A Regal Authoritarian Turn in Cambodia

ABSTRACT

Cambodia’s transition from competitive to hegemonic authoritarianism, begun with a crackdown in 2017 which saw the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party dissolved, and institutionalised in non-competitive parliamentary elections in 2018 in which long-incumbent Cambodian People’s Party won all seats, has been teeming with references to the monarchy. Whilst Prime Minister Hun Sen has long built a complex set of regal legitimations elevating him to or above kingship, these legitimations have both intensified and changed qualitatively with the transition to hegemonic authoritarianism. In the past, Hun Sen and his regime’s regal references served to re-work in his favour the power boundaries between him and the monarchy; now, such references are mobilised against the non-royalist political opposition – at the same time as there is a sitting king on the throne. This article investigates the meanings and messages attached to these interventions on kingship, and how their usefulness to the new authoritarian order sheds light on the path the regime is taking. It is argued that Hun Sen uses royal imagery to cohere an otherwise incoherent vision of himself as a popular revolutionary as well as king-like leader whose power needs no check, to project power and create new political possibilities.

KEY WORDS:

• Cambodia
• monarchy
• authoritarianism
• royalism
• man of merit
• lèse majesté

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to participants at the workshop “Kings and Dictators: The Legacy of Monarchy and the New Authoritarianism in Asia,” held at Cornell University on April 14, 2018, for which a first version of this article was originally drafted. I thank Tomas Larsson for our conversations on the topic, as well as Erik Davis, Kevin Hewison and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous draft of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the author.

Notes

1. For 1993–2017 Cambodia can be classified as a competitive electoral authoritarian regime, in which the electoral arena was “a genuine battleground in the struggle for power,” and since the 2017 dissolution of CNRP, as a hegemonic authoritarian regime, where the electoral arena “is little more than a theatrical setting for the self-representation and self-reproduction of power” (Schedler 2002, 47).

2. Dittmer (2018, 4) defines the twenty-first century Asian strongman as a charismatic leader who responds to a tolerance for stronger national leadership, and who differently from the previous generation of authoritarians is typically a “takeover engineer.”

3. In competitive authoritarian regimes, as opposed to full authoritarian ones, “democratic procedures are sufficiently meaningful for opposition groups to take them seriously as arenas through which to contest for power” (Levitsky and Way 2010, 6–7).

4. The official trailer for the film is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BfvadZF2SA.

5. The documentary is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yfBz5qoc7w&t=684s.

6. The CNRP’s name – Konâbâk Sângkroah Cheat – in turn, evokes the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, which toppled the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

7. The Cambodian name of the ceremony was “Pithi buong suong som sechkdey sokh chuon dal Preah Reach Anachak Kampuchea,” which translates as a prayer ceremony for the well-being of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

8. The video of the ceremony is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihJudDU4lUs.

9. Though the historical Cambodian monarchy contains both hereditary and non-hereditary elements, Cambodians mainly consider it in hereditary terms.

10. Hun Sen has three sons, Hun Manet, Hun Manith and Hun Many. Each is being groomed for leading positions, with some observers believing that Hun Sen is setting up his sons as potential succession rivals. There are indications that a dynastic handover of power is being prepared for Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet. In 2018, he was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), in 2019 he was made a member of the CPP Permanent Committee, and in 2020 promoted to head of the CPP youth wing (see, for example, Asia Times, December 31, 2019).

11. A video of the inauguration ceremony is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP17h76cU7Y.

12. The decision was made at the CPP’s 42nd convention of the Fifth Term Central Committee, along with an order to organise mass gatherings throughout the country on December 29 to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the civil war.

13. The Facebook page of GoGo Cambodia features several videos of the event, including: https://www.facebook.com/1515948338703625/videos/1853144904983965 and https://www.facebook.com/1515948338703625/videos/498765304263777. The full programme of the event can be found at: http://www.gogocambodia.asia.

14. Sihanouk delivered this speech on October 30, 2011 in Phnom Penh during a ceremony to mark the upcoming twentieth anniversary of his return to Cambodia after the civil war.

15. I am grateful to Erik Davis for this point.

16. The tardy removal of dilapidated funeral pavilions was criticised by Prince Thomico, who compared the situation to the swift removal of pavilions after King Suramarit’s 1960 cremation, and called for structures to be taken down (see Cambodia Daily, January 30, 2014).