This, however, allowed new daily infections to continue to push higher, with the end of the current wave of infections being highly uncertain. On the brighter side of things, Cambodia is among the leaders in emerging Asia in terms of its Covid vaccination drive, with The country will likely continue to rollover its Covid cash handout, wage subsidy, and other support schemes so long as the pandemic continues to pressure the economy, and additional aid schemes if required will likely pass with minimal resistance.
Considering Hun Sen and his larger-than-life strongman persona, the upcoming election results, should it be positive, are likely conferring legitimacy mainly on Hun Sen, rather than any potential successor or the CPP. Hun Sen stepping down before the polls could set the stage for a political crisis, possibly driven by a CPP power tussle, which would destabilise policymaking, or worse, a revolution driven by existing domestic opposition parties to demand a freer democracy.
Indeed, leadership succession for leaders or parties which have consolidated political power in Asia appears to have been difficult in recent years. In Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong has chosen to remain in the top job as General Secretary of the Community Party for another five years despite being significantly over the 65 year-old age limit for starting a new term at 77 years of age in , and in ailing health, given an inability for his chosen successor to command sufficient support from party cadres, which risks a power struggle.
Similarly, in the case of Malaysia, the fall of the dominance of the United Malays National Organisation UMNO in to a coalition of smaller parties caused a power vacuum which persists till this day, and with power jostling and politicking appearing to have taken precedence over pandemic management and economic support. FSG is solely responsible for the content of this report, without any input from Fitch Ratings. Each of these officers owes his high-ranking and lucrative position to political and personal connections with Hun Sen dating back two decades or more.
Each has demonstrated a willingness to commit rights abuses on behalf of Hun Sen. Instead of serving the public, these officials have acted to protect the rule of Hun Sen, who has been in power for more than 35 years. Throughout their careers, they have served in government positions paying modest official salaries, yet they have amassed large amounts of unexplained wealth.
Over more than three decades, hundreds of opposition figures, journalists, trade union leaders, and others have been killed in politically motivated attacks. Although in many cases those responsible for the killings have been known members of the security services, in not one case has there been a credible investigation or prosecution, let alone a conviction. In some cases, triggermen or fall guys have been prosecuted, while their superiors go untouched.
Security forces have also arbitrarily arrested, beaten, harassed, and intimidated many other critics of the government, including human rights workers, labor activists, land rights activists, and bloggers and others expressing their views online. Hun Sen has orchestrated his repressive rule by promoting people based on loyalty to him instead of the military, gendarmerie, and police institutions they formally serve.
The report details the responsibility of 12 senior security force officers for human rights abuses in Cambodia from the late s until the present. He was reappointed by parliament in September for a further five-year term.
The move followed mass demonstrations and came amid a boycott of parliament by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party CNRP , which alleged fraud in the July elections. The CNRP said it was cheated out of 2. Hun Sen is no stranger to controversy. Cambodia appears increasingly like a Chinese vassal state. Cambodia seems to have handed over large swaths of its coastline to China for military purposes.
Hun Sen was just a low-level commander in the Khmer Rouge when he defected to Vietnam in Vietnam occupied Cambodia in and placed Hun Sen in power in , and he has remained there ever since. He now rebukes the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed nearly a quarter of the population between and —a reign of terror from which Hun Sen claims to have delivered Cambodia.
Recently, Hun Sen has excluded China from the Khmer Rouge narrative, revealing where his loyalties lie. He does not mention Chinese aid. When the Khmer Rouge came to power, Mao won a vital ideological victory , gaining a proxy in the developing world as many other China-backed groups, such as those in Malaysia and Myanmar, struggled.
Some Cambodian experts agree. Last year, the U.
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