Cambodia: Hun Sen Firmly in Control

Southeast Asian Affairs 2003, pp. 83-94 CAMBODIA Hun Sen Firmly in Control Milton Osborne During a year in which Cambodia was afflicted by both a prolonged drought and subsequent costly floods, there is no question as to what was the dominant feature of the country's politics. Throughout 2002, Prime Minister Hun Sen continued to consolidate his position as the most powerful politician in the kingdom. He marginalized his opponents and not-so-subtly made clear that King Norodom Sihanouk, while welcome to play a ceremonial role, has no place in the country's political life. To a large extent, Hun Sen's primacy may be seen as the continuation of a trend that began inJuly 1997, when the Prime Minister used a savage coup to shatter FUNCINPEC (Front Uni National Pour Un Cambodge Indépendant, Neutre, Pacifique, et Coopératif), the major alternative political force within the country, which is led by Sihanouk's son, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Yet more than just continuity was involved, as the year saw Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) achieve a remarkable sweep of commune elections and the steady decline of FUNCINPEC into factional squabbling. At the same time, the always vocal Sam Rainsy, leader of the small opposition Sam Rainsy Party, was unable to be more than an annoying gadfly on the broader body politic. Hun Sen's dominant role has not meant that Cambodia during 2002 was free of controversies — far from it. The issue of trials for former Khmer Rouge (KR) leaders remained unresolved and problems of corruption associated with the logging industry continued to dog this vital export industry. The programme for the demobilization of Cambodia's excessively large military is not complete, with attendant links to corrupt practices on the part of the army's top brass. In terms of the application of justice, the frequently criticized culture of impunity for the rich and privileged has not disappeared. How to develop the economy remained a matter for debate that spilled over into issues associated with the management of Cambodia's major tourist attraction, the great temple complex at Angkor. Nevertheless, and despite the many valid criticisms that were levelled at the governance of Cambodia, particularly by the wide range of non-governmental Milton Osborne is a former Australian public servant and academic and the author of nine books on Southeast Asian history and politics. 84Milton Osborne organizations (NGOs) active in Cambodia, the country has experienced greater stability during 2002 than any other year since 1997. Foreign relations have been generally untroubled, a fact reflected in Cambodia's assuming the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the second half of 2002, and hosting the 8th ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh in November. POLITICS: HUN SEN AND THE CPP CONSOLIDATE POWER Commune Elections The first local government, or commune elections in post-colonial Cambodia were held in February. These resulted in the election of 11,251 members from a field of more than 30,000 candidates. Although FUNCINPEC and Sam Rainsy candidates were elected (2,213 FUNCINPEC candidates and 1,340 SRP candidates), the results represented a political triumph for the CPP whose candidates gained 7,698 commune seats, or 68 per cent of the total, with all but a handful of the positions as commune chiefs going to CPP candidates. As with previous national polls, the commune elections were accompanied by instances of political violence, with at least ten, and possibly twenty, pre-poll deaths directly linked to the election process. While a subject for much NGO criticism, it does seem fair to judge that the level of political violence was less than had occurred during the national elections held in 1993 and 1998. One feature of the commune elections that has not received the attention it deserves is the extent to which the CPP's success called into question whether FUNCINPEC's link with King Sihanouk, as a royalist party, any longer played a significant part in causing electors to vote one way or the other. Sihanouk himselfwas reported to be deeply disturbed by this issue, a factor that probably played a part in his threats to abdicate that he had...