Rainsy Facebook popular in Cambodia

Rainsy Facebook popular in Cambodia

Kyodo News Service / Bangkok Post | 18 Sep 2014 

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy thanked his friends and supporters Thursday after the number of "likes" of his Facebook page topped 800,000, most of them Cambodians, which would give it one of the world's highest penetration rates for any Facebook page in any country. 

"Thank you to all Facebook friends and supporters. Today the number of 'likes' exceeds 800,000," said the president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, whose page, launched on April 23, 2013, passed the 500,000 mark on April 21 this year.

Of the total, "likes" from local users total more than 710,000, according to his page. That would account for well over half of the estimated 1.2 million Facebook users in Cambodia, which has a population of some 15 million people.

By contrast, Prime Minister Hun Sen's Facebook page currently shows more than 450,000 likes, of which more than 390,000 are locals.

According to sources close to Hun Sen, who has been in power for nearly three decades, his account is not personally run by him but by his aides or children. By contrast, Sam Rainsy is personally engaged with his own account.

Sam Rainsy's Facebook page regularly exposes things critical of Hun Sen's government or which show the negative side of Cambodia under his rule, such as workers' protests and land grabbing issues, while Hun Sen's page shows positive things like newly built bridges and roads.

In a posting on his account on April 21, Sam Rainsy called it "the number one Facebook page in Cambodia advocating democracy and freedom of expression" and "the fastest growing Facebook page in Cambodia and possibly in the world."