Cambodian Opposition Leader Prevented From Returning to His Country
CNRP founder Sam Rainsy (left) and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen (right) stand next to each other in 2015. (Wikimedia Commons)
Sam Rainsy, Cambodia’s top opposition leader, was barred from boarding a Thai Airways flight from Paris to Bangkok on November 7. Rainsy was attempting to return to his country after a four-year-long self-imposed exile in France.
The 70-year-old politician, who founded the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), vowed to return to his supporters and lead a popular movement against Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power for 34 years. Before his plans to arrive in Bangkok were derailed, Rainy claimed that he intended to cross the border between Thailand and Cambodia via the city of Poi Pet on November 9, Cambodia’s independence day. However, the Thai-Cambodian border is already lined with wanted posters of Rainsy and other members of the opposition.
The CNRP leader accuses Hun Sen’s government of barring his return, and he speculates that the airline had received instructions from “very high up” to turn him away. "I'm very shocked, I'm very disappointed. I want to go back, my people are waiting for me," he said to reporters at Charles de Gaulles Airport.
Just the day before, the Malaysian government detained Rainsy’s CNRP second-in-command, Mu Sochua, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s prime minister, stated that she would be deported.
Joshua Kurlantzick, fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes that the opposition leaders seek to “rally people” as Hun Sen demonstrates increasingly repressive tendencies.
The current prime minister was first elected in 1985. Under his rule, Cambodia became the sixth-fastest-growing economy in the world. However, despite allowing some dissemination of liberal thought, human rights organizations have accused him of ruling with an iron fist and clamping down on political dissidence. In 2017, Hun Sen accused the CNRP of conspiring with the U.S. in an attempt to overthrow the government. Subsequently, the Cambodian Supreme Court dissolved the opposition party, allowing the incumbent leader to win in a landslide in the 2018 elections.
Malaysia and Thailand, both ASEAN member states, justify turning away Cambodian opposition leaders by citing the organization’s founding principles of consensus-building and non-interference.
“Regarding the political activist from the neighboring country requesting to enter Thailand, I have proceeded by following the ASEAN resolution that we will not interfere with each other’s domestic affairs,” said Prayuth Chan-ocha, the prime minister of Thailand. “I have given the order. He won’t be able to enter.”
Meanwhile, Phnom Penh believes that through inciting domestic unrest, Sam Rainy’s opposition destabilizes the country, stalls socio-economic development, and strains the cordial relations among ASEAN member states. “All these selfish actions put at risk the livelihood of ordinary Cambodians, the benefits of the Kingdom’s socio-economic development and reopen the wounds of the horrors of the civil war,” an editorial in the Khmer Times claimed. “For many, the hard-earned peace and stability cannot be taken for granted; it is not a given and both the government and people must work hard together to maintain it.”