4 COLUMNS 3

How then does Hun Sen differ from tifiable factions and personalities his predecessors? How is he similar? began to appear through the veneer What kind of national leader does of the Cambodian ruling party's Hun Sen wish to be in the eyes of his public unanimity. Both domestically citizens? and internationally, Hun Sen has been the most prominent of these. His Clearly, he cannot expect the popular, public image is well-honed, whether subject-to-ruler veneration that speaking colloquial Khmer with Sihanouk continues to enjoy. Even rural Cambodians, negotiating in after two decades of social upheaval, Western conceptual terms with high royalist nationalism remains a force level foreign diplomats or conversing in especially among the in 'high' Khmer, a 'royal' language older generations. Cambodia's Hun Sen took pains to learn specifi­ strong tradition of oral history means cally for audiences with Sihanouk. that veneration of royalty is passed He thus appears an able political tac­ PROFILE on to the younger generations. Him tician, capable of drawing wisely on Sen clearly recognises the sig­ past lessons for his own political nificance of royalist nationalism and benefit. At no time in his career, for Profile: Hun Sen has pursued every opportunity to instance, has he boarded the racist align himself with Sihanouk. So far, bandwagon of ethnic nationalism, a At the age of forty Hun Sen has al­ he is in a good position to gain from strategy which sealed the fate of both ready reached the peak of his politi­ Sihanouk's popularity. prior regimes. cal career. His place in Cambodian politics, however, has never been as For many years Hun Sen depended ambiguous as now. His rise from on the Communist Party and his ad­ obscurity and onto the international ministration for political support. stage has meant for him, just as it has Now, however, he has distanced him­ for Cambodia, renewed uncertainty self from the party which has lately and disruption. come under the unchallenged control of conservative Student protests in have He was bom to a peasant family in revealed the startling dissipation of Kompong Cham, eastern Cambodia, the Phnom Penh administration. in 1952. After a very brief school State assets have been entirely sold education Him Sen joined the Khmer off to private interests by renegade Rouge at age sixteen and worked as bureaucrats. Yet Hun Sen's inaction an underground courier. When the in the face of these events indicates took power in 1975 he serious shortcomings in his political had risen to the level of intelligence authority. His popular credibility has officer. Less than two years later, es­ also been harmed by evidence of cor­ caping purges in which he would al­ ruption within his own family net­ most certainly have been executed, work. Hun Sen defected to and thus began his career in politics. With recent institution of the Supreme National Council (SNC) as Hun Sen the politician must be un­ the peak ruling body in Cambodia, derstood in the context of traditions representatives from each faction— of Cambodian political leadership and therefore of each past tradition of and nationalism. All post-inde­ When Hun Sen became Cambodia's Cambodian nationalism—are in pendence Cambodian leaders have foreign minister in 1979 he was Phnom Penh vying for their share of claimed to represent the interests of known only for his reported talent as political influence. Hun Sen, while the Cambodian people. They have all a military commander. By 1985, when positioned carefully by Sihanouk's sought the backing of one or more he moved into the prime ministerial side, is forced to deal with the current foreign powers as guarantors for portfolio, Cambodia was still firmly political malaise from the position of their small, militarily weak and in the era of socialist inter­ a politician with a rapidly dissolving politically volatile nation-in-the- nationalism, marxism-leninism, and support base. making. While Sihanouk, , isolation from the West The public face of Cambodian political leader­ and Hun Sen have for so long JUSTIN JORDANS is researching decried each other's legitimacy as ship was like that of Vietnam, the Cambodian politics at Monash rulers, aspects of their leadership Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: University's Centre for South East Asian styles and their nationalisms overlap. staid and straight-laced.In 1989 iden­ Studies.

ALR: M AY 1992