With Cambodia’s king noticeably absent, Prime Minister Hun Sen staged a glitzy opening ceremony to kick off the Southeast Asian Games on Friday at a new Chinese-built, 60,000-seat stadium in the capital.
Cambodia is hosting the SEA Games for the first time. The 32nd edition of the regional Olympiad, which is held every two years, has attracted some 12,000 participants from 11 nations who will compete in 36 sports, from billiards and jujitsu to sailing and volleyball.
The event, which runs until May 17, is an opportunity to burnish the international standing of Cambodia and its increasingly authoritarian leader. That was palpable on Friday.
The opening ceremony depicted centuries of Cambodian history with an elaborate stage and light show and plugged the achievements of Hun Sen. He has been prime minister since 1985 and is further tightening his grip on the country ahead of July 23 elections.
The commentator at the ceremony portrayed Hun Sen as uniting the nation after the “dark era of (the) genocidal Pol Pot regime” that fell in 1979.
“The win-win policy of the extraordinary founder and leader in the Techo era fully and genuinely ended the civil war bringing peace and full national unity, paving the way for a prosperous future and confidence and giving each and every Cambodian citizen the rights to hope, freedom and (a) warm smile,” the ceremony’s narrator said.
“Thanks for a win-win policy!”
“Techo,” which means powerful or strong, and references an ancient Khmer warrior, is one of Hun Sen’s leadership honorifics.
The depiction of Hun Sen as a unifying force is contentious as the 70-year-old leader has used a combination of brute force and political suppression to cement his domination. Critics accuse him of rolling back Cambodia’s democratic freedoms guaranteed under a UN-backed peace agreement in 1991.
King absent
The games’ opening ceremony was not attended by Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni, although previous iterations of the SEA Games in other countries have customarily been opened by the host nation’s head of state.
The exclusion of the king, a constitutional monarch, has provoked criticism from exiled dissidents who say Hun Sen is disrespecting the monarchy and hogging the limelight as he prepares his own dynastic succession to his eldest son, Hun Manet, to become Cambodia’s next prime minister.
Hun Sen denies those claims and accuses critics of trying to provoke a conflict between him and the king.
At the ceremony, Hun Sen, with his wife Bun Rany to his left and visiting Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith to his right, was the final VIP to hold the Olympic-style torch before it was carried by athletes on a final lap of the Morodok Techo National Stadium. The arena was specially built for the SEA Game with a U.S.$160 million grant from China.
Hun Sen in late March announced that free tickets would be distributed for all the game's events, for foreigners as well as Cambodians, and international broadcasters would not be charged for live television coverage rights, The Associated Press reported.
The countries taking part in the SEA Games are Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Boxing controversy
This edition of the games, however, has been marked by a dispute between Cambodia and neighboring Thailand over the name of the kickboxing event, with Cambodia insisting it be called “kun Khmer” rather than “muay Thai” – prompting Thailand to keep its kickboxers out of the competition.
And the run-up to the games, ahead of the Cambodian elections, has been marked by xenophobic rhetoric from the veteran leader and barbs against those he regards as political opponents.
This week, Hun Sen warned critics among the Cambodian diaspora against protesting the election results or lobbying foreign governments. He warned if they did so, they would face difficulties returning to Cambodia.
In recent months, Hun Sen has tightened his grip on Cambodian politics, by co-opting opposition supporters, activists and journalists with offers of jobs in the government.
Authorities have also tightened a vise against the Candlelight Party, which has emerged as the main opposition in the run-up to the election.
Accusing foreign governments
On the eve of the games, Hun Sen revived his claim that foreign governments were trying to foment a “color revolution,” or anti-government protest movement.
Hun Sen released a video via Facebook on Thursday in which he said that activists who have defected to the Cambodian People’s Party had informed him of the plot against him by unnamed foreign countries that were recruiting social and political activists.
"What the government has been doing to prevent color revolution and toppling the government through undemocratic behavior are justified. Foreign adversaries have been trying to destroy us," he said.
Youth activists and NGO representatives criticized Hun Sen for his comments.
Student leader Keut Saray denied any involvement in a supposed color revolution. He said that Hun Sen was creating "social hatred" amongst the Khmer.
"We are focusing on protecting the environment. In our heads, we have nothing but justice," said Mean Liza, an activist of the environmental protection group, Mother Nature.
Edited by Mat Pennington, Malcolm Foster.