Initial Reactions to Criminal Lawsuit against PM Hun Sen

By Khmer Democrat, Phnom Penh


I read the "Complaint and Petition Requesting Criminal Investigation and Prosecution of Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia" with great interest and absorption. (I highly recommend reading it through; riveting, like a narrative rather than a legal brief.)

A few initial thoughts surfaced immediately:

1. Brilliant timing. It was obvious and acknowledged as such that the Complaint/Petition is timed to coincide with the visit of Prime Minister Hun Sen's visit to the United Nations General Assembly meeting. This had the dramatic effect and optimal impact of highlighting the Cambodian human rights and justice issues before the world stage when all the world's eyes and media are focused on the UN Summit.

2. US Image as a Rule-of-Law country challenged. The brief indirectly (or maybe directly) challenges the United States as a country which prides itself as a bastion of the rule of law, democracy, human rights principles. "Yeah? Let's see..."

In particular, the Complaint/Petition challenges the esteem of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other US high-vaulted institutions to act to redress the derision and contempt toward them by the Cambodian government. It's like a 6th-grade bully on the playground sticking out his tongue and finger to the US justice system, taunting the FBI with a "Na-na-na-na-boo-boo, we violated your criminal laws; so, what are you going to do about it? Na-na-na... We have China!"

3. Rally against Hun Sen. I can understand the disappointment of Cambodian-Americans and other democracy supporters from other parts of the world who would have liked to join in this demonstration, who find the announcement of the Rally given too late for proper planning.

But in reading the Complaint/Petition and the German-sense of impeccable timing with the release of the Complaint/Petition and the associated Rally, not much could have been be done. It was an issue of triage: which is more important, getting people out there or protecting the secrecy of the lawsuit? Here, the secret timing of the public announcement of this Complaint/Petition, only after making sure the Prime Minister is irreversibly in the air to NYC with no possibility of a return or time to counter-act beforehand, won out.

4. Vindication for Sam Rainsy. The opposition democracy leader knows well his opponent, knows well the Cambodian landscape, knows well his people on the ground inside and outside the government, knows well the geopolitics regionally and internationally. He knows the era he lives in.

Rather than thinking of his ego or succumbing to the taunts for his return to a jail cell - an irresponsible, high risk adventure to his personal security, his political voice, work and mobility--not to mention to the cause of democracy, as at this point, no one can compare to the husband-and-wife team--he opts to take the high ground and stay away (not out of fear, for he has shown to be fearless time and again since the early 1990s, and most tellingly, the grenade assassination attack on him at the Easter Massacre of 1997, and still since, reflected in his continuing to be outspoken 13 years later and going).

But he knows the 21st century of political activism where information communication technology makes "virtual presence" many times more important than physical presence, his presence is still feared and a focus of crackdown by a regime trembling before this kind of intelligence, wherewithal and political force.

For example, if Sam Rainsy had been imprisoned (and who knows what other ill-fated crimes await him if he returns under the present legal conditions), this lawsuit would not have seen the light of day or gain the momentum it is enjoying.