Cambodian strongman leader joins thousands in 'stability' ceremony

 Buddhist monks attend a ceremony at the Angkor Wat temple to pray for peace and stability in Cambodia. Photograph: Samrang Pring/Reuters

Cambodian strongman leader joins thousands in 'stability' ceremony

Carefully choreographed prayers at Angkor come as disbanding of opposition party cements Hun Sen’s grip on power

 The Guardian | 3 December 2017

Cambodian dancers perform during a prayer ceremony in front of Angkor Wat temple. Photograph: Charly Two/AFP/Getty Images

Hun Sen and his wife, Bun Rany, at the Angkor ceremony. Photograph: Samrang Pring/Reuters

Thousands of monks have joined the Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, for a prayer ceremony at the famous Angkor temple, lauding “political stability” after the main opposition party was dissolved, an act that has cemented the strongman’s grip on power.

Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia since 1985, making him one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, an achievement earned through a mixture of cold political strategy, deft public relations and repression.

His rule appears virtually assured after a court last month disbanded the main opposition party before next year’s elections.

As dawn rose over the tiered stone domes of Angkor Wat on Sunday, Hun Sen joined prayers with 5,000 Buddhist monks, in a ceremony touted as celebrating peace and stability at the symbolic heart of Khmer power.

Graceful apsara dancers, fingers curled in the traditional art, went through their moves as thousands gathered for the event at the vast Angkor complex – the centrepiece of the Khmer empire, which dates back to the ninth century.

Hun Sen, who has cast himself as a figure of stability in a country ravaged by the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, was front and centre during a carefully choreographed morning.

Kneeling, hands clasped in prayer, he received blessings from monks who sang Buddhist mantras and scattered flower petals.

“We live with peace under the prime minister’s rule,” said Prum Seab, 49, who was among the crowd. “I am happy.”

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The tourism minister, Thong Khon, dismissed questions about the political crisis in the country.

“We hold this ceremony for continuous prosperity … we pray for continued peace and stability,” he told AFP. “We have no crisis, but there are politicians who are having a crisis themselves.”

Analysts had predicted a strong challenge to Hun Sen at next year’s election, after the youth vote in 2013 took the opposition Cambodia National Rescue party (CNRP) to its best ever electoral result.

But Hun Sen has rallied in the intervening years, boosting his public profile through Facebook, while systematically using the kingdom’s pliant courts to hack away at the CNRP as well as critics in civil society and the media.

Cambodia’s main opposition party was finally dissolved last month over accusations it conspired with the United States in a treason plot.

The case was criticised by Washington as baseless, while rights groups said it had hastened the country’s descent into a de facto one-party state.

Hun Sen has turned up the anti-American rhetoric to justify the unprecedented crackdown, which has included shutting down critical media with trumped-up tax charges and arresting journalists on allegations of spying.

Meanwhile, he has deepened Cambodia’s embrace of the regional heavyweight China, whose low-interest loans and infrastructure schemes are driving a boom in one of south-east Asia’s poorest countries.