“This
move [of Hun Many’s ‘Youth in the Cause of Motherland’] is indeed driven by our
belief that everyone in the society shall not ask what his nation could do for
him, but what he could do for his nation. I myself have been observing this,
and I’m sure my group members have also been observing this philosophy too.”
Hun Many, 16 May 2012, The Phnom Penh Post
“Being
the assistant to understand and fulfill the need of the prime minister is not
different from being a lawmaker to understand and fulfill the need of the
people.”
Hun Many, 13 April 2013, The Cambodia Herald
“I
am a politician in the making I have to admit it. So but I think the apple does
not fall far from the tree.”
Hun Many, 6 June 2014, Channel News Asia TV
“[Would
you mind being Cambodia’s prime minister one day?] Wow… Thank you for this
question. I have not thought [about it]… not yet.”
Hun Many, 6 June 2014, Channel News Asia TV
Of course,
Hun Many is put in a position where he could make a difference in areas he says
need improving: democratisation, election, rule of law, corruption, etc... The
question is: will he practice what he preaches – the Kennedy’s quote, “Ask not
what your country can do for you…”?
On the
balance, Hun Many may find it most difficult to do what he says for the
country. First, he is mistaken that understanding and fulfilling the need of
his PM father is the same as understanding and fulfilling the people’s need. A
prime minister and the people are not one. The people stay put forever when
prime ministers come and go – sooner or later. Their needs are different, and
often conflicting. A prime minister can send his own children overseas for
decades of top education and simultaneously hauls away in caged trucks the
people’s children who on average manage only 5.8 years of schooling – a far cry
from 9 years the Constitution stipulates.
Second, Hun
Many claims he is an apple that does not fall far from the tree. This means
JFK’s doing “for” the country, which requires drastic changes to the current
doing “to” the country under his father’s blessing, would be tough for him.
Would he turn against what his father stands for by dismantling patronage
networks that have enriched so much power and prosperity for his family and
their personal interest groups? He could rather indulge in superficial changes
that only preserve, if not strengthening, the status quo he says is flawed.
Third,
circumstances that Hun Many could really do something for the country may never
arrive. If beneficiaries of Hun Sen’s doing “to” the country believe his father
that the sky will fall upon his death, they will resort to making him breathe
even on a life support. The man vows he will live past 93 years old. All these
point to a possible waiting time of at least 30 years for Hun Many. By then, it
may be that all the flaws he identifies now may grow; or conservatism that
tends to come with old age will set in; or his comfort zone could then be too
cosy to break out.
Fourth, there
is a family hurdle Hun Many would have to jump over before calling the shots –
he is not the only child in the family. Again, he may learn a few plots to
become the top dog from his father who is an enthusiast of a Chinese literature
epic, “The Three Kingdoms”. This will be a hard struggle as the neighbour alien
who is his father’s power base has already begun grooming his eldest brother as
their next figurehead. Or, a possible win-win outcome, as his father would say,
would be a split of the Kingdom of Wonders into three pieces to accommodate all
ambitions, including the eternal friend’s long-term design for Cambodia.
Hun Many may
have learned by heart the new right lyrics, but could be stuck in the same old
tune.
Ung Bun Ang
01vii14
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