BICAMERAL PARLIAMENT OF CAMBODIA

Bicameral Parliament of Cambodia Tak Tey San Narith Chim Vutheany Choeung Voeun Cambodian Government and Politics Prof. Sar Molinine Room: Phnom Oral Passtra University of Cambodia

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Bicameral Parliament of Cambodia National institutions of Cambodia, particularly the Parliament has been modified and reorganized from time to time as a consequence of the changes in political regimes. Cambodian Parliament had been a monarchy composed of bicameral parliament until 1970, and from 1970 to 1975, the Parliament of Cambodia also made up of two chambers, but at that time Cambodia was a Republic state. Starting from 1975 to 1979, there was a single chamber in the Parliament since Cambodia was a totalitarian state. Between 1979 and 1993, Cambodia became a socialist state, and the Parliament still had only one house. After reaching Paris Peace Accord on 23 October 1991, Cambodia had been conducted election supported by United Nations in 1993. The national election in 1998, which was conducted by Cambodia itself led to a major political crisis over the disagreement on the validity of that election result. However, the political deadlock was resolved during the summit from 12 to 13 November, 1998 under the highest chairmanship of His Majesty Samdach Norodom Sihanouk. The agreement decided to create the Senate by amending the Constitution; since that time, Cambodia has practiced new parliamentary system with two houses, the Senate and the National Assembly (NA). The Senate and the National Assembly is combined to form the legislative body of the Cambodia. By 2006, there were 61 members in the Senate, and 123 members in the National Assembly. The meeting of this supreme institution is open to the public, but only the Parliamentarians could express their ideas and concerns. The current President of the Senate is Samdach Chea Sim and the present President of the National Assembly is Samdach Heng Samrin. Each House has its own budget, a Standing Committee (12 members), 9 Specialized Commissions, one Secretariat General, provincial and municipal offices for Parliamentarians. Since the topic is too broad to discuss, we will only raise some critical points that we think are necessary to present. The Senate Forming The Senate was created according to article 99 of Constitution after the amendment in 1999. The Senate is not a democratic body comparing to the National Assembly. According to Article 100 of the Constitution, four Senators are appointedtwo are nominated by the King, and other two are selected by the National Assembly with majority vote, and the rest are elected by non-universal elections. The three officers of the Senate, the President, the First Vice President, and the Second Vice President are chosen by a two-third majority of the members of the Senate. The members of the Senate cannot be exceeded half of the number of members of the National Assembly, but the number can be less than half. Nevertheless, for the first term of the Senate, all Senators were appointed by the King. All Senators must be from political parties which own seats in the National Assembly. The term of the Senate is 6 years and this term shall be expired upon the replacement of new Senators according the Article 102 of the constitution, which means that the election of Senators shall be held every six years. If the election of Senators cannot be conducted due to any special circumstances, the Senate can pursue its term year by year upon the proposal of the King. Functioning According to Article 113 of the Constitution, the Senate shall examine and give a recommendation to a draft or proposed law that was firstly adopted by the Assembly and other matters that the Assembly submitted with no longer than one month. The Senate also has the role to facilitate the work between NA and the Royal Government of Cambodia

