Power, Resistance Women Politicians in Cambodia
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MONA LILJA LILJA In a world where there are few women politicians, Cambodia is still noticeable as a country where strong P cultural and societal forces act to subjugate women and ower, limit their political opportunities. However, in their everyday life, Cambodian women do try to improve their Politicians Women and Resistance situation and increase their political power, not least via manifold strategies of resistance. This book focuses on Cambodian female politicians and the strategies they deploy in their attempts to destabilize the cultural boundaries and hierarchies that restrain them. In par- ticular, the focus is on how women use discourses and identities as means of resistance, a concept only recently of wide interest among scholars studying power. The value of this book is thus twofold: not only does it give a unique insight into the political struggles of Cambodian women; it also offers new insights to studies of power. Political scientists will find this book particularly useful because it extends the concept of re- sistance. However, it also creates a framework of analysis that will inspire researchers in other fields. i n Cambodia n POWER, RESISTANCE WOMENand POLITICIANS IN CAMBODIA www.niaspress.dk Discourses of Emancipation Lilja_pbk-cover.indd 1 7/11/07 15:48:39 POWER, RESISTANCE AND WOMEN POLITICIANS IN CAMBODIA Lilja_prelims.indd 1 17/10/07 10:09:37 NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series 69. Arne Kalland: Fishing Villages in Tokugawa Japan 70. Weng Eang Cheong: The Hong Merchants of Canton 71. Christine Dobbin: Asian Entrepreneurial Minorities 72. Eldrid Mageli: Organising Women’s Protest 73. Vibeke Børdahl: The Oral Tradition of Yangzhou Storytelling 74. Cecilia Nathansen Milwertz: Accepting Population Control 75. Sharifah Zaleha Syed Hassan & Sven Cederroth: Managing Marital Disputes in Malaysia 76. Antoon Geels: Subud and the Javanese Mystical Tradition 77. Kristina Lindell, Jan-Öjvind Swahn & Damrong Tayanin: Folk Tales from Kammu – VI 78. Alain Lefebvre: Kinship, Honour and Money in Rural Pakistan 79. Christopher E. Goscha: Thailand and the Southeast Asian Networks of the Vietnamese Revolution 80. Helle Bundgaard: Indian Art Worlds in Contention 81. Niels Brimnes: Constructing the Colonial Encounter 82. Ian Reader: Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan 83. Bat-Ochir Bold: Mongolian Nomadic Society 84. Shaheen Sardar Ali & Javaid Rehman: Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities of Pakistan 85. Michael D. Barr: Lee Kuan Yew: The Beliefs Behind the Man 86. Tessa Carroll: Language Planning and Language Change in Japan 87. Minna Säävälä: Fertility and Familial Power 88. Mario Rutten: Rural Capitalists in Asia 89. Jörgen Hellman: Performing the Nation 90. Olof G. Lidin: Tanegashima – The Arrival of Europe in Japan 91. Lian H. Sakhong: In Search of Chin Identity 92. Margaret Mehl: Private Academies of Chinese Learning in Meiji Japan 93. Andrew Hardy: Red Hills 94. Susan M. Martin: The UP Saga 95. Anna Lindberg: Modernization and Effeminization in India 96. Heidi Fjeld: Commoners and Nobles 97. Hatla Thelle: Better to Rely on Ourselves 98. Alexandra Kent: Divinity and Diversity 99. Somchai Phatharathananunth: Civil Society and Democratization 100. Nordin Hussin: Trade and Society in the Straits of Melaka 101. Anna-Greta Nilsson Hoadley: Indonesian Literature vs New Order Orthodoxy 102. Wil O. Dijk: 17th-Century Burma and the Dutch East India Company 1634–1680 103. Judith Richell: Disease and Demography in Colonial Burma 104. Dagfinn Gatu: Village China at War 105. Marie Højlund Roesgaard: Japanese Education and the Cram School Business 106. Donald M. Seekins: Burma and Japan Since 1940 107. Vineeta Sinha: A New God in the Diaspora? 108. Mona Lilja: Power, Resistance and Women Politicians in Cambodia 109. Anders Poulsen: Childbirth and Tradition in Northeast Thailand 110. R.A. Cramb: Land and Longhouse 111. Deborah Sutton: Other Landscapes 112. Søren Ivarsson: Creating Laos Lilja_prelims.indd 2 17/10/07 10:09:38 POWER, RESISTANCE and WOMEN POLITICIANS IN CAMBODIA Discourses of Emancipation Mona Lilja Lilja_prelims.indd 3 17/10/07 10:09:38 NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph series, No. 108 First published in 2008 by NIAS Press Leifsgade 33, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark tel (+45) 3532 9501 • fax (+45) 3532 9549 email: [email protected] • website: www.niaspress.dk © Mona Lilja 2008 All rights reserved. