Cambodia in 2022: An Era Nears its End, A New One Dawns

Summary

Cambodia in 2022 was at the crossroads of the past and the future. Cambodia's first parliamentary term (2018–23) under one-party rule of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) drew to a close. While the CPP has been in power since 1979, the 2018 election established their complete hegemony in the National Assembly. The end of this political experiment, or the first phase thereof, raised questions surrounding the future competitiveness of electoral politics. The resurrection of the Candlelight Party, from the ashes of the Sam Rainsy Party, which gained twentytwo per cent of the vote in the local elections in June, potentially promised the return to limited electoral competition ahead of the national elections in 2023. Yet, the profound reengineering of all aspects of political life over the electoral term ensured that the political landscape could not possibly return to its state before the turn to deepening authoritarianism set off in 2017–18.

The imminent power hand-over to a new generation of CPP leaders, almost without exception scions of the incumbent government, was thick in the air. In 2021, Prime Minister Hun Sen and the CPP endorsed Hun Manet, Hun Sen's oldest son, as the next prime minister. Over 2022, Hun Manet and his wife, Pich Chanmony, took the stage as Cambodia's future first couple and made regular social media appearances with their son, implying a power transfer for several generations to come. The stage had also been set in December 2021 for a future cabinet of political heirs to come into power after the 2023 national elections. These heirs, often PhD holders trained abroad, took the limelight in preparation for the upcoming succession.

The closing of the era led by the “military fighter” (neak tosour) generation of CPP leaders born of revolution, and with it the end of the era of Prime Minister Hun Sen (samay Decho) in sight, necessitated reflection on their legacy. This concern took expression in the country's Win-Win Monument and memorials, developments in Koh Thmor at the Vietnamese border, as well as through films and writings.