{"id":1562228,"date":"2024-03-19T17:48:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T17:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/cambodia\/sam-rainsy-washington-03192024132208.html"},"modified":"2024-03-19T17:48:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T17:48:54","slug":"sam-rainsy-says-west-can-still-influence-cambodia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/19\/sam-rainsy-says-west-can-still-influence-cambodia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Rainsy says West can still influence Cambodia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Tuesday he believes the United States and European Union can still push his country back on a path toward democracy, even as Prime Minister Hun Manet\u2019s government shows little apparent desire to allow open dissent.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cambodian government has suppressed any semblance of an opposition inside the country over the past decade, <\/span>dissolving<\/span><\/a> Sam Rainsy\u2019s Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, and <\/span>preventing<\/span><\/a> its successor parties from taking part in subsequent elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like many other opposition figures, Sam Rainsy \u2013 75 years old and living in Paris \u2013 is also subject to multiple <\/span>arrest warrants<\/span><\/a> if he returns home. His CNRP co-founder, Kem Sokha, has been under house arrest in Phnom Penh for years and was last year <\/span>sentenced<\/span><\/a> to 27 years in prison for \u201ctreason.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But in an interview with Radio Free Asia outside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Sam Rainsy said that he hoped to convince U.S. lawmakers and the Biden administration that they should not give up on Cambodia\u2019s pro-democracy movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to see the U.S. administration put continuous pressure on the Cambodian government to release political prisoners, to allow a guarantee for freedom of expression and to organize free and fair elections,\u201d he said. \u201cBut so far, this has not been achieved yet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Growing economic troubles in both Cambodia and its modern-day patrons in Beijing, he said, was creating a situation in which the West could have newfound leverage in Phnom Penh\u2019s decision-making.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressure campaign<\/b><\/p>\n

For years following the 1991 U.N.-organized elections in Cambodia, U.S. and EU governments forced then-Prime Minister Hun Sen to at least pay lip service to democratic ideals and allow a veneer of open society as a condition of receiving billions of dollars in aid money.<\/span><\/p>\n

But an upgrade in ties between China and Cambodia in 2011 and a subsequent windfall of Chinese aid and investment decreased Phnom Penh\u2019s reliance on Western governments, and allowed Hun Sen\u2019s government to increasingly ignore any outside pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ENG_KHM_SamRainsy_03192024.2.jpg\"\n
Hun Manet, son of then-Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen, center, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during an official visit to Beijing, Feb. 10, 2023. (Hun Sen via Facebook)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

And while the United States and European Union in the 2010s threatened to cut Cambodia off from lucrative trade concessions that prop up the country\u2019s dominant garment export industry, it did not stop the repression of the opposition at the 2018 and 2023 elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2023, though, the United States has sought to move away from pressing Cambodia\u2019s government to move back toward free elections to instead seek ways to <\/span>accommodate<\/span><\/a> Hun Manet and his new government in an effort to stop it getting any closer to Beijing.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Sam Rainsy said it was only through continued direct pressure that Cambodia\u2019s government would decide to change course.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDialogue with Hun Sen, or with Hun Manet, is an illusion,\u201d Sam Rainsy said. \u201cI hope that the U.S. administration will realize that soon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been wasting a lot of time believing or hoping the Hun Sen regime will liberalize or will distance itself from China,\u201d he added. \u201cReal and fruitful dialogue with any dictator is just impossible.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ticking clock<\/b><\/p>\n

The longtime opposition leader said that the West should not give up on hope for a pluralistic Cambodia.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent \u201ccharm offensive\u201d by Hun Manet to attract Western investment \u201cshows that China's support is not enough\u201d to shore-up Cambodia\u2019s struggling economy, Sam Rainsy said, and put America and Europe in \u201ca unique position to really push Hun Sen to make concessions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as the years go by, Hun Manet will inevitably strive to establish a sense of legitimacy for his own rule and seek to emerge from his father\u2019s shadow, he added, providing U.S. and EU leaders another avenue to pressure the government to change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHun Sen is not eternal,\u201d Sam Rainsy said. \u201cHe is almost 72 now, and he will not be leading the country \u2013 or at least pulling the strings from behind the scenes \u2013 for too many years to come.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \n \n


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

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

But the opposition leader says US efforts to play friendly with Phnom Penh are based on an \u2018illusion.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29440,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2242,7708,42629,42620,43099,785,27149,76469,12329,42752,27150,43141,4128],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562228"}],"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\/29440"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1562228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1562229,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562228\/revisions\/1562229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1562228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1562228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1562228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}