Life-threatening reforms conducted by Prime Minister Hun Sen

Opinion, Khmer Times, 24 March 2023 (Link)

In an unprepared speech at the launching event of the Public Financial Management Reform Program Phase 4 on 20 March 2023, Prime Minister Hun Sen recalled the reforms that he undertook in the 1980s, which were nothing less than life-threatening.

By this, he meant to say that it was not only about the threat to his political life but also his own physical existence.

He recalled how his life was so fragile and vulnerable when he stood out to propose daring reforms during the extremely volatile and dangerous situation. Nonetheless, he was still inclined to initiating reform for his sheer belief—and later became his governance mantra—that “ke tumrong keu ros, min ke tumrong keu slab”, meaning “to reform is to survive; without reform means death”.

He explained that there were three life-threatening reforms he undertook during the 1980s.

Firstly, the internal political reform. He was the early figure to push for negotiation and peaceful dialogue to put an end to Cambodian conflict. Unfortunately, Cambodian leadership back then was full of “neak tor suu” or “struggle fighters”, and no one was ready for the concept of negotiation. Everyone only talked about fighting to win.

The most troublesome factor was that in his premiership his own defence minister and foreign minister were not supportive of the talk. Therefore, he needed to change these two ministers to push forward his peace talk initiative.

Of course, the reform was undertaken when internal understanding and consensus were not fully on board, and such situation was extremely dangerous for the country and government that were just emerging from war.

He also thanked the French government for providing platform and hosting the negotiation between the then Prince Norodom Sihanouk and himself at Fère-en-Tardenois, a village northeast of Paris, in December 1987.

The historical event was remembered as the early impetus for the culmination into what we all know as the Paris Peace Agreements in 1991.

Secondly, on economic reform. The immediate task for the government that was just emerging from the genocidal Pol Pot regime was to save the lives of the people.

He recalled that in those times, 20 families only had two cows as their means of agricultural production. Now people are complaining about traffic jams for having too many cars on the street.

In the 1980s, no one had a clue of what privatization mean but Prime Minister Hun Sen was instrumental in introducing land privatization reform, and later market economic concepts.

This daring move was made when Vietnam was still conducting cooperative economics. He recalled that in those times there were no less than 100,000 Vietnamese troops in Cambodia.

While he was constantly being accused as Vietnamese puppet, he needed to make justice to Vietnam on the fact that Vietnam was in Cambodia to oust Pol Pot’s butchers, and that it did not interfere in the domestic undertaking of Cambodian government.

As the prime minister, he had all the freedom to conduct political reform as mentioned above, as well as economic reform. Cambodia’s self-determination was fully respected by Vietnam as compared to the current situation in which he is being threatened and intimidated each time he makes important decision.

Thirdly, on possible sanction from the Soviet Union. Only the Soviet Union and socialist countries supported the lifeline of Cambodian people, who were the remaining survivors from Pol Pot’s devastating genocide.

His government undertook reforms well before Soviet’s Perestroika and Glasnost. Soviet Union could easily cut off the lifeline support to Cambodia considering Prime Minister Hun Sen’s unconventional reforms.

But the Soviet Union did not do so. Soviet’s tolerance did pave the way for this daring political and economic reforms. And Prime Minister Hun Sen was in gratitude for the Soviet Union’s big heart even until today.

All in all, he was trying to encourage the next generations not to fear  reforms because the reforms we are doing today, nothing is life-threatening like the reforms he undertook in the 1980s. He was trying to institute the important governance mantra to the next generation public servants, which is “to reform is to survive; without reform means death”.