Hun Manet has done little, if anything, to change Cambodia

When Cambodia’s new prime minister, Hun Manet, visits Melbourne next week for the ASEAN Australia Summit, he may seem a welcome change from his long-serving authoritarian father Hun Sen. But hopes for a democratic and human rights renaissance in this genocide-ravaged and long-misgoverned country remain sadly misplaced.

Hun Sen, who had ruled Cambodia for 38 years, transferred power to his son, the 45-year-old Hun Manet, last August.

In Australia next week, the soft-spoken, Western-educated and technocratically savvy Hun Manet will likely present himself as the face of a modern, developing Cambodia, talking the talk of economic reform and more effective governance. However, his father’s talk back home is jail for his critics. And his father continues to call the shots that matter.

Hun Sen, still only 71, remains president of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and is in practical control of what effectively remains a one-party state. And he is, for good measure, the de facto constitutional head of state, as well.

As the expected new president of the Senate, he will act for King Norodom Sihamoni when he is out of the country – as the king often has been, not least when controversial legislation has been signed into force.

The governing CPP has successfully used broad defamation laws to prosecute government critics in the courts. Last year, an opposition leader, Son Chhay, a dual Cambodian-Australian citizen, was ordered to pay US$1 million (A$1.5 million) in damages for saying the CPP bought and stole votes. Jail awaits if he cannot pay.

Commenting on this case, the deputy head of one of the country’s leading NGOs, Soeng Sengkaruna, whose long record of defending human rights was detailed in co-author Gordon Conochie’s book