Students listening to Mr. Hun Sen during his graduation speech.
Source: Deum Ampil newspaper
Reported in English by Khmerization
Prime Minister Hun Sen on the morning of Wednesday, 5th August strongly warned the opposition party not to call his government a dictatorial government by saying that they will be dealt with in accordance with the laws.
Speaking to students during a graduation ceremony at the National Institute of Education, Mr. Hun Sen said Cambodia is a constitutional democracy and therefore the opposition should use appropriate language to describe his government.
Mr. Hun Sen's warning comes after some officials from the Sam Rainsy Party called the Cambodian government dictatorial after Mu Sochua, one of the party's outspoken MP, was found guilty of defaming Mr. Hun Sen.
4 comments:
It is true that the Hun Sen government is a dictatorial government. His government was never elected by the people but cheated to win in every election, so he never care about how the voters think about his rule. He doesn't need their votes because he only need to cheat to win.
Arguing over definitions is a waste of time. Ultimately, a government is judged on how it treats its people.
Cambodia can claim to be a liberal democracy as elections are held and rights and freedoms are protected in the constitution.
However, Cambodia is not a liberal democracy in how it carries out the provisions of the constitution.
Quite simply a plurality of views, lifestyles and moral codes are not accepted, and the airing of such views is a perilous activity. This is not democratic.
Yet, generally, Cambodia is not an autocracy either as more than one person runs the government and the leader did not appoint themselves. Cambodian politics of the last few years more closely resembles a one party state as the ruling party attempts to stifle opposition and remove all former 'royal' elites (the old loyalties) from the political scene. Therefore, if one person acts as the 'mouthpiece' for these efforts, it may be regarded by some that Cambodia's democracy has considerable autocratic tendencies.
The reality is that these efforts are decided upon by the people the 'leader' depends on to keep himself in power. The 'leader' has made a pact with the devil. In return for power, supporters' interests are favoured. As a result, to act in favour of the people and against the interests of those who put you in power would be suicide, possibly political and maybe even literal.
Hun Sen had done the same Saddam Hussein had done. This is 99% HUN SEN election set up. If he would allow all other parties to have the same privileges or the same rights as him he would have no chance. He can't even allow SRP to have the amount of TV's time or TV's channel, radio campaign as CPP. He limited the rights for SRP. What is not fair are these all propaganda system.
Can HUN SEN think!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3:14pm, I beg to differ on the point that Cambodia is not an autocracy. In fact it is only a facade only when one sees Cambodia is run by a group of people. But the reality is Hun Sen runs the whole show by himself, even Chea Sim, the CPP president, was arrested in 2003 and deported Bangkok when he refused to sign a sub-decree appointing Hun Sen as the PM.
On the outside, people see Cambodia as a democracy because the PM was "elected" and the government appears to run the whole country. But behind the curtain, or most of the time out in the open, Hun Sen hold the rein.
People can compare this to Saddam in Iraq. He was "elected", he won the "election" and he has his cabinet to run the show, but in fact the cabinet is only Saddam's puppet.
The same as in Hun Sen's Cambodia. His cabinet is his puppet, has to do what he told them to do. Nothing can be done or reformed without Hun Sen's approval.
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