Source: FN
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has claimed that he could lead Cambodia long-term thanks to his charisma not armed forces, speaking at a graduation ceremony on Tuesday.
“Leading Cambodia for the past 41 years does not mean I use weapons to suppress [and get power]. The key factor is I got internal support from the party,” he said adding, “I was unanimously voted to be prime minister.”
Strongman Hun Sen elaborated that using weapons to keep power is not sustainable, pointing out to the failure of the only 3-year-8-month leadership of the bloody ruler Pol Pot.
Following the Paris Peace Accord in 1991, civil wars in Cambodia continued to prolong by the Democratic Kampuchea (Pol Pot) side. Only Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Win-Win Policy, initiated on 2 December 1998, could end the civil war nationwide, bringing the kingdom full peace and prosperity like these days.
The successful implementation of “Win-Win Policy” that dismantled the political and military organisations of the Khmer Rouge, has integrated the Khmer Rouge soldiers into the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces in 1998. Since then, peace, political stability, security and social order have been strengthened and paved ways for socio-economic development.
Cambodia has achieved strong economic growth with GDP rates of 7.7 percent per annum over the past two decades and poverty rate dropped from 53 percent in 2004 to around 10 percent in the present.