Hun Sen - Thaksin Shinawatra : A Political Game?

(Photo: Reuters)

By Maya Mary Kong
Cambodian Perspectives Review - November 2009

About the author:
Maya Mary Kong is a Ph.D candidate in political science, Canada. Born in 1985 from a Cambodia father and an Australian mother, I wish to express my gratitude to my parents for their love, support during all these years and for transmitting to me their love for Cambodia. A particular thank is also expressed to the worldwide Cambodian community for its help and strong encouragement. I also wish pay homage to Khmer people who have lost their life for the country, and all those who dedicate a part of their life to lead actions for Cambodia. And finally, a special thoughts for people who suffer and die because of the extreme poverty.

The press covers these last few days Hun Sen's stunning declarations of support for Thaksin. He appeared as a defender of the latter, even offering him a post of economic advisor. At his arrival at the airport in Thailand for the summit of ASEAN, he continues by saying that Thaksin is a « political victim » and compares him with Aung San Suu Kyi, the key figure of democracy and Burmese opposition. He adds that his « concerns » are also humanitarian . While Cambodia risks of being in one big humanitarian misery due to the growing poverty of the Cambodian population.

Hun Sen's attitude irritated not only Bangkok but also caused questions to many observers, why a Prime Minister - whose political party has ruled the country for thirty years without sharing real power within the National Assembly - worries about the democracy and the humanitarian issues in the neighbouring country, Thailand. While his CPP party - installed to power in Phnom Penh in January 1979 and supported by Viet-Nam until this day - did not cease, since its landslide victory in July 2008 with the legislative elections, Hun Sen strengthened his clamp to suffocate all opposition voice while keeping the vast majority of the Khmer population in an extreme poverty in order to control it for political purpose.

Obviously, these declarations - emanating from such a high ranking official of Phnom Penh regime where nothing can be decided without Hanoi agreement - are not certainly unplanned. These declarations are found to be a double political game of Hanoi which fits clearly in a renewed geopolitical context in order to push the Vietnamese expansionism even farther.

This is the thesis that we want to defend in this short present article. Its goal is to bring some of elements to reduce information asymmetry, which is systematically perpetrated to the Cambodian people. The consequences of such an asymmetry were dramtic as well as devastating for Cambodia.