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Lilja, Mona Power, resistance and women politicians in Cambodia : discourses of emancipation 1. Women politicians – Cambodia 2. Women – Cambodia – Social conditions 3. Political culture – Cambodia 4. Cambodia – Politics and government – 1979– I. Title 320’.082’09596 ISBN: 978-87-91114-71-7 (hardback) ISBN: 978-87-7694-020-1 (paperback) Typeset by NIAS Press Produced by SRM Production Services Sdn Bhd and printed in Malaysia Lilja_prelims.indd 4 17/10/07 10:09:38 For my daughters Iris Lilja and Vera Lilja Lilja_prelims.indd 5 17/10/07 10:09:39 Lilja_prelims.indd 6 17/10/07 10:09:39 Contents Acknowledgements ix 1. Introduction 1 Performing resistance: the practices of women politicians • As- sessing the effectiveness of strategies of resistance: when resistance undermines power • When resistance appears and change occurs • Studying and interpreting resistance 2. Theorizing power, theorizing resistance: The unpacking of identities, representations and discourses 22 Power as it has been understood: the power debate • Power and discourse: the theoretical foundation of the argument • Stereotypes and hierarchies • Identity constructions and power • Subjectivity and the negotiation of power • Aims of resistance • Concluding reflections 3. Hybrid democracy in a Cambodian context: A discursive construction with implications for women 51 Women’s political participation and obstacles • Discursive democ- racy: implementing liberal democracy in a Cambodian context • The Cambodian interpretation of liberal democracy • Downplaying party programs • A family-oriented political participation 4. The lack of (and longing for) a ‘third space’: The female gender and male politician 67 Women as political and economic actors • The stereotyped notions of ‘women’ and ‘politicians’ • A gendered hierarchy with political implications • The history of violence • Femininity, violence and political legitimacy • Violence as a reason for female political par- ticipation • Men providing protection from men • The ambivalence between the image of the superior female politician and the male political norm • Cambodian female political identity: an emerging paradox • Conclusions Lilja_prelims.indd 7 17/10/07 10:09:39 5. Normalizing as a strategy of resistance 97 Adapting to the norms of the reader • Education as a road to political power • The opportunities and difficulties of normalizing: concluding reflections 6. Discourses and representations as means of resistance 113 Repeating differently and the concept of reverse discourse • The frequency of repeating • Woven discourses • Performing hybridity as resistance • Silence and denial as resistance • Concretism and the impact of different representations • Universalism – role models 7. Identities as means of resistance 145 Strategies of sameness • Dissolving the gender binary • Mobilizing different identities • The ‘woman patron’ and the importance of a family identity • Performing as ‘woman’ as a strategy of resistance • Creating new systems of punishments and rewards • Subjectivity: the key to resistance? • Connecting female gender with high-status knowledge: gaining a monopoly over knowledge 8. Deconstruction as resistance 175 Deconstruction as a strategy of resistance • The catachrestic usage of ‘woman’ • The practice of re-categorization • In-between representations producing deconstruction • Irony as a strategy of resistance Select bibliography 193 Index 211 viii Lilja_prelims.indd 8 17/10/07 10:09:39 Acknowledgements There are many individuals and institutions to who I am deeply indebted and grateful for support and assistance. Overall, this book would never been written without inspiration from – as well as space at – PADRIGU (the Department of Peace and Development Research), Göteborg University, CDRI (Cambodia Development Resource In- stitute), Phnom Penh and CRD (Cambodian Researchers for Devel- opment), Phnom Penh. In addition, CEAS (Göteborg Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies) and the Center for Middle East Stud- ies, Göteborg University, have contributed not only financially but also intellectually to this work. I am also indebted to CGGS (Center for Global Gender Studies), Göteborg University and Ann Schlyter who has provided me with a complementary space, which in various ways has enriched my life. I am grateful to Sida (Swedish International Development Co- operation Agency), Stiftelsen Lars Hiertas Minne, SAAPPS (the Swedish School of Advanced Asia Pacific Studies), STINT (the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education), RJ (Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond), Al- ice and Knut Wallenbergs stiftelse, Kungl. Vetenskaps- och Vitter- hetssamhället i Göteborg, Kungl. Vetenskapsakademin and Kungl. och Hvitfeldska Stiftelsen, which have assisted me in different ways by providing funding; they have made this study possible. I have also received tremendous support from friends and col- leagues. I would especially like to thank those who supervised me during the years; Leif Eriksson, Helena Lindholm-Schulz, Michael Schulz, Maria Stern and Joakim Öjendal. Thank