Hun Manet, the hope of Cambodia

 

Khmer Circle: No comment.

^^^

Lt Gen Hun Manet. KT/Chor Sokunthea

Over the last 500 years, Cambodia has seen various waves of violent transitions of power. Thanks to the win-win policy spearheaded by Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia had achieved peace in late 1998, after all Khmer factions came together under one roof, one constitution, and one government.

Peace should not be taken granted. We need to keep nurturing and building the foundations of peace, especially amidst rising geopolitical uncertainties and volatilities. Political leaders are held accountable for national unity, peace, and development.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has never abandoned Cambodians. He remains loyal to his people in all circumstances and events. This is his leadership trait. As a historical power transition is going to take place after the general election in July this year, he needs to ensure that the transition will go peacefully and smoothly. He has shown zero tolerance towards those who aim to destroy our hard-earned peace.

If our next leader is not carefully chosen, it would leave opportunities for foreign forces to interfere with our internal affairs most likely through the oppositions or it could mean anarchy within the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). If there is no party unity, the civil servants would be too preoccupied to deal with party politics and won’t be able to serve the Cambodian people as they were voted in to do.

 

We have already seen the example of how a scenario like this would play out with British politics. For the last few years, there is no party unity or solidarity within the reigning Conservative Party. The different factions within the party have been so preoccupied with competing for leadership that has left the British people facing high inflation, food insecurity, energy, and health care crisis.

Consequently, as emphasised before, it is crucial that the next leader of a political party is carefully chosen in order for the country to remain peaceful and stable. As such, this is a crucial task for the Prime Minister to choose who to pass the torch to, in order to lead our country into the next era of peace, stability and prosperity.

At the 2021 party congress, CPP’s Central Committee unanimously voted to anoint Mr Hun Manet as its future Prime Minister candidate. Mr Manet is the most qualified and decorated candidate to be our next prime minister. Here are some facts. He is the first ever Cambodian to have graduated from the prestigious United States Military West Point Academy in 1999, he then obtained his Master of Arts in Economics from New York University in 2002 and a PhD in Economics of the University of Bristol in 2008.

After his academic journey, he joined and led the Ministry of Defence’s National Counter-Terrorism Special Forces where he worked his way up the military ladder to be appointed as the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and the Commander of the Royal Cambodian Army. He came into national and international spotlight when he took a leadership role in overseeing the negotiations during the 2008-2011 Cambodian-Thailand border conflict.

Apart from the military duties, he has been actively involved in philanthropic social works.  As the Chief of the Samdech Techo Hun Sen Scholarship Committee and the Samdech Techo Scholarship Association, he provides scholarship opportunities to thousands of Cambodian youths to enrol in universities across Cambodia.

Along with his wife Pich Chanmony, he founded and serve as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Samdech Techo Youth Volunteer Doctor Association, which mobilises thousands of medical professionals, trainees, and volunteers to provide free healthcare in rural areas throughout Cambodia. Most remarkably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he spearheaded the projects to lead medical teams to fight against the disease and established treatment facilities across Phnom Penh in order to provide accessible healthcare for the Cambodian people, which resulted in a great success.  This of course contributed to the overall effort of our country’s fight against the pandemic.

In regard to the CPP responsibilities, he was nominated as head of the CPP’s youth wing in 2020, where membership has been enlarged and diversified since this new leadership came into effect. He understands that, as a leader, he needs support from all of CPP’s diverse pool of members and not just the political elites. With this in mind, his most noticeable reformative strategy for CPP was to increase engagements with Cambodian diaspora communities overseas, which over the years has become a playing field for the oppositions to monopolise their influence and propagandas, in which they were succeeding. Not only that these communities still have families in Cambodia, crucially, they also play a role in how external actors perceive Cambodia as a whole.

Oppositions has been able to spread their propaganda to other governments through the Cambodian diasporas with narratives of Cambodia being embroiled with corruption, communism, nepotism, and Vietnamese/Chinese puppets.

Mr Manet understands that in order to rectify these narratives, CPP needs to provide a safe platform where they can engage with the Cambodian diasporas so that they would feel valued. At the same time, these Cambodian diasporas abroad can also be kept informed of developments in Cambodia in order to see how far we have developed and prospered since the days of Khmer Rouge.

Furthermore, he understands that engagements with CPP youths is crucial for the future of Cambodia as well since the youths will be leading our country one day. It is important that they are valued by CPP and that they will be more political involved in attributing to relevant up-to-date policymaking one day.

With this vision in mind along with his down-to-earth, approachable and caring personal characteristics, he is beloved by CPP especially by his youth wing, which is crucial to having a peaceful transition of power in the future.

With these credentials, how could one say that Mr  Manet is not a qualified prime ministerial candidate? The critics should not be so laser focused on the fact that he is the son of Prime Minister Hun Sen but that he is a young Cambodian leader who has earned merits and trust from the people. He has millions of supporters behind him.

In terms of foreign policy, it is widely believed that Mr  Manet will continue to follow an independent foreign policy based on international law and core national interests. Pragmatism and hedging strategy will continue to inform the next generation of Cambodian foreign policy makers. Cambodia’s vision as a global peace maker will gain new momentum.