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BANGKOK – Cambodians who vote in Sunday's parliamentary elections will have a nominal choice of 20 parties but in reality only two serious options: extend Prime Minister Hun Sen's 33-year term or not vote at all.
The fact that Hun Sen's party was virtually eliminated from credible opposition last November when the Supreme Court declared the Cambodian National Rescue Party an accomplice in attempting to overthrow the government in a plot encouraged by the United States.
The court ordered the dissolution of the party, also forbidding its leaders to perform their duties for five years and expelling its members from the elected positions they held. One party leader was already in exile and the other in prison awaiting trial for the treason charge.
In addition to breaking the political opposition, the Hun Sen government silenced the critical voices in the media, closing about 30 radio stations and language newspapers that provided independent reports. A law was pbaded imposing heavy restrictions on courageous and dynamic civil society organizations of the country
With the control of the legislature and the bureaucracy, as well as the influence on the judiciary, it is not necessary to impose the law. there are no checks and balances. "The election of Cambodia is a sham that aims to extend Hun Sen's authoritarian regime and plunge the country into greater misery and repression," said Debbie Stothard, secretary general of the International Federation of Human Rights. Man based in Paris
. The leaders of the now-defunct opposition party, most of whom fled into exile to avoid arbitrary arrest, called for a boycott of the polls
"Going to vote on July 29, 2018 means that you are playing the Dirty game A group of traitors led by Hun Sen who kills democracy and sells our country, "wrote Sam Rainsy, the former popular and exiled leader of the CNRP, on his Facebook page at the beginning of month. "Boycotting this false and dangerous election means that we maintain our ideals by remaining faithful to our people and determined to save our homeland."
Ironically, a practice to fight voter fraud – soak a finger in the game. indelible ink to avoid multiple votes – makes Cambodians who do not hold their ballots a prime target for officials seeking to spot and punish opposition supporters.
Clean campaign Finger "promoted by the opposition is a form of political mobilization. former legislator and vice-president of the CNRP
According to her, do not vote, do not dip your finger in indelible ink, is a political gesture: "That little finger that I have, that each of you, is a symbol of what we stand for, what you want, democracy, freedom, freedom, justice. "
The officials, claiming that the boycott plea is illegal, have made several arrests, but the opposition has actually used social media to publicize its appeal." 19659002] Neither small parties have signed up to challenge Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party, but almost all of them are vanity cases or vehicles serving as curtains to give the illusion of a democratic choice.
Hun Sen has always ruled with a dose of repression carefully modulated between violence and reconciliation, but the shift to a more authoritarian authoritarian regime was triggered by the last general election in 2013, when the CNRP opposition won 55 seats in the National Assembly – a gaining 26 seats, while Hun Sen's party lost the race was close enough for the opposition to claim that it would have won, except for the manipulation of u voter registration process.
In last year's local elections, the CNRP showed a dramatic upward trend
Hun Sen, who at age 65 insists that he will serve two terms of office. five more years.
Hun Sen can be proud of helping to end the long-standing threat of the Khmer Rouge, a group of unist groups whose genocidal rule of 1975-79 left nearly 2 million dead. A Khmer Rouge officer himself, Hun Sen defected to neighboring Vietnam, with whose army he returned to help eliminate his former comrades. He became prime minister in a Hanoi-backed regime, and continued to fight the Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the 1990s.
More recently, he presided over a period of impressive economic growth that helped finance the government. infrastructure expansion. promise
But with economic growth came corruption, land grabbing and cronyism as well as a culture of impunity typical of a broken justice system.
Demography also seems to work against Hun Sen's party. A younger generation, without first-hand knowledge of the history of war and the instability of their country, is less likely to heed its warnings. Economic growth, as well as the broader horizons that accompany a globalized connected world, fuel growing expectations
The scale and depth of Hun Sen's crackdown is a break with his historical behavior, where he teases, taunting , threatened and employed Violence against his enemies, but generally paid at least from the mouth to the standards of democratic rule.
That seems all right now, said Sebastian Strangio, author of a biography of the Prime Minister in 2014.
Hun Sen was indebted to Western aid donors who funded the mbadive mission of maintaining of peace and building the nation of the UN to rehabilitate Cambodia in 1992-1993. The introduction of liberal democracy to replace the one-party Communist state that Hun Sen had organized was part of the deal.
Additional financial badistance was needed to develop Cambodia, so Hun Sen at least maintained a democratic framework sufficient to satisfy his benefactors. They tolerated a strong man who may not have been desirable but able to do it.
If the results of the 2013 and 2017 elections were the cause of the fall of his opponents, China was the facilitator, stressed Strangio. providing hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure loans and other forms of financing with few conditions.
For its part, Beijing gets a strong political ally in Southeast Asia that can be invoked in international forums to support China's position. "In the past year, we have seen the government decisively overthrow the areas of freedom that it once held in Cambodia, challenging Western donor governments," said Strangio. . 19659002] "Now the government does not really need Western support and is able to make more permanent adjustments to the Cambodian political landscape in keeping with their long-standing resentments and current political interests," he said. he says
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