When Cambodia's new Prime Minister Hun Manet visits Melbourne next week to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Australia, he may look like a welcome change from his long-serving authoritarian father Hun Sen. But hopes for a renaissance of democracy and human rights in this genocide-ravaged and long-sadly misgoverned country remain sadly misplaced.
While the soft-spoken, Western-educated and technocrat-savvy Hun Manet will present himself as the face of Cambodia's modern developing world, talking about economic reform and more effective governance, his father's talk back home is prison. To his critics. And his father is the one who continues to make all the important decisions.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet inspects the guard of honor during a visit to Malaysia on Tuesday. The Prime Minister's family maintains control over many senior roles in the Cambodian government. credit: AP
Still only 71 years old, Hun Sen remains head of the Cambodian People's Party, effectively controlling the one-party state. He is, to a large extent, the de facto head of state as well: as president of the Senate, he acts on behalf of King Sihamoni when he is out of state – as the king often was, especially when controversial legislation was passed. Signed into effect.
The ruling Cambodian People's Party has successfully used broad defamation laws to prosecute critics in the courts. Last year, opposition leader Son Chai, a Cambodian-Australian citizen, was ordered to pay $1 million in damages for saying the CPP had bought and stolen votes, and he will remain in prison if he cannot pay. Commenting on the case, Soeng Singkaruna, vice president of one of the country's leading NGOs, said the CPP should stop using the courts to silence dissent, which this month led to the CPP now suing it as well, demanding compensation of $500. one thousand dollars. Realizing there was little chance the courts would challenge the CPP's wishes, Singkaruna and his family have now fled the country.
With Hun Sen doing the heavy lifting in controlling the political environment, Hun Manet has been able to focus on running government departments and providing public services, staying one step away from allegations of human rights violations. This has encouraged some Western diplomats to dream that he would grant liberal freedoms when he had the opportunity to do so.
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But there is no reason to believe that a few years of study in America and Britain would prompt Hun Manet to abandon the authoritarian and patriarchal culture in which he had been immersed for most of his life. This is one, much influenced by Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, where the family trumps the individual, economic rights trump political rights, liberal freedoms must be restricted lest they lead to discord and chaos, and wise rulers should not be hampered by the separation of powers. .
A large number of Cambodians, including some in the Cambodian People's Party itself, remain convinced that family values justify many of the powerful roles held by Hun Sen and his descendants, with not only Hun Manit as prime minister, but also Lieutenant-General Hun Maneth (the middle son). As head of the Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense; Hun Mani MP (youngest son), Minister of Civil Service and Chairman of the Youth Wing of the Cambodian People's Party; Daughters Hun Mana and Hun Mali own a wide range of companies, including the private Cambodian Electricity Company, which sells electricity to the government, television and radio outlets, and newspapers; Mana's husband is the deputy chief of the national police.
