Hun Sen a strong leader

No two leaders have been as poles apart as Thai Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen. -- PHOTO: AFP

7/11/2009
Straitstimes

BANGKOK - NO TWO leaders at the opening on Friday of the Japan-Mekong Leaders summit in Tokyo would have been as poles apart as Thai Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, 57, started his adult life as a teenage soldier with the notorious Khmer Rouge in the jungles of Cambodia, and through grit, opportunism and charisma clawed his way to the top of a fractured and bleeding country and has remained there for almost 30 years.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit, 45, was born into privilege and educated in salubrious Eton and Oxford, excelled in polished intellectual debate, and became prime minister last December not through a popular election but through a parliamentary vote.

The blunt-speaking Hun Sen's easy, earthy style goes down well with Cambodia's rural masses. At the same time, the Premier is able to rub shoulders with the rich and famous in palaces and on golf courses.

In recent years, it may be argued that Mr Hun Sen has become more feared than loved. What is certain is that he is a strong leader. In that he has something in common with Thailand's former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, who also has wide support among the rural masses, and once said he would be in power for 20 years.

Mr Hun Sen has spoken of his friendship with Thaksin, with whom he plays golf regularly. The Cambodian leader recently said that his wife Bun Rany had wept over Thaksin's political 'misfortunes'.