The TIME Magzine
July 29, 2013
Sam
Rainsy, leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, greets
his supporters at Democracy Park during the general election campaign
in Phnom Penh on July 26, 2013
As widely expected, Hun Sen has returned as Prime Minster of Cambodia, although describing the 60-year-old as head of a parliamentary democracy is much like saying Muammar Gaddafi
was merely a colonel in the Libyan military. Hun Sen’s re-election
means he will have spent 38 years leading the country, in one guise or
another, by the time this new term finishes in 2018. However,
dissatisfaction arising from inequality, corruption and ecological
degradation led to his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to now boast a
reduced 68 lawmakers within the 123-seat parliament, as opposed to 90
during the last term (current predictions are unofficial but likely to
be accurate).
The slenderness of this majority has surprised many observers.
Although 100,000 or so people greeted opposition leader Sam Rainsy with
cheers of “Change!” upon his return from exile earlier this month —
pardoned of charges of racial incitement and destruction of property he
insists were politically motivated — few believed this would translate
to the ballot box. Cambodia has generally slipped under the radar when
one considers dictatorial regimes, yet it is one of the world’s more
autocratic governments. “I have escaped assassination attempts, and they
tried to put me in jail and exile,” Sam Rainsy tells TIME. “If you
enter Cambodian politics you have to accept these things.”
Cambodia is a contradiction. It has embraced liberal economic
policies and bountiful trade — particularly the export of cheap apparel
to Western high streets — and it draws hordes of enraptured tourists to
its signature historic wonder: Angkor Wat. Yet the country is
politically repressed. Hun Sen is a strongman of the extreme order, a
former Khmer Rouge commander who used a bloody putsch to seize power
after losing the 1993 election, and never made the mistake of giving
people an unfettered choice again. Media manipulation, voting
irregularities, vindictive prosecution and rampant cronyism entrench his
regime. Campaign groups allege voter registration at the weekend exceeded 100% and that the ink used
for ballot papers could be easily removed. Civil servants, village
chiefs, the police, judiciary and even members of the National Election
Committee are all handpicked by the CPP.
Despite this heavily stacked deck, the Khmer people have been riled
by a widening wealth gap and made their feelings known by electing more
opposition candidates than anticipated. The Asian Development Bank reports poverty
in Cambodia dropped again last year, industry grew by 10% and tourist
arrivals by a quarter, with “further robust growth” to come. At the same
time, the country continues to lag strikingly behind its neighbors. GDP
per capita (adjusted for purchasing-power parity) stands at $2,000 —
around level with Bangladesh and behind every member of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations bar Burma. Nearly 70% of the population
subsists on less than $2 a day and 1 in 3 children under 5 is
underweight.
Land-ownership issues born from the “Year Zero” nihilism of Pol Pot’s
agrarian dystopia are cruelly exploited today by elites driving
blacked-out Range Rovers. Plots seized from impoverished communities are
sold off to Vietnamese and Chinese timber barons who clear-cut valuable rosewood and
install rubber, sugar and cassava plantations. Rural communities
attempting to highlight these issues are simply cut down. More than 300
people have perished in politically motivated attacks in Cambodia since
civil war ended in 1991, according to Human Rights Watch, but not a single person has been convicted.
Cambodia is hugely reliant on foreign aid that currently forms half
the government’s budget — the U.S. alone has donated over $800 million
since 1992. Concerns over electoral irregularities before the weekend
ballot saw calls in U.S. Congress
to freeze the $77 million slated for this year, and Sam Rainsy’s royal
pardon was likely a direct consequence. When Hun Sen banned
foreign-media broadcasts in the run-up to the poll — the only medium
that disseminates opposition views — he performed a quick U-turn upon an
international outcry. The means to exert telling pressure exists yet
“international donors have turned a blind eye and continued to finance
essential state services such as infrastructure, health care and
education,” according to U.K.-based campaign group Global Witness.
Hun Sen by all accounts is not a well man — he is a heavy smoker —
but one would be wrong to think his grip is weakening, despite his
humbling at the ballot box. At least six sons of high-ranking CPP
members stood for election last week. Hun Many, the youngest of Hun
Sen’s three sons, is deputy Cabinet chief and is likely to have just
gained a seat in the National Assembly. Hun Manet, another son
and West Point graduate, is a major general in the military and widely
perceived as heir apparent. Sam Rainsy challenged the official election
result on Monday afternoon and called for an independent investigation
involving the U.N. into “ghost” voters, incomplete registration
lists and other alleged irregularities. Now is undoubtedly the time to
ramp up the pressure on Hun Sen. Otherwise, all the princelings
necessary to fashion a dynasty are ominously already in place.
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