Hun Sen

Prime minister of Cambodia (1985- )

• Born: August 5, 1952
• Place of Birth: Peam Koh Sna, Stoeung Trang district, Kampong Cham province, Cambodia

Hun Sen encouraged Vietnam to intervene in Cambodia in 1978 to stop the deaths of more than one million Cambodians because of Khmer Rouge policies. He then led his government through domestic turmoil to sponsor a free market economy that has enabled his country and people to regain normalcy within the international system.

Early Life

The father of Hun Sen (hewn sehn), Hun Neang, was for a time a Buddhist monk. His mother, Dee Yon, was once kidnapped for ransom because her father was rich. Hun Sen’s family had to sell its property, but they became poor in the process. Hun’s father was then trained by the French to fight the independence forces, though after France granted independence, he became the chief of a local self-defense force.

At birth, Hun was named Hun Bunall because he was rather fat (nal is the Khmer term for “fat”). His grandmother was his mother’s midwife. He enrolled in the Peam Koh Snar Primary School in his village and, in 1965, in recognition of his considerable intelligence, he left home to study at the Lycée Indra Dhevi in Phnom Penh. Here he took the name Ritthi Sen, the name of a legendary boy who had endured eleven stepmothers. While in the nation’s capital, he lived at the Naga Vann Pagoda.

In 1970, after Cambodia’s ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, was ousted in a coup by military commander Lon Nol, Hun quit school to join the National United Front of Kampuchea, the pro-Sihanouk underground resistance, based in the jungle and whose leaders were known as the Khmer Rouge. Assuming the name Hun Samrach, Hun was assigned to intelligence work in his home province of Kompong Cham. In 1972 he changed his name to Hun Sen, though many relatives still call him Bunall. In 1975, shrapnel from artillery damaged his left eye, and he was fitted for an artificial eye. Meanwhile, his future spouse, Bun Rany, joined the resistance, was trained in medicine, and became director of a hospital, where the wounded under Hun’s command went for treatment. The couple married in 1976 and had three sons and three daughters.

Life’s Work

Hun rose quickly from infantry recruit to commander of a battalion. In 1975, after the victorious Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh, he was promoted to chief of special regimental staff. After the Khmer Rouge ordered the evacuation of the capital, those who were not executed for political reasons were assigned to work camps, where conditions were so harsh that Hun increasingly contemplated defecting to Vietnam. In 1977, when he was appointed deputy regimental commander of the special regiment, he was ordered to attack Vietnam. While obeying the order in an incursion inside Vietnam, he defected on learning that the Khmer Rouge had orders to kill him as well.

The Vietnamese government interrogated Hun but then urged him to seek asylum in Thailand, which he refused. Eventually, after Khmer Rouge incursions into Vietnam killed thousands of Vietnamese, Hun’s military intelligence was so highly valued that the Hanoi government arranged to have him organize an insurgent force and to be installed in the new Cambodian government after Vietnamese troops entered Cambodia in late 1978; they defeated the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

The Khmer Rouge, however, regrouped inside Thailand with non-Communist forces loyal to Prince Sihanouk and one-time prime minister Son Sann. The Khmer Rouge then organized a military campaign to regain control of Cambodia. As a result, Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until 1989, when Hanoi judged that the newly trained Cambodian national army would be sufficiently trained to repel any military advance by the Khmer Rouge.

Hun’s first position was as foreign minister, serving from 1979 to 1985 and from 1987 to 1990. He became deputy prime minister in 1981 and prime minister in 1985. As dual foreign minister and prime minister, he negotiated with Sihanouk to bring an end to the threat of Khmer Rouge reconquest and accepted a United Nations transitional arrangement that would hold free elections to determine who would rule postwar Cambodia. In 1983, the party loyal to Sihanouk won the elections, but Hun’s supporters were so threatening to the stability of the government that a coalition government was formed, with Hun as second prime minister and the prince’s son, Norodom Ranariddh, as first prime minister.

In 1997, forces loyal to Hun defeated Ranariddh’s loyalists in what appeared to be a coup. When Ranariddh went into exile, Hun became acting prime minister. In 1998, despite Ranariddh’s return to contest the elections, Hun’s Cambodian People’s Party won more than half of the seats in parliament. Hun then became prime minister. His party was reelected to a majority in the elections of 2003.

