Hun Sen says Cambodia does not need EU trade preference to succeed

Prime Minister Hun Sen stated that Cambodia does not need foreign aid or preferential trade agreements because its economy is strong enough to survive on its own.

The comments, which came at a ceremony on Monday to launch the fourth phase of the country’s financial management reform program, which will run from 2023 to 2027, were in response to a European Union resolution.

He called on Cambodia to release jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha, improve his human rights situation and hold free and fair elections this year, or risk a further suspension of his participation in the regional bloc’s “Everything But Arms” scheme. , or EBA, which allows Phnom Penh access to the European market without tariffs.

The EU has already withdrawn around 20 per cent of the EBA scheme in 2020, equivalent to around $1.1 billion of the country’s exports bound for Europe.

Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985, has repeatedly said that Cambodia can still survive without EBA status, but critics told the FRG Khmer Service that it is an indication that he does not care about Cambodian workers and their rights.

“When Mr. Hun Sen says he doesn’t need EBA status, that means he doesn’t need to respect human rights or women’s rights,” Mu Sochua, vice president of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, said. which was the country’s main opposition party before it was disbanded by the Supreme Court on baseless accusations of voter fraud in 2017.

Mu Sochua said losing EBA status entirely would result in catastrophically high unemployment in Cambodia and would disproportionately affect women, who make up the majority of factory employees.

“Not only the factory workers would lose their jobs, but also the farmers and their families, the small food vendors and the grocery stores around the factories, they would all lose their businesses as well,” he said, adding that the workers then they would have to search for jobs in the entertainment sector or risk their lives looking for work abroad.

The reforms caused the survival

At the reform launch on Monday, Hun Sen also said that after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Cambodia carried out major political and economic reforms under his leadership to restore the country without waiting for help from abroad, and that is the reason why it has survived until now.

“In my life, I have encountered innumerable risks all the time,” he said. “Not only when I risked my neck for the survival of the people by abandoning the Khmer Rouge regime, and not only when I risked my neck for the peace that UNTAC could not achieve, but also risked my neck for reforms when I acquired a formal position as prime minister.”

Following the 1970 coup that installed Prime Minister Lon Nol as Cambodia’s head of state, Hun Sen joined the Khmer Rouge and fought what he saw as foreign interference for the next seven years.

When internal purges within the Khmer Rouge regime began in 1977, Hun Sen fled with many of the soldiers under his command to Vietnam, returning with the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia which defeated the Khmer Rouge. He was installed as deputy prime minister of the Vietnam-backed People’s Republic of Kampuchea in 1979, then in 1985 the national assembly elected him prime minister.

With the Khmer Rouge still in control of parts of the country, Hun Sen was instrumental in the 1991 Paris peace talks that would broker a ceasefire and end the Cambodian-Vietnamese War and brought in the Cambodian Transitional Authority. United Nations in Cambodia, or UNTAC, to keep the peace while the country held elections in 1993.

When the elections favored another party over his Cambodian People’s Party, Hun Sen threatened to secede from seven provinces. It was then that UNTAC and the other party agreed to allow him to serve as second prime minister until 1997, when he led a coup that installed an interim prime minister until elections the following year, in which his party was so successful that he was elected. as the country’s only prime minister, a position he currently holds.

praise and criticism

Hun Sen also accused the United States on Monday of supporting the 1970 coup and supporting the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot.

He also took the opportunity to praise Vietnam, saying that the presence of Vietnamese troops in Cambodia during the early years of his reign not only helped overthrow and prevent the return of the Khmer Rouge, but also helped Cambodia advance its development. political, economic and social. social relationships.

Social development researcher Meas Ny told RFA that Hun Sen’s comments reflect the reality of Cambodia’s post-war political turmoil.

However, he said that the current sanctions on Cambodia are the result of Phnom Penh’s disrespect for human rights and unwillingness to follow the path of democracy in accordance with the principles of international law.

Meas Ny said that although Cambodia claims to be able to survive without foreign aid, its development and economy may be slow compared to other countries in the region.

“At present, every country needs trade and economic relations with other countries,” Meas Ny said. “If we lose part of a relationship, it can lead to an abnormal economic situation and we won’t be able to catch up with other countries.”

Former CNRP lawmaker Oum Sam An dismissed Hun Sen’s claims as overly political fabrications of facts intended to attract votes in this year’s election, scheduled for July.

He said that the reforms invoked by the People’s Republic of Kampuchea between 1978 and 1992 focused solely on strengthening the power of the party and, due to its adherence to Marxist-Leninist ideology, made the country’s economy dependent on aid from communist allies. like Vietnam and the Soviet Union. Union. This caused Cambodians to suffer from hunger and hardship.

“If the international community left Cambodia alone and allowed Cambodians to depend on Hun Sen’s economic reforms, our Khmer people would continue to live in misery and Cambodia would not have as bustling a textile industry as it does today,” said Oum Sam An. .

“Cambodians’ livelihood would have been the same as it was in the 1980s.”

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.