Cambodia After Hun Sen: A Hereditary Autocracy?
Liberation, Hannah Arendt wrote, does not provide “the actual content of freedom, whose essence is admission to the public realm and participation in public affairs”. Indeed, freedom claims the future not through liberatory revolution alone, but by the writing of laws that guarantee citizens’ ability to participate in public affairs.
Cambodians know this lesson all too well. The Khmer Rouge offered them vague liberation from the corrupt and ineffective Lon Nol regime, a promise particularly attractive to the young and disenfranchised, but upon assuming power in 1975 the communists offered almost four years of conscripted misery—perhaps the most obvious antithesis of freedom.
Cambodia is once again, however, facing the not-too-distant prospect of revolution. Hun Sen has ruled the country for over 35 years and will likely remain in power until his death (thanks to his political skills and patronage network), but the strongman’s proposed patrimonial succession is certainly not guaranteed. Upon Hun Sen’s death or incapacitation, public anger—the result of his closeness with China and failure to address corruption, skyrocketing household debt, a lack of jobs, and lagging development—could converge with extant elite discontent to topple Hun Manet, the strongman’s eldest son and likely successor.
The question, therefore, is: What comes next, and can it ensure Cambodian freedom?
NYSEAN Member Charles Dunst writes for 9DASHLINE.
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