{"id":1134677,"date":"2023-07-14T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/cambodia\/hun-sen-thailand-election-07142023163923.html"},"modified":"2023-07-14T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T20:40:00","slug":"hun-sen-deletes-twitter-post-linking-thai-election-to-cambodian-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/14\/hun-sen-deletes-twitter-post-linking-thai-election-to-cambodian-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Hun Sen deletes Twitter post linking Thai election to Cambodian opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Prime Minister Hun Sen has removed a Twitter post that attempted to connect the Cambodian opposition to a Thai politician\u2019s failure this week to win enough parliamentary votes to become the country\u2019s next prime minister.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pita Limjaroenrat and his Move Forward Party fell short of the 375 votes needed to clinch power in an initial round of voting on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hun Sen tweeted that Pita\u2019s setback was also \u201ca major failure\u201d to Cambodia\u2019s exiled opposition activists. He was most likely referring to Sam Rainsy, the former head of the now-disbanded opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party who fled to France in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese traitors always expected that when Pita becomes the prime minister of Thailand, they would use Thai territory to do a campaign against the Royal Government of Cambodia,\u201d Hun Sen wrote in the tweet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow the expectations of the brute opposition group have vanished like salt in water,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In May, Sam Rainsy told Radio Free Asia that if a new pro-democracy Thai government is formed, he would look into traveling to Cambodia through neighboring Thailand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thailand\u2019s progressive Move Forward Party was the top vote getter in the May 14 general election. It heads a pro-democracy coalition trying to unseat an administration with deep military ties that has ruled Thailand for almost a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hun Sen has asked Thailand to arrest Sam Rainsy if he travels there. Last month, he publicly threatened to attack Sam Rainsy with a rocket launcher if he led workers from Thailand into Cambodia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo not do politics that depend on somebody else,\u201d the prime minister wrote in Thursday\u2019s deleted tweet. \u201cThis is my goodwill message for the extremist groups.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ENG_KHM_HunSenThailand_07142023.2.jpg\"\n
Move Forward Party leader and Thailand prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat speaks to the media in Thai Parliament after the parliamentary vote for the premiership in Bangkok on July 13, 2023. Credit: Lillian Suwanrumpha\/AFP<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Online reaction<\/b><\/p>\n

After it drew angry online comments, Hun Sen removed the post from Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely ludicrous,\u201d <\/span>wrote Phil Robertson<\/span><\/a>, Human Rights Watch\u2019s deputy Asia director.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk tweeted that <\/span>the 70-year-old Hun Sen<\/span><\/a> is \u201ca political dinosaur comfortable in the company of dictators.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he looks at Pita, he sees the [political] liberalization & reform he fears might some day come to Cambodia,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hun Sen posted another message<\/span><\/a> on both Twitter and Telegram on Friday, writing that he doesn\u2019t oppose Pita\u2019s candidacy for prime minister.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI respect the decision of the Thai people and I will not interfere in the internal affairs of Thailand,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI am ready to work with Thailand\u2019s leader, regardless of who or which party.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added that Cambodian opposition activists should stop using Pita\u2019s name \u2013 \u201cwho does not know he is being used\u201d \u2013 to oppose the Cambodian government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finland-based political commentator Kim Sok said the first message made it seem like Hun Sen doesn\u2019t understand diplomacy and politics, even though he served as Cambodia\u2019s foreign minister during the 1980s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, a leader of a country uses good words and avoids bad words to other countries\u2019 politicians, especially those who win the election,\u201d he said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Translated by Chandara Yang. Edited by Matt Reed.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \n \n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia<\/a> and was authored by By RFA Khmer.
<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The long-time leader seems to gloat over a Thai politician\u2019s defeat in an initial parliamentary vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27689,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2242,43813,63290,1841,42620,48708,65374,34639,33222,785,27149,46120,27150,60544,739],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27689"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1134677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1134678,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134677\/revisions\/1134678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1134677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1134677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1134677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}