During Hun’s ministry, however, journalists and opposition politicians critical of the government were found dead. The deaths were not investigated by police. Hun, accordingly, was blamed for quelling opposition and establishing a dictatorship. Those close to Hun contend that the political violence was being plotted within the ruling party but that Hun was denied access to meetings where key decisions are made. They contend that Hun was not fully in control and instead was required to devote himself to economic development and similar matters.

In the face of criticism and accusations, Hun adopted important policy innovations as prime minister. Even before Vietnamese troops left Cambodia in 1989, he appointed non-Communists to his cabinet to revitalize the economy with initial free market reforms. Although Vietnam hoped to incorporate Cambodia into a larger socialist economic market, no such economic integration occurred during his ministry. While negotiating to have the United Nations legitimize a new government with free elections, he permitted foreign aid from nongovernmental organizations, and foreign investment capital flowed into the country, principally from Taiwan and Thailand even before the United Nations-sponsored elections of 1993. After Hun’s return to the ministry in 1998, Cambodia attracted considerably more foreign aid, investment, and loans. In 2004, Cambodia joined the World Trade Organization.

Hun’s government was among the most corrupt in the world. His cabinet colleagues reportedly funneled foreign capital into Swiss bank accounts, but there has been no evidence that Hun derived financial benefit. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by the University of Cambodia for his accomplishments on behalf of his country.

Significance

Hun was instrumental in the successful transition of Cambodia’s economy from one that was socialist to one that is capitalist, all while under Vietnamese occupation. He then opened negotiations that led to an end of twenty years of civil war and compromised with resistance leaders to forge a reasonably democratic government based on free elections.

His impressive management style, even with the country’s factional intrigues, moved Cambodia from the Communist orbit to friendship with the West, so much so that one of his sons was admitted to the US Military Academy at West Point. Hun’s political decisions were based not on the models of other countries nor on academic theory. Instead, they were made to be humanely pragmatic, and they outmaneuvered many factional leaders concerned only about their own power rather than the good of the country and the people. Such considerable change occurred in the face of heavy pressure from his rivals for power. However, in spite of his critics, Hun has not been implicated formally in any foul deed or scandal.

Hun has widely criticized for disregarding the results of Cambodia's July 2013 election. Hun and the CPP lost twenty-two seats as a result of the election and failed to earn the required two-thirds majority needed to form a government. In addition, the party faced allegations of electoral corruption and voter fraud. In the months following the election, Hun stated he will move to form a government nonetheless. In December 2013, tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated in support of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), demanding that Hun step down. In response to the country's political turmoil, American officials have threatened the provision of continued aid to the country. In 2023, Hun resigned as prime minister, stepping aside so his son, Hun Manet, could take his place. However, he remained party leader. Also in 2023, Hun warned Ukraine not to use cluster bombs in its war with Russia, remembering his country's painful experience with the bombs during the Vietnam War.

Bibliography

Chandler, David P. A History of Cambodia. 3d ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990.

Daquan, Zhou. A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People.Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2007.

Ear, Sophal. Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy. New York: Columbia UP, 2012.

Gottesman, Evan R. Cambodia After the Khmer Rouge: Inside the Politics of Nation Building. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004.

Haas, Michael. Genocide by Proxy: Cambodian Pawn on a Superpower Chessboard. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1991.

Mehta, Harish C., and Julie B. Mehta. Hun Sen: Strongman of Cambodia. Singapore: Graham Brash, 1999.

Peou, Sorpong. Conflict Neutralization in the Cambodian War: From Battlefield to Ballot-Box. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Rainsy, Sam. We Didn't Start the Fire: My Struggle for Democracy in Cambodia. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2013.

Roberts, David. Political Transition in Cambodia, 1991-1999: Power, Elitism, and Democracy. Richmond, England: Curzon, 2001.

Sochua, Mu. "Hun Sen Has Been Terrible for Cambodia. His Son Could Be Worse." Al Jazeera, 11 Aug. 2023, www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/8/11/hun-sen-has-been-terrible-for-cambodia-his-son-could-be-worse. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.