The far-reaching consequences of Cambodia’s ‘sham’ election

Hun Sen, Cambodia’s leader for almost four decades, has announced his resignation and said he will hand the reins of power over to his eldest son.

“I would like to ask for understanding from the people as I announce that I will not continue as prime minister,” Hun Sen, 70, said in a special broadcast on state television on Wednesday, the BBC reported.

The announcement follows the outcome of the country’s general election on Sunday, in which Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won a virtually uncontested, one-sided election. It was more of a “coronation than an election”, said Jonathan Head for the BBC.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Who is Hun Sen?

Hun Sen is one of Asia’s “great survivors”, said Head, a “wily, street-smart politician” with a “trademark pugnacious style” who has run Cambodia for 38 years, more recently as an “increasingly intolerant autocrat”.

He was a battle-hardened battalion commander, who lost an eye in 1975 while fighting for the Khmer Rouge in the Cambodian civil war. He then defected from the Pol Pot regime to Vietnam in 1977, where he received tutoring from Hanoi’s communist leaders.

When Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, was ousted by Vietnam, Hun Sen became a key member of the new Khmer leadership, and gradually began to build up the CPP.

A “political behemoth with a vast war chest”, said CNN, the CPP stifled political dissent and a free press. But Hun Sen is also credited with “establishing peace and lifting Cambodia to middle-income status, improving health, education and infrastructure during his 38 years in power”, pointed out Reuters.

He has built strong ties with China, which is thought to be building a naval base in Cambodia and close to completing a pier that could berth an aircraft carrier, according to the Financial Times – something the US and its allies will be watching closely.

Who will replace him?

Hun Sen will now hand power over to his eldest son, 45-year-old Hun Manet, who has been “meticulously groomed” for the position of prime minister, according to Jim Laurie writing for Al Jazeera.

Illustrating the family’s political stranglehold on the country, Hun Sen’s youngest son, Many, sits in the National Assembly, while his middle son, Manith, has just been promoted to the upper ranks of the Cambodian army.

Manet has led a pampered life as his family’s wealth and power has grown. He has a Western education, with an economics degree from New York University and a PhD from the University of Bristol. He has also risen up the ranks of the Cambodian army to the position of deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

He has never held top political office, and has said little of what his vision for the country will be, but his speeches on the campaign trail have closely mimicked those of his father.

What does the election reveal about the country?

“Cambodia is moving into a new era,” said Laurie – “one where the memories of the wars of the 1970s, the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge, and the occupation of the Vietnamese are fast disappearing into distant history.” That doesn’t mean a brighter, more democratic future, however, but simply one in which voters’ concerns are shifting.

Only 10% of the population of 16 million are over the age of 50 and have memories of the country’s brutal past. That could be significant in terms of plotting the political direction of the country, as younger voters are less swayed by talk of peace and stability, and more interested in the strength of the Cambodian economy, which is one of the fastest-growing in the world – for now.

“Hun Manet’s biggest challenge will be that my generation is very different from previous ones, who were traumatised by the Khmer Rouge,” Ly Chandravuth, a 23-year-old law graduate and environmental activist, told the BBC. “Every time the ruling party brings it up, the young generation mocks them, because they have been repeating it for 30 years.”

Yet the election also revealed a sense of political apathy and disillusionment among young people – many people simply chose not to take part in the election, while there were high levels of spoiled ballot papers in some polling stations, said the BBC.

What about human rights?

The election was dubbed by Al Jazeera “the least competitive election Cambodia has hosted in 30 years of multi-party voting”, a sign of Hun Sen’s success in trampling democratic freedoms. Cambodia’s opposition Candlelight Party was disqualified in May from taking part in the election, and one of the country’s last remaining independent media outlets, Voice of Democracy, was shut down earlier this year, said The Guardian.

“Under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s leadership, authorities have shut down or heaped pressure on independent news outlets; harassed, intimidated, beaten and jailed political opponents in mass trials; and restricted the rights of candidates to form political parties and contest the vote,” said Amnesty International.

The government has amended election laws to penalise anyone who “impedes” the election by engaging in such practices as telling others not to vote, and Hun Sen has been accused of inciting violence on social media. Although Manet has tried to entice a younger generation to the CPP, hopes that he will deliver political reform to the country are “pipe dreams”, said Laurie for Al Jazeera.

It doesn’t look as though Hun Sen is going anywhere either as he will retain leadership of the ruling CPP – a position political analysts say still gives him ultimate control, according to the BBC.