverty. The problem with both countries, the predicament of economic inequality and poverty is at its highest point. The values of tolerance, pragmatism, cooperation, and compromise in both countries do exist to some extent. It is essential that a democratic country should have the ability to cooperate and promote tolerance with each other, such as the existence of freedom of speech, assembly, press and other freedoms that inherently promotes tolerance and compromise. Nowadays, it is extremely difficult to completely subdue these basic freedoms though to the advent of modern communication. It is however unfortunate that Cambodia find its too uneasy to grant this rights to its people, the Government, the military forces, and the ruling political party continued to dominate the broadcast media and to influence the content of broadcasts. According to a 2001 report by the UNHCHR, the procedures for licensing and allocation of radio and television frequencies to the media were not impartial. The SRP has consistently been unable to obtain a broadcast license. During 2001, it briefly broadcast radio programs from a site in a neighboring country, but subsequently suspended broadcasts for technical reasons. There were seven television stations, all controlled or strongly influenced by the CPP. Government control severely limited the content of television and radio broadcasting. At the initiative of the President of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Information-controlled national television and radio stations broadcast taped sessions of the National Assembly's debates; however, in several instances, these broadcasts were censored (UNCHR, 2001). In East Timor, the freedom is relatively relaxed compared to that of Cambodia. Given the country's transition to a functional democracy, the government has warned journalists to exercise their freedom with responsibility, and official reactions to overly adverse reporting remain a concern. In June, the Ministry of the Interior expelled Australian freelance journalist Julian King for allegedly subverting the state in his reporting. There is as yet no press council to adjudicate disputes. Therefore, the government uses legal codes adopted from Indonesian and Portuguese laws to address any aberrant, albeit undefined, media-related practices. However, no major incursions on press freedom were noted in 2004, although the government did on several occasions attempt to influence coverage (Freedom House, 2005).

Democratization in Cambodia and East Timor is an effort, an endeavor by which they both has to undergo the process to adopt such a regime. It is extremely difficult to determine how that process occurs, including what criteria to use in determining if democratization has, in fact, taken place. Typically, democracy has truly taken root until at least three national elections have been held. Another criterion could be the peaceful transfer of power from one political party or coalition to the former opposition. Such a transition is critical because it indicates that the major political forces in a country are prepared to settle their disputes without violence and to accept that they will all spend periods of time out of office. Unfortunately, using that as our determinants, it is still immature to predispose or declare that both countries have actually achieved democracy.



References

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