The World’s Longest Serving Prime Minister Sees his Dead End

By Vorackcheat

     Since the 1991 Paris Peace Accords officially put an end to a long protracted war in Cambodia, there were many rival Khmer leaders competing with one another to rule the country. But those many familiar faces have disappeared from Cambodian political arena except Prime Minister Hun Sen who has already set a record for the longest serving prime minister in Asia, and in the world, if he wins again in this election. However, the record serving time prime minister has come up with many controversial questions.

   When Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979, they installed two Khmer Prime Ministers previous to Hun Sen, Mr. Pen Sovann and Mr. Chan Chi. But these two Khmer leaders had lost their trust in Hanoi, and Mr. Pen Sovann found himself in Hanoi's jail in 1981 [and remained there] for more than a decade while Mr. Chan Chi was found dead in Vietnam in 1985 without clear explanations. In order to occupy Cambodia successfully, the Vietnamese needed the faithful Khmer leaders to cooperate with them as their emperors needed the faithful Khmer Kings in the past. By 1985, Hun Sen, a young vocal foreign minister was anointed by Hanoi as the new Khmer Prime Minister to run the country while the war between the Khmer Resistance Groups and the Vietnamese Army intensified. To win the guerrilla warfare in Cambodia, Hanoi used all strategic war plans which they had employed during their war against the US and its South Vietnamese ally in the past.

    But Hanoi's strategic war plan in Cambodia known as (K-5 Plan) turned into another killing field for the Khmer people after the Pol Pot Regime. As prime minister, Hun Sen fully cooperated and executed this war plan with the Vietnamese troops. The K-5 Plan imposed by Hanoi forced tens of thousands of Khmers to build the military bases and bunkers for Vietnamese troops along the Thai-Cambodian borders. Also this plan involved forcing Khmer labourers to cut and clear the forests all over the country, where the Vietnamese troops regarded as effective shelters for the Khmer guerrillas. As a result, thousands of Khmer workers were killed by stepping on the land mines, malaria, malnutrition, and over work. This K-5 Plan onslaught had previously been rejected by the two Prime Ministers in Pen Sovann and Chan Chi who had seen the plan as another killing field for the Khmer people after Pol Pot. However, the new Prime Minister Hun Sen did not hesitate to execute this plan, and eventually he had earned his trust from Hanoi.

    As the war was on an unsettled stage, the pressure from the international community, and the collapse of the Soviet Union along with the Communist bloc helped create a more favourable environment for peace negotiation for all Khmer warring factions. At this time, Hun Sen was on watchful eyes from Hanoi - he was set up by Hanoi as the team leader for peace negotiation with the Khmer Resistance Government led by former King Sihanouk.  Hun Sen was required to report all progress directly to Hanoi in person or by telephone. When the Paris Peace Agreement was signed by all rival parties including other 19 countries, Hun Sen was praised by Vietnam as their most faithful Khmer leader in modern history. Nonetheless, Hun Sen still had a big job ahead to work on - to win the election supervised by the UN. The first pre-emptive strike from Hun Sen was to neutralize his potential opponent, namely King Sihanouk. Hun Sen proclaimed and recognized King Sihanouk as the head of state of his regime, and at the same time gave the deputy prime minister position to Prince Chakrapong, a son of King Sihanouk, in order to weaken the Funcinpec Party which had just emerged from the Thai-Cambodian border jungle.

   The 1993 UN sponsored election had produced no decisive victory for the Funcinpec Party, and created an opportunity for Hun Sen to bargain power with Prince Rannarith, a leader without principle. Rannarith agreed with Hun Sen to share power in a new government by creating two equal first and second Prime Minister Posts which had never been used in any form of government in the world. The two-headed government had never walked in the same direction, creating distrust for each other. As expected, Hun Sen launched a bloody coup against his Co-Prime Minister Rannarith; hundreds of the Prince's supporters were killed and executed in gruesome manner. As the international pressure mounted, Hun Sen let the Prince who fled the country during the coup, returned to contest the next election that produced a clear victory for Hun Sen as the sole prime minister. However, the goal of Hun Sen was not just to weaken his opponents but to destroy and to keep them out of the political stage. This is Hanoi's new strategic plan in Cambodia. In order to control Cambodia permanently, they have to eliminate all Khmer oppositions by all means.  The Son San and Funcinpec Parties were smashed in pieces, and numerous attempts on the Sam Rainsy Party have proved not only unsuccessful, but have instead even made this party stronger.

   The newly created Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) emerged from the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party has attracted great support from all people over the country especially among the youths. The return of Mr. Rainsy from his four years’ exile created a historic event for the country as tens of thousands of people cheerfully walked to greet him from the airport with the chanting slogan of "change change, change!" As election campaigns draw to a close, Sam Rainsy attempts to use his short time in the country to garner more support from all provincial towns throughout the Kingdom. Tens of thousands of people have flocked to see and listen to his speech with cheer and hope without fear from any kind of intimidation from Hun Sen's regime.

     The election at this time around is a close call between the CPP led by Hun Sen and the CNRP led by Sam Rainsy. Most people believe that were the election held in a free and fair environment, Sam Rainsy would be definitely a clear winner. But, according to many different sources for the election campaign observation, there have been widespread intimidations on the opposition supporters and voting manipulations by the NEC all over the country. If the result of the election will not have reflected the will of the people or will have been rigged by Hun Sen, the opposition as well as the international community will not recognize him as the winner, and his new government will lose legitimacy to rule the country. Eventually, his record setting time as the longest serving prime minister will fall into trouble.