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(RGC). The President of the Senate also takes on the role of acting as the Head of State when the King is absent or out of the country getting medical treatment. When the Senate President takes the role of Regent, the First Vice President will assume the duties of the President of the Senate, and the Second Vice President will become acting First Vice President. Talking about rights of Senators, the Senators enjoy the parliamentary immunity as the National Assemblys members do. No Senators shall be executed, detained, or arrested because of opinions expressed during the exercises of his or her duties. As seen in the Senates forming and functioning, it looks like the establishment of the Senate is to strengthen legislative branch by reviewing the laws passed by NA and coordinating the work between NA and RGC. But taking a look at the history of the Senate, sharing power between the major political parties is conducted to solve the political deadlock of forming coalition government anyway. Significantly, when the Cambodian People Party offered the position of President of the National Assembly to the Leader of FUNCINPEC, in turn, FUNCINPEC supported the Vice President of CPP to be the prime minister. Because of the top two positions of the State had been divided, the problem appeared while the President of CPP, used to be the National Assemblys President from 1993 to 1998, did not own a seat in any institution. By resolving the deadlock, the new institution had been created, and the position of the Senates president had been given to the President of CPP from that time. The National Assembly Forming and Functioning The National Assembly is created under the constitution of Cambodia which composed of at least 120 members of representatives whose are directly elected by the citizen for five-year term. The National Assembly has its functions as following. First, it represents the people in their own constituency and the nationwide. The institution collects the issues raised by the people and brings those issues to discuss in the meeting of the National Assembly to find the best methods of the conflict resolutions. Whenever people want to request or file a complaint to the government, they progress it through their representatives. Next, the main function that the constitution gives to them is the ability to propose laws or to make amendments to existing laws which are less efficient, or too difficult to adopt. For example, before 2005 in order to form the new government, each political party had to win the popular election with 2/3 of the overall votes. They had amended that law by replacing the new law which requires a party to receive 50%+1 of all the seats in NA to form the new government. Third, they vote on legislation, international conventions, proclamations of war, and treaties with other countries. The government cannot make the above jobs without acknowledgment of the NA. The NA also has rights to vote for confident to choose the Premier and his Cabinet to run the daily operation of the Government. Besides, NA also has the power to dismiss members of RGC according to the article 98 of the constitution or the dissolve the entire cabinet through the vote of no confident. Law Making Process Even the constitution power to the National Assembly to make law, but it doesnt limit that only the National Assembly that can initiate the law. Therefore, it might have many institutions that can propose laws. According to the article 91the New constitution 2004 says that any member of the Senate, the National Assembly, and Prime Minister have the right to initiate laws. However, the process of making laws is different at the first step before

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summited to the National Assembly. Also, its called in different name, for where these proposed laws are from. To be clear, we will discuss these approaches one by one. First, any member of the Senate can propose the law. This law is called proposed law. The law was sent to the technical expert commission of the Senate for review and recommendations. After that, it was passed to the Senate standing committee. Then it would be summited to National Assembly for discussion and approved it. Anyway, NA has to send it to the Senate to review again even if it firstly proposed by the Senate. Next is the law that proposes by the National Assembly. Any member of the National Assembly can propose a law, but it must be in written, and divided into articles. S/he needs to attach with a Statement of Cause in order to explain why this proposed law is needed and how it is important to the state as well as the citizens. Then this proposed law was sent to one of the commission which responsible for that field. (The 9 commissions of NA are responsible for different or field. For example, if the law talks about education, it will go directly to the commission of Education, Religion, Culture, and Tourism). The last kind of the proposed law is the law that proposes by the government. This proposed law is named as Draft Law. This is the comment way of making law in Cambodia. We rarely see the law proposed by the Senate and the National Assembly, but we always found the Draft Law. This draft law was originally proposed by a particular ministry or Council of Ministers. When any ministry has already drafted a law by the legal department, they sent it to the Council of Ministers for review, discussion, and approving. Next, the draft law was sent to NA for approving. When the National Assembly approve, they have to send it to the Senate for review again. The Senate can reject, accept, or modify the law, but it is not necessarily that the National Assembly has to do as what the Senate decided. This means that when the Senate returns the law to the National Assembly, NA can change or reject the decision of the senate. The law was sent to King for promulgation. The law will get into forced in 10 days after the promulgation in Phnom Penh, and 20 days for the rest of the country. However, it will get in force immediately after the day of promulgation in Cambodia in case of emergency. Conclusion All in all, Cambodian Bicameral Parliament had been in existence since 1970, but the new bicameral parliament today is new in term of name of both chambers and some amendment to the functions only. The Senate working to review as well as to ensure that the laws passed by the National Assembly serve the people interests. However, it is obvious that Senate was established for solving the political deadlock by sharing the interests between the political parties in the National Assembly in 1998 only. After we have researched the Bicameral Parliament of Cambodia, we strongly suggest that we should give more power to the Senate. Meanwhile, the way of selecting the member of the Senate shall be changed to the mixed system or general election like the case in Japan. In that sense, 50% of member should be come from the universal election and other come from the universal election so that our Senate will be strong and independent. In that way, it will reflect the will of the citizens and there will be less criticism also.

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References The Royal Government of Cambodia. (2004). The Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, The Capital City of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Chhun Naret. (2010). The Introduction to Constitutional Law of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Ing Kerya. (2006). The Constitution of Cambodia, Phnom Penh: Cambodian Mekong University. Administrator of the Senate of Cambodia. (2010). The Senate. Retrieve from: http://www.senate.gov.kh Administrator of the National Assembly of Cambodia. (2010). Retrieve from: http://www.senate.gov.kh