Cambodians can teach us not to take democracy for granted

I’VE been lucky enough to be a witness to a range of dramatic political events. During the years I worked in Fianna Fáil headquarters, for example, I had a bird’s eye view of controversies during the Lenihan-Robinson Presidential election in 1990 and the collapse of the Reynolds Government in 1994.

In 2000, I spent a summer watching the American Presidential election campaign and got to attend the Democratic Convention for Bill Clinton's farewell address to his party.

However, nothing will compare with what I witnessed on the first day of polling in the United Nations sponsored democratic elections in Cambodia in 1993.