The role of political parties in the fight against COVID-19: Cambodia’s perspectives

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on humanity across the globe. It is the defining crisis of a generation, with no immediate exit on the horizon. The global crisis cannot be resolved at the national level, and no country can win this formidable challenge alone. Global cooperation and coodination are required. The world leaders must recognize that global coordination indeed serves national interest and humanity.

Unfortunately, there have been fragmented responses to the Covid-19 crisis. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned, “there is a total lack of coordination among countries”. President of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende observed: “the pandemic struck an already unsettled world, one in which profound shifts in power were underway and causing competitive instincts to overtake cooperative mindsets”.

Ideally, political parties have a critical role to play in setting high political commitment and responsibility, developing policy agenda, and mobilizing resources to address the pandemic crisis. Political parties should not politicize or manipulate the pandemic to promote their populist ambition.

All political parties need to make a decision based on science and facts, absolutely that should not be driven by political motives and interests. The international blame game is counterproductive to global efforts. At the time of global crisis of such magnitude and scale, it is imperative for political parties to drive a common global campaign to resist unilateralism and exclusive nationalism.

The Centrist Democrat International (CDI) has issued a statement calling for international cooperation in the common fight against the pandemic. The CDI urges the international community to intensify and coordinate efforts to develop vaccines, which should be the global public goods. It also proposes the governments to carry out an urgent, holistic economic recovery plan, strengthen the open and rules-based multilateral trading system, and promote inclusive development, ecological transition and digital transformation.

The Members of the Standing Committee of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) have expressed their support for the leading role of the World Health Organisation in the global fight against the pandemic. They shared political commitment to encourage the governments and political parties to devise and support effective programs to combat the pandemic, strengthen international cooperation through exchange of best practices aimed at building the capacity of public health systems. They also stressed the role of political parties in facilitating cooperation, discussing and supporting vigorous measures to protect workers and businesses, and vulnerable groups.

The leadership of the political parties have called on the international community to suspend any sanctioning procedure that will further exacerbate the fragile economic situations of less developed countries at this time of difficulty and to avoid the execution of tariff measures that will further deteriorate their already vulnerable situations caused by the pandemic. They, in particular, requests that the European Commission maintain the validity of its international agreements under its EBA and GSP schemes to avoid irreparable damage to the countries that have benefitted from these preferential agreements, including some countries in ASEAN, which is the second-largest regional trading partner of the EU.

Being a moderately democratic country with the Centrist Ideology in the Mekong region, Cambodia is playing an increasingly vital role as a bridging state between Asian and European political families. In the global fight against this pandemic, Cambodia encourages a unified approach and concerted response measures to this common crisis.

Moreover, Cambodia calls on all political parties, especially the ruling parties in the EU, to share their best practices and resources to assist countries recover from the pandemic, rather than slap sanctions or use coercive measures. In so doing, the EU will stand to gain more influence and establish its greater role in defending multilateralism and international rule of law in Asia and the world.

Moving forward, the political parties, as important global stakeholders, should consider their priorities to focus on building a more resilient and green recovery plan and better align the economic recovery with priorities of societies. A recovery plan should focus on multi-stakeholder partnership building, inclusive digital transformations and human-centred technological development, gender mainstreaming, financial inclusion, climate-neutral development strategy, capacity building and skill development.