Yahoo – AFP, Suy Se, January 18, 2016
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| Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) poses for a selfie with supporters during a ceremony marking the 37th anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in Phnom Penh (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy) |
Looking
more avuncular than authoritarian, Cambodian premier Hun Sen crouches for a
selfie for his Facebook page with young scouts -- part of a social media blitz
selling the strongman's cuddlier side as he seeks to extend a 30-year grip on
power.
The
63-year-old, a wily political survivor who defected from the Khmer Rouge to
oversee Cambodia's rise from the ashes of war, has vowed to remain prime
minister until he is 74.
To do so he
will need the support of Cambodia's youth -- a tech-savvy demographic whose
votes may well be decisive in the next election, slated for 2018.
In 2013,
young Cambodians voted in droves for the opposition, wearied by the endemic
corruption, rights abuses and political repression seen as the hallmarks of Hun
Sen's rule.
A
self-confessed digital dinosaur, Hun Sen has in recent months launched himself
online with an arsenal of new media tools.
 |
Cambodians
hold their mobile phones displaying Facebook pages of Cambodian
Prime Minister
Hun Sen (top) and the opposition party leader Sam Rainsy (below)
in Phnom Penh
(AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)
|
He has just
debuted a 'Hun Sen' App for Android and Apple phones -- complementing a new
personal website -- to allow the public to "receive news about me
quickly".
Meanwhile
his official Facebook page, minted in September, already has more than 1.9
million 'likes'.
"Wherever
technology goes, we must be there too," Hun Sen said recently, also
revealing in a Facebook post that he carries five smart phones to stay
connected with his countrymen.
Opposition
leader Sam Rainsy, whose Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) say they were
denied a majority in 2013 by vote rigging, has more than two million 'likes' on
his official Facebook page and has long embraced social media to spread his
message.
With under
three years to the next election, the battle for power looks poised to play out
online.
What's
the game?
Sebastian
Strangio, author of a recent book on the mercurial premier, says Hun Sen's
belated embrace of technology once more illustrates the "tactical
flexibility" which has kept him in power over the decades.
"Cambodia’s
old political battles have simply shifted online," he added.
But Hun
Sen's online forays have received a mixed reception from his target audience.
"Awesome
for an ex-bumpkin... but nothing special for young generation Khmers! They were
there long before him," one Facebook user posted in English on the
premier's page.
Others say
the strategy is working, bringing the premier into the daily lives of young
people.
University
student Kea Ny, 26, told AFP many of his peers have changed their attitudes on
the back of his social media outreach work.
"Among
10 of my friends, seven of them support him now. Before they all had negative
feelings towards the prime minister," he said.
 |
Two thirds
of Cambodia's 15 million
population are aged under 30 and like
their contemporaries everywhere they
are avid users of social media (AFP
Photo/Tang
Chhin Sothy)
|
The former
communist cadre already leans heavily on pliant courts and security forces to
keep rivals in check.
His
government is now pushing for a cybercrime law, which critics fear will be used
to target dissent.
Rainsy is
currently in self-exile after a slew of criminal charges were brought against
him and other core CNRP officials, which they say are politically-motivated.
An
opposition senator has been also arrested over posting a doctored treaty of a
highly-sensitive border area with Vietnam on Facebook.
Rainsy has
been charged with being accomplice in that case.
Fearing
arrest over the post, three other members of Rainsy's social media team have
fled Cambodia.
Others were
not so lucky -- including those in the age range the ruling party hopes to woo.
In August,
a 25-year-old student was charged with incitement to commit a crime over an
alleged Facebook post calling for a "colour revolution" in the
country.
Another
25-year-old was charged in early January for posting "insults and
threats" on Hun Sen's Facebook page.
If
convicted, he faces up to two years in jail.
"He
(Hun Sen) is taking to social media to show his softer side," Cambodian
political analyst Ou Virak told AFP.
"The
sinister flipside is of course an increased monitoring of social media,
epitomised by the cybercrime law."
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