One big happy family in
Cambodia By Bertil Lintner
PHNOM PENH - Cambodia's rough-and-tumble
politics have long been bloody, marred by frequent
political assassinations and violence. But never
before have they been quite so blood-linked.
The English-language
fortnightly Phnom Penh Post published without
comment in late February a family tree it had
compiled, revealing how the top leaders of the
ruling Cambodia People's Party (CPP) have become
more intimate through an old-fashioned
Cambodian custom: arranged marriage. And the growing family
ties
run all the way to the top of Cambodia's political
pyramid, Prime Minister Hun Sen, Southeast Asia's
longest-serving leader.
For instance,
there is Hun Sen's brother, Hun Neng, currently
serving as governor of
Kompong Cham, whose daughter, Hun Kimleng, is
married to the deputy commissioner of Cambodia's
National Police, Neth Savoeun. Meanwhile, Hun
Neng's son, Hun Seang Heng, is married to Sok
Sopheak, the daughter of Sok Phal, another deputy
commissioner of the National Police. Hun Sen's
25-year-old son, Hun Manith, is married to Hok
Chendavy, the daughter of Hok Lundy, the National
Police commissioner.
Another of the
premier's sons, Hun Many, 24, is married to Yim
Chay Lin, the daughter of Yim Chay Li, secretary
of state for rural development. One of Hun Sen's
daughters, Hun Mali, 23, meanwhile, is married to
Sok Puthyvuth, the son of Sok An, Hun Sen's
right-hand man and minister of the Council of
Ministers. The friendship between Hun Sen and Sok
An dates back to the early 1980s, when Hun Sen was
foreign minister and Sok An director of the office
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Now those
personal ties run blood deep as in-laws.
And that's just a sampling of the
connections at the highest echelons. Heng Samrin,
who was Cambodia's head of state from the
Vietnamese invasion in January 1979 to the United
Nations intervention in 1991, and now serves as
president of the National Assembly and honorary
CPP president, has a daughter named Heng Sam An,
who is married to Pen Kosal, an adviser to Sar
Kheng, deputy prime minister and minister of the
interior - as well as brother-in-law of Senate and
CPP president Chea Sim.
Heng Samrin's
adviser, Cham Nimol, is the daughter of Cham
Prasidh, minister of commerce. Another of Cham
Pradish's daughters, Cham Krasna, is engaged to
Sok Sokann, another of minister Sok An's sons. Sar
Kheng's son, Sar Sokha, meanwhile, is married to
Ke Sunsophy, daughter of Ke Kim Yan,
commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed
Forces. And Hun Sen's wife, Bun Ramy, currently
serves as president of the Cambodian Red Cross,
while its second vice president, Theng Ay Anny,
aka Sok An Anny, is Sok An's wife.
Family traditions There has been
no official reaction to the Phnom Penh Post's
revealing study. Intermarriage among members of
the ruling political and business elites is not
uncommon in Asia.
In neighboring Thailand,
Field Marshal Phin Choonhavan's son, Chatichai
Choonhavan, became prime minister of Thailand,
while his daughter, Khun Ying Udomlak married Phao
Sriyanond, director general of the Thai police.
Another high-ranking Thai army officer, Thanom
Kittikachorn, was the brother-in-law of fellow
military dictator Praphas Charusathien, while his
son, Narong Kittikachorn, also became a military
strongman, while his sister Songsuda married Suvit
Yodmani, who has served with several Thai
governments.
Sino-Thai tycoons are known
to have arranged their children's marriages to
members of other top business families to progress
their commercial interests. But in Cambodia's
case, where many of the political elite were wiped
out during Khmer Rouge-led purges between 1975 and
1979, the number of political marriages is
extraordinary. And these new family ties between
the children of ministers and top officials
potentially set the stage for the CPP's grip on
power to continue for generations.
Significantly, the CPP's family connection
is emerging simultaneously with a waning of the
royal family's influence over national politics.
Ever since Hun Sen and his inner circle of friends
and advisers ousted former prime minister Prince
Norodom Ranariddh in a 1997 coup, the royalist
Funcinpec party's political fortunes have waned.
Ranariddh was forced into exile after the
bloody putsch that killed many of his party
members, but later returned to Cambodia to become
president of the National Assembly after
inconclusive general elections in 2003, when the
CPP was unable to garner enough votes to form a
one-party government and after much squabbling
joined with Funcinpec in a wobbly coalition.
One of the sons of former king Norodom
Sihanouk and half-brother of the present monarch,
Sihamoni, Ranariddh resigned that post last March
and subsequently left the country again. While he
was away, he was dismissed as co-chairman of the
Council for the Development of Cambodia as well as
the National Olympic Committee. He later returned
to Cambodia - and was ousted as president of
Funcinpec, the main opposition party, amid an
internal power struggle in October that many
political analysts believe Hun Sen had a hand in.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, several of
Funcinpec's original leaders were also related.
Ranariddh's uncle and former king Norodom
Sihanouk's younger half-brother, Norodom Sirivudh,
served as foreign minister in a Funcinpec-led
government in 1993. Ranariddh's half-brother,
Norodom Chakrapong, meanwhile, helped found
Funcinpec but later defected to the CPP. Their
half-sister and Sihanouk's eldest child, Norodom
Bopha Devi, has served as minister of information
and culture, while her latest consort, Khek Vandy,
was elected to the National Assembly on a
Funcinpec list in 1998.
But Funcinpec's
family pride has waned considerably since it
emerged as the biggest party in the UN-supervised
elections in May 1993, when it captured 45% of the
popular vote and outpaced the CPP, which came in a
close second with 38%. Many political observers
think Ranariddh's recent ouster from Funcinpec may
represent his last political gasp.
His
former Funcinpec colleagues recently sued him on
allegations that he embezzled US$3.6 million from
the sale of the party's headquarters last August.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court found the prince
guilty and sentenced him - in absentia - to 18
years in prison. Ranariddh had recently set up a
new party, aptly named the Norodom Ranariddh Party
(NRP).
Funcinpec, the NRP and the
opposition Sam Rainsy Party will be among 10
different political parties standing against the
CPP juggernaut in upcoming commune council
elections, which are scheduled for April 1 and
widely viewed as a bellwether indicator for next
year's general elections.
It may well be
an April Fool's election, with the opposition
fractured and vulnerable and the CPP allegedly
pursuing a campaign of violence and intimidation
against opposition candidates and their supporters
in rural areas. Khieu Kanharith, CPP minister of
information, predicted on February 22 that his
party would win about 97% or 98% of the positions
in the commune councils, and 95% of the vote in
the general elections next year. That may well be
the case, as Cambodia is fast morphing into a
one-party state dominated by the CPP.
The
Phnom Penh Post in its February 9 edition quoted a
foreign diplomat as saying: "The CPP controls the
government, the National Assembly, the Senate, 99%
of the village chiefs, the provincial governments.
Their influence goes through the judiciary,
through the police ... Practically everything is
controlled by one party."
That assessment
would appear to jibe with 55-year-old Hun Sen's
January 9 pronouncement that he does not intend to
stand down from the premiership until he is at
least 90 years old. By then, a third generation of
CPP family-tied politicians and officials, if
everything goes according to the apparent plan,
will just be coming of political age.
Bertil Lintner is a former
correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic
Review, where he reported frequently on Cambodian
politics and economics. He is currently a writer
with Asia-Pacific Media Services.
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