Why More Hun Sen Has Meant Less Progress for Cambodia

Despite recent setbacks such as the European Union’s decision to partly suspend Cambodia from a preferential trade scheme, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s political carousing last month to mark his 35 years in power – a feat that makes him one of the world’s longest-ruling leaders – has provided yet another occasion for others to wax lyrical over the big man’s achievements which has continued on over the past few weeks.
And if you listen carefully to the ruling party, it is always the 1990s that it compares itself to. «How much better your life is now than 30 years ago,» ordinary people are constantly instructed by the Cambodian People’s Party , which now rules a de facto one-party state. Of course, it becomes harder to maintain rapid progress as societal conditions develop. Raising life expectancy from 50 years to 70 years is much easier than going from 70 years to 90 years, for instance. But you would expect that as a society develops the government must dedicate even more resources to, at least, try to maintain the pace of progress. Not so with the Cambodian government, which dedicated a higher proportion of its state budget to healthcare expenditure in 2000 than it did in 2016 .

This article was written by DAVIT HUTT

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