Three 'Passports' for Dissidents and Opposition in Cambodia

Veng Sreng Street crackdown, Cambodia 2014

RE: Will the COVID-19 Crisis Spell the End of Cambodia’s Hun Sen?

Editorial by School of Vice

We know that Cambodia's democracy has been effectively dead since the violent coup of 1997 which Hun Sen staged to oust the then Funcinpec co-PM Rannariddh who was succeeded the following year by Ung Huot - a Funcinpec figure Hun Sen hand-picked as his instrument to represent a 'Funcinpec' minus Rannariddh. Since then various smaller opposition political parties have been allowed to function under Hun Sen's watchful eye[s] and manipulation while their forces having been too diverse and disjointed to pose any parliamentary threat to the ruling CPP. This situation, however, came to an somewhat unexpected end with the merger between Ken Sokha's Human Rights Party and Sam Rainsy's party with the formation of the CNRP [Cambodia National Rescue Party]. Yet to keep the pretense of multi-party democracy and, desiring international recognition and legitimacy for his de facto single-party rule, Hun Sen had allowed the CNRP to last for a number of years until they finally proved a force to be reckoned with at the ballot box in the 2013 elections. In all likelihood, the CNRP had won that general election by sufficient parliamentary mandate and number of seats to form a new government but for Hun Sen's rigging of the electoral register which has since been widely acknowledged by most credible observers.  

Hun Sen's 'democracy' model is not dissimilair to Putin's in Russia where opposition parties [at any rate, for genuine opposition forces and not those sponsored by Hun Sen himself] are forced to ultimately place all their hope for peaceful change on the ruling party playing by and honouring the rules of multi-party democracy as enshrined for Cambodia in the Paris Peace Accords or PPA and the National Constitution itself; something Hun Sen, sadly, is not too good at or can't be bothered about! 

The man knows full well that he owes his political existence and power to foreign intervention and patronage - namely, the Vietnamese who settled on him as their most suitable choice for a puppet having been dissatisfied with a number of candidates among his peers they had installed in office before him. This reality being the case, he knows too that he could never be trusted by the majority of his compatriots to lead the country on their behalf and so real democracy is and will always be a lose-lose game for him and his clans.

There are other [some may argue!] 'viable' options open to the Cambodian opposition: terrorism, civil war[s], armed struggle... but one doubts whether the world community would welcome any of these alternatives, particularly, given the country's recent blood-soaked history and tragedy. Don't forget that this Opposition is not even allowed to utter the word "Yuon" in reference to Vietnam or Vietnamese as the term itself is [misleadingly] believed to be "derogatory" or 'negative' towards the latter! Hun Sen is also only too conscious of this dread or spectre of war and violence and the related constraints or pressure all these bring to bear on the Opposition and, his own incessant threats to use violence as well as intermittent recourse to violence against numerous civil critics and opposition activists and officials speaks volumes.

None of this is to imply that the CNRP opposition is without its shortcomings. After all, the Opposition is composed of -and guided by - humans. Yet, even if such shortcomings were overcome it would still have to operate in a theatre and on a vastly disadvantaged playing field that is not of its making or choice. That this is so is evidenced by the detention and politically staged trail of one of the CNRP's principal leaders in Mr Kem Sokha for his supposed act of 'treason'.  

The late eminent social commentator and critic - Kem Ley - once noted that there are three choices [or 'passports'] available for 'dissidents', including civil rights ones like himself: a] imprisonment; b] exile; c] death. 

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