Day: May 4, 2023

UPDATED at 1:14 p.m. EDT on 05-04-2023 
Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced that he – and not Cambodia’s king – would preside over Friday’s opening ceremony of the Southeast Asian Games, provoking criticism from exiled dissidents who say he is disrespecting the monarchy.

Cambodia is hosting the Southeast Asian region’s premier sporting event for the first time. The May 5-17 games will include 11 nations in the region competing in 36 events, and the country has built a new Chinese-funded 60,000 seat stadium  for the occasion.

In host countries, including monarchies, the sitting head of state is usually given the honor of declaring the start of the games at the opening ceremony.

Though King Norodom Sihamoni is the official head of state in Cambodia, he rarely exercises his limited powers granted by the constitution and tries to avoid getting involved in politics. 

Hun Sen, 70, has ruled Cambodia since 1985, and is believed to be manipulating the government and the country’s laws in an attempt to pass his role as leader to his son Hun Manet before retiring. 

The country is scheduled to hold national elections in July that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party is widely expected to win.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Sihanoukville container terminal on Monday, Hun Sen mocked his detractors.

“You should know well, if you do not know well, don’t act like you are so wise and do not be arrogant and incite conflict between the king and the prime minister,” he said. 

“The king does not take the role of prime minister, and the prime minister does not take on the role of the king, just as [the king] carried the torch before the SEA Games while the prime minister walked along with him,” he said.

Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told Radio Free Asia that Hun Sen’s slight was destroying the achievements of the king, the former king and the ancestors of the Khmer people.

“This is not only a violation of the role of the king, but a betrayal of the throne and the king, not only in front of the Cambodian people, but in front of international guests around the world,” he said.

Driving a wedge

Hun Sen’s critics are trying to discredit him by trying to show that there’s a split between the prime minister and monarchy, said David Hutt, a journalist and researcher for the Central European Institute of Asian Studies.

“It’s a way for anti-CPP critics to try to paint Hun Sen as unpatriotic, given that he taints most opponents as traitors,” said Hutt. “They probably also reckon it might turn some ordinary Cambodians against the ruling party. But the monarchy has been a political football for some time.”

Tensions between Hun Sen and the royal house arise because of the monarchy’s protections, he said.

“After all, the monarchy is the only institution left in Cambodia that [Hun Sen’s] ruling party cannot completely dominate,” said Hutt. “Maybe Hun Sen has long thought it may become a rival institution, although that’s less so with King Norodom Sihamoni compared to his father.”

Hutt said that Hun Sen sees himself as a monarch, as he is preparing a dynastic succession of the prime ministership to his son.

But Kim Sok denied that he and other critics only want to drive a wedge between the king and the prime minister, and compared the treatment of the monarchy with other neighboring monarchies.

“In Thailand, when there are big sports events, both national and international, before the athletes enter the arena, they prepare the king’s portrait for the athletes to respect him before entering the arena,” Kim Sok said. “But in the Kingdom of Cambodia, we have not seen such preparations yet.”

 

Hun Sen tends to get angry whenever his critics call him out on his disrespect, Bangkok-based social development researcher Seng Sary said.

“The prime minister seems to feel uncomfortable when he is compared to the king, who is protected by the constitution,” said Seng Sary. “The monarchy is a supreme institution that cannot be violated, but the prime minister is only the chairman of the executive branch.”

Buddhist honors

Meanwhile, a Thailand-based international Buddhist organization has granted Hun Sen the honorary title “Patron of the World,” and made his son Hun Manet an honorary “senior advisor,” confusing some members of the organization.

The Venerable Buth Buntenh, who lives in exile in Massachusetts, said the Cambodian leader does not deserve the title and he does not understand why the organization gave it to him.

“Hun Sen has committed the highest immoral things in Cambodian society,” the monk said, adding that under Hun Sen’s rule, monks have lived in repressive conditions that rival the time when the country was ruled by Pol Pot’s regime, during which the Khmer Rouge defrocked and killed them.

