The victory of Cambodian leader Hun Sen in Sunday’s one-sided election, decided by threats and suppression rather than ballots, and the conspiracy of the Thai military and royalists to override the popular will as expressed in the country’s May election have rung alarm bells for the prospects of democracy in Asean.
The two assaults on popular sovereignty come as the bloc continues to fail to stop the Myanmar military junta from carrying on with its violence and human rights violations after its February 2021 seizure of power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu-Kyi.
Now Asean has seen three of its 10 member states reach low ebbs of their democratic regression, not to mention other member states at various points on the spectrum of illiberalism and autocracy.
And the rulers of Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia confidently defend their acts and brand the citizens who exercise their right to free speech as terrorists and troublemakers.
Given Asean’s non-interference principle, it is unlikely that the remaining member states will talk frankly about the withering of democracy in their midst.
But how long can we turn a blind eye to the disturbing phenomenon plaguing this region?
In 2015, the bloc launched its 2025 Asean Community Vision, which aims to forge a community of countries that “enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as thrive in a just, democratic, harmonious and gender-sensitive environment in accordance with the principles of democracy, good governance and the rule of law”.
Asean will lose its international credibility if it fails to restore the fundamental rights of its member states’ citizens.
It will certainly not be easy for Indonesia, as the current chair of Asean, to offer good solutions for the region’s new problems. But it would be wrong for it to stand by idly as the bloc’s principles crumble around it.
Hun Sen and his Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) arrested and harassed university students, democracy activists and political opponents before the elections.
No major political party was allowed to contest the ruling party, and people who did not vote, or did not vote for the CPP, faced imprisonment.
The CPP won 120 of the 125 seats in the National Assembly, while the royalist Funcinpec Party took the rest.
More than 9.7 million Cambodians were eligible to vote.
South-East Asian parliamentarians told a press conference on Tuesday that the farcical elections in Cambodia “must not be legitimised by the international community”, given Hun Sen’s relentless attacks against human rights defenders and opposition parties prior to balloting day.
Acting like an absolute monarch, Hun Sen recently announced that his four-star army general son, Hun Manet, would soon take over for him.
Hun Sen has ruled the country for 38 years.
The Straits Times quoted the 70-year-old prime minister as telling Chinese TV station Phoenix TV last week that his eldest son would be made premier “in just three or four weeks”.
The dictator said his 45-year-old son was “more competent” than him. Many fear that the proverb “like father, like son” will ring grimly true when the succession in Cambodia takes place.
There is little hope that the general will respect human rights or democracy.
In Thailand, people’s hopes for freedom were dashed last week when the Constitutional Court suspended the political rights of Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the Move Forward Party, which won the most votes in the May election.
The army and the royalists will now seize power, which will be no less saddening than the coup launched by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha against the democratically elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014.
Indonesia, dubbed the world’s third largest democracy, has the obligation to voice concern about the worrying developments in the region.
Critics will ask the country not to preach about democracy, but President Joko “Jokowi” knows well how to talk to his colleagues without appearing didactic or patronising. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
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