Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the leader of Thailand’s ruling Pheu Thai Party, yesterday paid a one-day visit to Cambodia aimed at strengthening its relationship with its counterpart in Phnom Penh – a sign of a growing momentum in the two nations’ bilateral relations. During the visit, she held meetings with senior officials including Prime Minister Hun Manet … Read more
Tep Vong, the senior monk who headed Cambodia’s Buddhist hierarchy and played an important role in its revival of Buddhism in the aftermath of the rule of the murderous Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s, has died. He was 92. In a statement yesterday, The Associated Press reported that Cambodia’s Ministry of Cults and Religions said … Read more
On Monday, lawyers for Cambodia’s ruling party filed a lawsuit accusing a leading rights activist of defamation and seeking $500,000 in damages, the latest development in the country’s rolling political crackdown. The complaint was filed in Phnom Penh Municipal Court against Soeng Senkaruna, the deputy head of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), … Read more
In its most recent national party congress last month, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) appointed Prime Minister Hun Manet as its newest vice president. This new political maneuver took place just a little over 100 days after Manet succeeded his father, Hun Sen, as premier in a dynastic succession arrangement that saw scions like … Read more
Magazine Manet’s path to security in power will be difficult, as he is forced to carefully navigate the system his father built and, to a large degree, still controls. Hun Manet, foreground, a son of Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen, waves his supporters as he leads a procession to mark the end of an election … Read more
Advertisement In recent weeks, Cambodia’s state-aligned media has been flooded with articles attempting to recast the narrative around one of the ruling elite’s core economic interests: human trafficking-fueled scamming. The evidence is overwhelming. Over the past three years, Cambodia has become the epicenter of a globally unprecedented phenomenon in state-facilitated criminality: an online scam industry … Read more
Podcasts | Politics | Southeast Asia A conversation with Heang Tak. Advertisement As a member of Parliament in the southeast Australian state of Victoria, Heang Tak ranks among the most prominent of the country’s Cambodian diaspora, which has flourished since the first refugee boats began arriving from Indochina in the late mid-1970s. He is also a prominent human rights … Read more
Advertisement A leading Cambodian opposition politician has been sentenced to another three years in prison after being convicted on two charges of incitement, the latest sign that the political climate will remain chilly under the new-look government headed by Prime Minister Hun Manet. In a trial hearing, Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted Thach Setha, a … Read more
ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia The case, which the opposition Candlelight Party has denounced as politically motivated, is another early sign that the new Cambodian administration will be much like its predecessor. Thach Setha, a prominent vice president of the country’s main opposition Candlelight Party, talks to media members near the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia … Read more
Advertisement Last month, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen relinquished the country’s top office after more than 38 years at the helm, handing over power to his eldest son, Hun Manet. Coinciding with the handover of power, part of a generational transition within Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), was the release of “A Tiger Rules … Read more