Sokha’s daughters launch tirade against Rainsy

Sokha’s daughters launch tirade against Rainsy

Two daughters of former Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Kem Sokha have lambasted the party co-founder Sam Rainsy for linking their father to political activities.

In a Twitter post yesterday, Kem Monovithya, former deputy director of the court-dissolved CNRP’s public affairs department, called Rainsy deceitful.

“My father #KemSokha is entitled to his opinion to call his deceitful partner to stop exploiting him & deceiving the public. The partnership was effectively over when his partner called on the party/people in #Cambodia to abandon him when he’s imprisoned & led a deceitful campaign.”

Another daughter of Sokha’s, Kem Samathida, said that Rainsy was a racist who branded her and her sister as Vietnamese.

“My family put up with Rainsy’s smears for decades, from racist false claim that we were Vietnamese to sexist attacks on my sister following my father’s arrest. Any self-proclaimed anti-racist and feminist who defends Rainsy should be known as the hypocritical fool they are,” Samathida said.

“Ever since the arrest of my father, Sam Rainsy’s closest allies launched constant smear campaigns against him and our family on Khmer social media. We were never allowed to defend ourselves for the so-called ‘unity’,” she said.

Monovithya and Samathida’s scathing reactions came a few days after their father publicly disassociated himself from Rainsy who continued to link him to political activities.

Sokha’s Human Rights Party and Rainsy’s Sam Rainsy Party merged in 2012 to form the CNRP before the 2013 national election.

Sokha, who is facing trial on a treason charge at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and remains under court supervision, said on Sunday that Rainsy and his colleagues continued to use his name and photo in connection with activities that did not obtain his green light and that he did not support it.

“Moreover, in fact, Sam Rainsy and his colleagues have walked away from the original principles and spirit of unity by creating various new political movements. Their recent actions, to openly support or lead from behind the scenes, their old political party, the Candlelight Party, show this clearly,” Sokha said.

Some ex-CNRP officials accused Rainsy of being behind the re-emergence of the Candlelight Party, formerly named after him despite its 2017 name change.

Rainsy has also declared himself “acting president” of the court-dissolved CNRP, a move which was previously denounced by the Sokha faction as a “party coup”. Khmer Times