Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen attends Independence Day celebrations in the capital, Phnom Penh, this month. (Heng Sinith/Associated Press)

The White House’s much-needed rebuke to a country smothering democracy

 Editorial Board / Washington Post | 18 November 2017

CAMBODIA’S PRIME minister, Hun Sen, who has been slowly squeezing the life out of democracy in Cambodia, delivered a fawning tribute to President Trump in remarks Nov. 13 in Manila at the ASEAN summit. Hun Sen expressed delight at Mr. Trump’s promise to stay out of the internal affairs of other nations. And no wonder.

On Thursday, the Cambodian Supreme Court, as expected, dissolved the main opposition party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party, at Hun Sen’s behest. The party, established in 2012, posed the first real challenge in years to his 32 years in power. The government claimed the party was planning to foment “color” revolutions, an uprising against the ruling regime, but this was a flimsy pretext. Hun Sen faces an election next July and is setting the table by wiping out the only real opposition party. In June, Hun Sen warned opposition forces to “prepare your coffin.” The court’s ruling means that the party will lose its 55 seats in the 123-member National Assembly. 

The party’s leader, Kem Sokha, cannot flee. On Sept. 3, he was arrested and accused of treason, also based on trumped-up charges that stem from a 2013 video in which he told supporters he received U.S. support and advice in planning political strategy. In effect, democracy is being criminalized in Cambodia. He is being held in a remote prison. The regime also pursued his predecessor, Sam Rainsy, with politically motivated accusations. He fled the country and is now in exile in Paris.

In recent months, Hun Sen intensified a campaign against civil society and free expression. A hefty tax bill forced the closure of the already ailing Cambodia Daily print newspaper. Local FM stations in Cambodia were ordered to stop carrying Radio Free Asia and Voice of America broadcasts. RFA later closed its office after Cambodian officials threatened to jail reporters. In recent days, police detained two former RFA employes, apparently on grounds they might be engaging in real journalism. In August, the regime ordered the National Democratic Institute, a nongovernmental organization loosely affiliated with the Democratic Party in the United States, to cease operations.

Hun Sen, an authoritarian who had tolerated some measure of political opposition, is now liquidating competition, the oxygen of democracy. Mu Sochua, a senior politician in the opposition party who along with others has fled the country, said the dissolution of the party marks “the end of true democracy in Cambodia.” 

Mr. Trump’s declaration in his inaugural address that “we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone” was an invitation to potentates such as Hun Sen to smother liberty. On Thursday, the White House issued a much-needed rebuke to Hun Sen, warning that he is placing Cambodia’s international standing at risk and pledging concrete steps in response to his undemocratic acts. Perhaps the Trump administration is waking up, belatedly, to the reality that the United States can’t ignore the internal affairs of other nations when democracy is under siege.