Hun Sen Vows to Preserve Peace, Rejects Talk of Political ‘Crisis’
Cambodia Daily | 8 June 2016
“Therefore, I will not let anyone—it doesn’t matter how venomous he is—destroy the peace we founded with difficulty,” said the puppetrimeminister, who was a Khmer Rouge soldier himself before fleeing to Vietnam [forever beholden].
Prime Minister Hun Sen on
Tuesday rebuked those who have labeled the current political situation a
“crisis,” urging his audience of young garment workers to be glad they did not
have to live through the horrors of the Khmer Rouge.
Rights groups, analysts and
observers have warned of a rapidly worsening political climate over the past
several months, which has seen the arrests of rights workers and opposition
lawmakers in cases widely seen as politically motivated. The CNRP announced a
boycott of parliament last month in protest of the arrests of its lawmakers
despite their legal immunity.
But at an event marking the
opening of the 100th factory at the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, Mr.
Hun Sen dismissed talk of any serious trouble.
“Cambodia today has no crisis,”
he said. “Those who say there is a crisis, it’s their business and they have
created it for themselves. So I am not responsible for that.”
Mr. Hun Sen told the crowd of
11,000 garment workers—like most of the country, born after the fall of the
Khmer Rouge in 1979—of how he lost an eye helping wrest Phnom Penh from Pol
Pot’s grip.
“Therefore, I will not let
anyone—it doesn’t matter how venomous he is—destroy the peace we founded with difficulty,”
said the prime minister, who was a Khmer Rouge soldier himself before fleeing
to Vietnam.
CNRP lawmaker Son Chhay said
Mr. Hun Sen’s government, after more than 30 years in power, had plenty to
atone for. “People are suffering from land grabbing, the destruction of natural
resources, corruption and so on,” he said.
Asked whether he would label
the political situation a crisis, he deferred to the party’s recent written
statements. The CNRP’s latest petition to the king describes a “deteriorating political
situation.”
No comments:
Post a Comment