26 years of Hun Sen's rule

Hun Sen heavily surrounded by bodyguards wherever he goes.

By Khmerization
Source: RFA

Hun Sen is South East Asia's longest ruler after the Sultan of Brunei. He has been Cambodia's prime minister since 14th January 1985. Some people, however, has put his rule beyond 1985, extending his rule by 6 years to when he was appointed foreign minister of Cambodia by the Vietnamese invading forces on 7th January 1979.

Mr. Hun Sen is a native of Cambodia's eastern province of Kampong Cham, where he was born in 1951 (he said he was born in 1952). He had limited education and was a temple boy, a Khmer Rouge soldier, a foreign minister and, lastly, a prime minister of Cambodia for the last 26 years.

He has been considered and credited by members of his ruling Cambodian People's Party has having steered Cambodia to peace and stability and led Cambodia to economic growth.

His Cambodian People's Party (CPP) lost the 1993 UN-organised election to the royalist Funcinpec Party, but he refused to give up power and has bullied his way into a power-sharing to become the Second Prime Minister and then staged a bloody coup to oust his coalition partner, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, from power in 1997. Since then, he had over-powered and outsmarted his rivals within his own party, even significantly weakened a rival faction controlled by the party President Chea Sim, to stay at the top.

The CPP President Chea Sim has to fall in line, constantly declaring his unwavering support for Mr. Hun Sen. And during the 32nd anniversary celebration of the ouster of the Khmer Rouge regime and the coming to power of his party on 7th January 2011, Mr. Chea Sim had declared his eternal support for Mr. Hun Sen to become prime minister of Cambodia forever. Mr. Hun Sen used to publicly declare that he will be prime minister of Cambodia until he is 90 years old, another 31 years considering that he is only 59 years old at the present time.

Despite unwavering supports from his party, international human rights officials have expressed regret that Mr. Hun Sen had stayed in power for too long that led to excesses, inefficiency, human rights abuses, corruption and his leadership had become more dictatorial by the day.

Mr. Brad Adams, executive director of Asia Chapter of Human Rights Watch, said Mr. Hun Sen ruled Cambodia like the way Singapore has been ruled. The difference is that Singaporean leaders used all the natural resources and national wealth to develop the country, whereas Mr. Hun Sen collected revenues, resources and wealth to put in his own pockets.

Mrs. Margo Picken, former UNHCR's human rights representative in Cambodia, has described Cambodia as a country that is and has been exclusively ruled by the CPP and Mr. Hun Sen. Mrs. Picken said Mr. Hun Sen is taking all the credits for the ouster of the Khmer Rouge and he had publicised the country's development and poverty reduction while he personally and his cronies have hoarded and pocketed the money exploited from the country's natural resources and ignoring all the human rights abuses.

In fact, Mr. Hun Sen should not have been a continuous prime minister since 1985. In the UN-organised election in 1993, his party lost the election, but he refused to accept the outcomes of the election. As a compromise, Mr. Hun Sen was appointed as a 'second prime minister' in the Funcinpec-CPP coalition government. But that coalition fell apart and Mr. Hun Sen launched a bloody coup to oust First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranaridhh from power on 5-7 July 1997 that resulted in more than 100 military officers loyal to Prince Ranariddh being brutally and ruthlessly executed and killed.

Before the coup, a grenade attack on 30th March 1997, believed to be orchestrated by Mr. Hun Sen's Bodyguard Unit, had killed at least 16 people and left another 140 wounded.

Brad Adams of the Human Rights Watch considered Mr. Hun Sen a smart leader, but said he has ruled Cambodia for too long that can make Cambodia facing with dangers in the future. He said Mr. Hun Sen should give up power and allow a free and fair election in Cambodia to choose another leader. "He had learned a lot of things. He had been appointed by Vietnam as the world's youngest foreign minister (at 26 years old) in 1979 because he was smart and knows how to be flexible and adaptable. He had learned how to be a leader and he is not afraid to use his power against his opponents. I hope that he will use his capability to become a good leader for Cambodia to become a prosperous country that respects human rights and democracy. Currently, he had shown that he is a smart person, but of an individual who is full of negative characters", he said.

Brad Adams said Mr. Hun Sen is not a popular leader, but was able to remain in power through intimidation and threats and corruption that enable him to buy off officials who are against him. He said Mr. Hun Sen had used the 'divide and rule strategy' very well to weaken the oppositions. "I think that Mr. Hun Sen wants to consolidate his powers and want to end any criticism of his government. He want to have a single-party system, even though he pretended to hold election every 5 years because he can control all the elections that ensure that he automatically wins. He also wants to control all the country's wealth and he wanted to change Cambodia into an authoritarian capitalist system", he added.

Mr. Hun Sen became prime minister in 1985 after Prime Minister Chan Si died in a Vietnamese hospital.

Mr. Pen Sovan, who was jailed for 10 years in a Vietnamese prison and who was Cambodia's prime minister from 1979-1981, claimed in 1997 that Mr. Hun Sen was the one who led a group of soldiers to surround his house and arrested him and sent him to a prison in Hanoi. He told RFA that Mr. Hun Sen was able to remain in power because he has never opposed the Vietnamese control and subjugation of Cambodia.

Currently, there is no individuals or parties that can wrestle powers from Mr. Hun Sen. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been forced into exile after being convicted in absentia and sentenced to 12 years jail for allegation of destruction of public properties and document forgery. Prince Norodom Ranaridhh, who had just re-entered politics, has so far unable to garner enough supports to unseat Mr. Hun Sen.

Human rights groups, government critics and even the U.S ambassador Carol Rodley had claimed that Cambodia had lost at least $500 million a year to corruption. Cambodia is also one of the big debtors and is heavily under the influences of China.

During her visit to Cambodia in November 2010, U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for Cambodia to be a partner with a wide range of countries, and not to be too dependent on one country- China.

Recently, Mr. Hun Sen has come under heavy criticism for creating a network of nepotism and cronyism by appointing relatives to some of the top jobs in the country.

In January 2011, Mr. Hun Sen had appointed his eldest son, Hun Manet, as Deputy Commander of Royal Cambodian Army (ground forces) on top of his other duties as Deputy Commander of his father's bodyguard unit and commander of the Anti-Terrorism Unit. Critics said that these appointments are aimed at creating a family network to enable Mr. Hun Sen to hold on to power.

Many analysts see Mr. Hun Sen's political manoeuvrings as a strategy to protect and to consolidate his power base. They see that many of Hun Sen's relatives are now controlling Cambodia. His eldest son, Hun Manet, has been appointed to several positions, like being promoted to a major general, appointed deputy commander of Royal Cambodian Army, deputy commander of Mr. Hun Sen's Bodyguard Unit and commander of Anti-Terrorism Unit. One of his daughters, Hun Mana, has been appointed as director of Bayon TV and Radio and his wife, Bun Rany Hun Sen, has been appointed as president of the Cambodian Red Cross.

On top of these, he has married his children to two deputy prime ministers (Sok An and Yim Chhay Ly), married his daughter to the son of one former police chief (Hok Lundy) and has become an in-law of powerful ministers like Moeung Samphan and Minister Phirun.