Exiled Cambodian opposition figure Sam Rainsy has endorsed the son of the current defense minister to become prime minister four months before July’s general election.
The announcement followed a report of a reshuffle and power struggle within the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, over the selection of a new leader to succeed Hun Sun, who has ruled the country since 1985.
Sam Rainsy, acting chairman of the disbanded opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party, posted a statement Friday on Facebook endorsing Tea Seiha, governor of Siem Reap province and son of Defense Minister Tea Banh, as the prime ministerial candidate for the period 2023-28.
The Cambodian National Rescue Party was the former main opposition party before it was dissolved by the Cambodian Supreme Court in 2017. Sam Rainsy, a co-founder of the party, has been living in self-exile in France since 2015, when he fled a series of of charges from his followers. They say they are politically motivated.
“The Cambodian people who want freedom and justice must unite around Tea Seiha, Tea Banh and Tea Vinh to bring about a democratic change in the leadership of the country through peaceful and non-violent means, which means free and fair elections,” wrote.
Admiral Tea Vinh is the brother of Tea Banh and a Commander of the Royal Cambodian Navy. The US Treasury Department sanctioned Tea Vinh in late 2021 for corruption related to China’s involvement in redeveloping the Ream Naval Base in Sihanoukville province, which could give Chinese forces a stronghold in the disputed South China Sea.
In Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Cambodia scored just 24 out of 100 and ranked 150 out of 180 countries.
“Such a change will promote a new leadership that is not made up of murderers, desperately corrupt people and traitors to the nation like Hun Sen and his family,” wrote Sam Rainsy, referring to the authoritarian prime minister who has ruled Cambodia for 38 years. years.
july elections
The move comes as Cambodia prepares to elect members of the National Assembly, now wholly controlled by the CPP under Hun Sen, who also serves as party chairman. Opposition figures, including Sam Rainsy, want the prime minister and his party out of power.
In the run-up to the election, Hun Sen has repeatedly attacked members of the Candlelight Party, the current main rival of the ruling party, in public forums, while CPP authorities have sued Candlelight members over what many observers see as politically motivated charges.
Tea Banh, who has served as defense minister since the late 1980s, dismissed San Rainsy’s support for his son in a Facebook statement of his own, declaring his endorsement of Hun Sen’s eldest son Hun Manet as future Prime Minister.
Hun Manet, 45, is a Commander in the Cambodian Army, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and leader of the CPP’s central youth wing. Hun Sen has groomed him to be his successor.
Sam Rainsy’s statement “aims to break national unity,” Tea Banh wrote. “My family and I still have a position to support Hun Manet for him to be the next prime ministerial candidate.
He added that the military will work against any foreign interference in an attempt to overthrow the legal government.
Following the statement, many senior military officials also denounced Sam Rainsy’s endorsement of Tea Seiha, who is expected to succeed his father as defense minister when Tea Bahn retires.
After Hun Sen said in December 2022 that Hun Manet would succeed him, some leaders in his government, including Tea Bahn and Interior Minister Sar Kheng, did not immediately endorse the move, though they did eventually express support for the plan.
Internal cracks?
Political analyst Kim Sok said the matter is indicative of internal divisions within the CPP over the premiership candidates, suggesting that a faction led by Sar Kheng and Tea Banh may still be dissatisfied with Hun Sen’s intention to transfer power to his son.
He also said that Hun Sen’s concern about a possible revolution sweeping Cambodia might not come from members of the public and youth unhappy with chronic corruption within the government and growing authoritarianism, but from the CPP itself.
“Hun Sen has said that he will be chairman of the CPP when his son is prime minister; this means there is an internal rupture,” said Kim Sok. “This is a sign of a color revolution within the party.”
Hun Sen recently warned Cambodians not to try to stage color revolutions (popular protest movements against the regime and accompanying changes in government) using human rights as a pretext, but rather to protect their so-called hard-won peace.
Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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