Cambodia's Hun Sen celebrates 30 years in power today

14 มกราคม 2558

From Khmer Rouge foot soldier to Prime Minister after Khmer Rouge defeat in 1985, Hun Sen brought stability to Cambodia accompanied, however, with serious human rights violations.

Cambodia\'s Hun Sen celebrates 30 years in power today

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the ceremony for the new Neak Loeung Bridge in Kandal province, Cambodia, Wednesday. (Source: AFP)

ASEAN POLITICS

Critics dog Cambodia's leader as he marks 30 years in power

Human rights groups slam Hun Sen
14/01/2015
Agencies

Hun Sen, Cambodia's tough and wily prime minister, marked 30 years in power Wednesday, one of only a handful of political strongmen worldwide who have managed to retain their position for three decades.

Since first taking up the job of prime minister at age 33, he has consolidated power with violence and intimidation of opponents that continues to draw criticism from human rights advocates. But he can also take some credit for bringing modest economic growth and stability in a country devastated by the communist Khmer Rouge's regime in the 1970s, which Hun Sen had abandoned as they left some 1.7 million people dead from starvation, disease and executions...

...Born to a peasant family in east-central Cambodia, When Cambodia fell into civil war in 1970, Hun Sen became a foot soldier for what later emerged as the Khmer Rouge -- the genocidal anti-American regime that killed up to two million people.

He rose to the rank of deputy regional commander before defecting to Vietnam in 1977 and he accompanied the Vietnamese invasion that toppled his former comrades in 1979.

Hun Sen was first appointed foreign minister, then prime minister of the Vietnamese-supported regime ruling Cambodia in 1985. As his country emerged from conflict, Hun Sen abandoned the communist dogma of his Vietnamese patrons, embracing the free market and seeking out alliances with more powerful nations.

Since then, he has never left the top post despite being forced to temporarily accept the title of "co-prime minister" after his party came in second in a 1993 UN-supervised election. Four years later, he deposed his coalition partner in a bloody coup.

Hun Sen during a recent summit meeting in South Korea (Source: AFP)

Yet while Cambodia now enjoys relative stability, the authoritarian premier created "a system in which political power is based on alliance to the ruling party", said the head of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, "dissent is aggressively stifled".

Historian David Chandler, a Cambodia expert at Australia's Monash University, has characterised Hun Sen as "intelligent, combative, tactical, and self-absorbed."

According to the New York-based group Human Rights Watch, Hun Sen has been linked to a wide range of serious human rights violations: extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, summary trials, censorship, bans on assembly and association, and a national network of spies and informers intended to frighten and intimidate the public into submission."

In the 2013 elections, it seemed that Hun Sen's grip on power had been shaken when the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge, winning 55 seats in the National Assembly and leaving Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party with 68.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy who eventually reached an agreement with Hun Sen after the 2013 elections. He and his party first boycotted the legislature after the elections, claiming the votes had been rigged. (Source: AFP)

The opposition alleged the results were rigged and its lawmakers at first boycotted the legislature. But then, Hun Sen brokered a deal with opposition leader Sam Rainsy and the parliament resumed work, with the long-time leader again appearing unscathed.

"Any country, for the sake of democracy and progress, has to renew its leadership," said Mr Rainsy, adding that even communist countries like China and Vietnam change their leaders every few years."

Human Rights Watch said in their Wednesday's report that "Cambodia is in the process of reverting to a one-party state."

Hun Sen has vowed to rule Cambodia until he is 74.