“But now, under the rule of Hun Sen, monks are defrocked and put in jail. Or monks are shot dead by unidentified gunmen.” said Buth Buntenh.” So, the Khmer Rouge regime and Hun Sen are the same in terms of persecution of the Buddhists.” 

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
UPDATE: Adds background information on the SEA Games.

Hong Kong authorities have rewritten the electoral rules for the District Council, the city’s last bastion of political opposition, amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent under a draconian security law, sparking criticism from exiled councilors who fled overseas.

Under the new rules, the number of directly elected seats on the council will be slashed from 95% to 20%, chief executive John Lee told a news conference on May 2.

“First of all, it is not the 2019 protests … it’s the attempt to cause disaster to Hong Kong society as a whole that we need to prevent,” Lee said, citing the minority of frontline protesters who fought back against heavily armed riot police with Molotov cocktails, bricks and arrows, and “independence” activism, which wasn’t a part of the protesters’ demands.

“We have to bear that in mind so as to ensure that in the long run, the system will protect us from all this chaotic and harmful situation to arise again,” said Lee, who was “elected” unopposed following changes to the electoral rules last year.

The change to the rules comes after millions of voters in Hong Kong delivered a stunning rebuke to Beijing and their own government with a landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates across the city’s 18 district councils at the height of the 2019 protests.

Pro-democracy candidates won 388 seats, an overwhelming majority of the 452 council seats up for grabs, after 71 percent of registered voters — nearly half the city’s population — turned out to vote in a poll that handed control of 17 out of 18 districts to pro-democracy groups.

Lee described that result as “a disaster” on Tuesday, saying that the new rules were designed to ensure that “the bad situation doesn’t come back again.”

‘Only patriots’

Exiled district councilors said the 2019 council had enjoyed the mandate of the people of Hong Kong, however.

“Over [their] 40-year history, the district councils have frequently discussed issues of a city-wide political nature, making it as a whole, a political organization with legitimate power to represent … the people of Hong Kong,” read a statement signed by dozens of exiled councilors.

They included former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, now in Australia, and former Wong Tai Sin councilor Carmen Lau, who has resettled in the United Kingdom.

The government said it would also set up a vetting committee for candidates in forthcoming District Council elections, with only candidates approved as “patriotic” allowed to stand.

The Communist Party-backed Global Times newspaper said the moves would ensure that “only patriots govern the city.”

‘Great step backwards’

Current affairs commentator Johnny Lau said Beijing is clearly looking to wield “watertight” political control in Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong’s electoral system has become just like that of the mainland in recent years,” Lau said. “They are just allowing a tiny number of voting opportunities to citizens to make it look like democracy, but in essence, it’s a very long way from most people’s understanding of democracy.”

Democratic Party Chairman Law Kin-hee said he was “very disappointed” with the move, which he described as a “great step backwards” for democracy in Hong Kong.

Cyrus Chan, who heads the district-level pro-democracy group Concern Group for Tseung Kwan O People’s Livelihood, called the new system “absurd,” and “worse than under the British.”

“I didn’t expect that such a small proportion of seats would be directly elected,” Chan said, adding that mergers of constituencies also made it harder for community-based groups to fight local election campaigns.

“One constituency is equivalent to 10 constituencies under the old system, which isn’t do-able, logistically or financially,” he said.

Shatin District Council chairman Chris Mak said only candidates with considerable political capital, connections and financial resources would be able to run under the new system.

“First, [candidates] will need excellent community relations, and second, they’ll need huge amounts of support,” Mak said. “In the past, anyone could be a district councilor if they served the public well, but this has now been completely distorted.”

He said there would also be fewer channels through which citizens could monitor what their government was up to, under the new system.

“Elected district councilors were used as a channel to monitor and communicate with the government, but the government has destroyed that,” Mak said. “Even popular candidates will need to build relationships with different stakeholders and get government support, which will discourage a lot of people from running.”

He said directly elected councilors are typically far more popular among local voters than appointees, and that the sheer size of the new constituencies will make it harder for councilors to serve their communities properly.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.