(June 24, 2006/ Tagaytay City, Philippines) The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), through its chairman, Philippine Senate President Franklin Drilon, lauded Liberal International (LI) today for awarding Cambodian opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, MP, the much coveted Prize for Freedom Award for 2006.
CALD is the umbrella of liberal and democratic parties in the region, which is currently chaired by the Liberal Party of the Philippines. The Secretary General of CALD is Bukidnon representative, Dr. Neric Acosta.
The Sam Rainsy Party is also a member of CALD with Sam Rainsy serving as CALD Chairman from 2000 to 2002. Another member is the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan and the immediate past CALD Chair is President Chen Shui-bian. It was former CALD Secretary General, Ms. Bi-Khim Hsiao, a Taiwanese MP, who nominated Mr. Sam to the award.
LI is the London-based world federation of liberal and progressive democratic political parties. Founded in 1947, LI has since become the pre-eminent network for promoting liberalism, individual freedom, human rights, the rule of law, tolerance, equality of opportunity, social justice, free trade and a market economy.
CALD also lauded the acceptance of Dr. Martin Lee, Founding Chairman of Hong Kong’s Democrat Party, as individual member of LI. The Malaysian People’s Movement Party (Gerakan) and the Sam Rainsy Party were also accepted as observers of LI. Dr. Lee is CALD’s first individual member and is himself a recipient of the LI Prize for Freedom. Gerakan is a CALD founding member.
“Sam Rainsy has been Cambodia’s leading champion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law for almost a decade. And while he faces danger with his life, Sam Rainsy continues to fight to implement freedom and democracy in dictatorial Cambodia,” states the Bureau of Liberal International.
Born in 1949 in Phnom Penh, Sam Rainsy moved to France in 1965 where he began his academic life and successful career in banking and finance. He joined the royalist FUNCINPEC Party and returned to Cambodia in 1992 to become his country’s Finance Minister. He was expelled from FUNCINPEC and was stripped of his seat in parliament and a year later founded the Khmer Nation Party which changed its name to Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) before the 1998 elections.
In the 2003 Poll, SRP won 22 percent of the votes, becoming the second party after Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party.
Sam Rainsy went into exile after he and two of his colleagues were stripped of their parliamentary immunity in 2005 which was restored recently.
Sam Rainsy’s activism is not without risk: he has been a target of assassination attempts three times. While his life faces danger, Sam Rainsy continues to fight for freedom and democracy in the face of authoritarianism.
“It was during his exile that CALD and LP hosted the meeting of the Sam Rainsy Party in Manila last November,” Senator Drilon stated when asked for his reaction on the LI Prize for Freedom given to SamRainy. “We Filipinos could do no less since during the darkest days of Martial Law, many of our leading figures sought refuge elsewhere. The foremost figure was of course our martyred hero, the late Senator Ninoy Aquino. We are confident that Sam Rainsy—the Ninoy Aquino of Cambodia—will be a major force in the democratization of his native Cambodia. However, we fervently pray that Sam Rainsy will not suffer the same fate of Ninoy Aquino. The LI Prize for Freedom can serve as an invisible but potent shield of international solidarity, many voices but one in vision and united in spirit.”
LI just concluded in Tagaytay City its 176 Executive Committee Meeting. This is the first Execom LI ever had in Asia and only the second after Taipei, Taiwan in 2000. This followed the very successful joint Meeting of CALD, LI and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) last June 22 in Manila. The meeting was keynoted by former Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino, herself a recipient of the LI Prize for Freedom.
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