What It Was Like to Work at the Crusading Cambodia Daily
Ana delved into arcane land disputes only to reveal they were tied to the deeply embarrassing conduct of associates and family members of Prime Minister Hun Sen and other powerful figures.
The dispute between the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen and The Cambodia Daily appeared on an August front page  in Phnom Penh on Sept. 1  2017. Omar HavanaâThe New York Times/Redux
But  running scared from his own immediate future   Hun Sen   Cambodiaâs prime minister of 32 years  killed the newspaper. With general elections 11 months away  the Daily had somehow become an unacceptable threat to his pursuit of a fourth  even a fifth  decade in power.
 Hun Sen  called the paper a âthief â telling it to pay or âpack up and go.â  He  might have expected more of a fight but the Daily instead revealed how few assets it actually had to tax.
I obtained the declassification of 1 000 or so pages of FBI records  which showed the Bureau had killed its own investigation into a 1997 political massacre in Phnom Penh after developing considerable evidence implicating forces loyal to  Hun Sen â  and finding  it  too hot to handle.
The week after Cambodia celebrates its 64th year of independence from France this November   Hun Sen  will quietly mark  his  12 000th day as premier. But the fact that  his  career is so long has never been reason for anyone to presume it will continue tomorrow.
Early in  his  political life  Cambodiaâs survival  and indeed  Hun Senâs  own  once depended on ending the countryâs political isolation and regaining the Westâs favor.
But now  Hun Sen  neither needs  nor can  he  afford  the post-war political arrangement of openness that  he  once grudgingly accepted.
At 65   he  finds  himself  at the helm of a country where the median age is 24 â meaning the typical voter was born about the time the Daily began printing.
But in that 24-year-old voterâs lifetime  the immediate pressure on  Hun Sen  to placate Western government has also waned. Since 1993  the Cambodian economy has grown nearly 700 percent  and China has become Phnom Penhâs largest source of foreign aid  obviating much of the need to heed U.S. and European concerns about the rule of law and human rights protection.
 Hun Sen  thus finds  himself  with a freer hand to clamp down on critics just as the ground changes beneath  his  feet.
New generations of voters are less likely to be won over by the shopworn campaign slogans of  his  folkloric rise to power â  his  triumphs over the Khmer Rouge in the 1979   his  negotiation of their surrender in the 1990s â that evoke what are at best fading memories for many if not most.
 Hun Sen   who once boasted of overwhelming print and broadcast media dominance â âYou have one station. I have 10 stations â  he  taunted the opposition in 2008  â  was found last year to be using Indian and Filipino click farms to buy millions of âlikesâ for  his  Facebook page.
At the same time   Hun Sen  has never willingly accepted defeat at the ballot box  having kept  his  30-year grip on power through a mix of intimidation  the adept use of patronage  and manipulation of the courts to harass  his  rivals.
In May of this year   he  warned  he  would be ready to âeliminate 100 or 200 peopleâ to prevent  his  own defeat and said Cambodia could return to civil conflict unless  he  won next yearâs vote.
This month   he  mooted the possibility of dissolving Cambodiaâs largest  most popular opposition party. On Sept. 3  its leader  Kem Sokha  was arrested and thrown in a prison near the Vietnamese border.
What It Was Like to Work at the Crusading Cambodia Daily
Ana delved into arcane land disputes only to reveal they were tied to the deeply embarrassing conduct of associates and family members of Prime Minister Hun Sen and other powerful figures. The dispute between the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen and The Cambodia Daily appeared on an August front page  in Phnom Penh on Sept. 1  2017. Omar HavanaâThe New York Times/Redux
But  running scared from his own immediate future   Hun Sen   Cambodiaâs prime minister of 32 years  killed the newspaper. With general elections 11 months away  the Daily had somehow become an unacceptable threat to his pursuit of a fourth  even a fifth  decade in power. Hun Sen  called the paper a âthief â telling it to pay or âpack up and go. â  He  might have expected more of a fight but the Daily instead revealed how few assets it actually had to tax. I obtained the declassification of 1 000 or so pages of FBI records  which showed the Bureau had killed its own investigation into a 1997 political massacre in Phnom Penh after developing considerable evidence implicating forces loyal to  Hun Sen â  and finding  it  too hot to handle. The week after Cambodia celebrates its 64th year of independence from France this November   Hun Sen  will quietly mark  his  12 000th day as premier. But the fact that  his  career is so long has never been reason for anyone to presume it will continue tomorrow. Early in  his  political life  Cambodiaâs survival  and indeed  Hun Senâs  own  once depended on ending the countryâs political isolation and regaining the Westâs favor. But now  Hun Sen  neither needs  nor can  he  afford  the post-war political arrangement of openness that  he  once grudgingly accepted. At 65   he  finds  himself  at the helm of a country where the median age is 24 â meaning the typical voter was born about the time the Daily began printing. But in that 24-year-old voterâs lifetime  the immediate pressure on  Hun Sen  to placate Western government has also waned. Since 1993  the Cambodian economy has grown nearly 700 percent  and China has become Phnom Penhâs largest source of foreign aid  obviating much of the need to heed U. S. and European concerns about the rule of law and human rights protection. Hun Sen  thus finds  himself  with a freer hand to clamp down on critics just as the ground changes beneath  his  feet. New generations of voters are less likely to be won over by the shopworn campaign slogans of  his  folkloric rise to power â  his  triumphs over the Khmer Rouge in the 1979   his  negotiation of their surrender in the 1990s â that evoke what are at best fading memories for many if not most. Hun Sen   who once boasted of overwhelming print and broadcast media dominance â âYou have one station. I have 10 stations â  he  taunted the opposition in 2008  â  was found last year to be using Indian and Filipino click farms to buy millions of âlikesâ for  his  Facebook page. At the same time   Hun Sen  has never willingly accepted defeat at the ballot box  having kept  his  30-year grip on power through a mix of intimidation  the adept use of patronage  and manipulation of the courts to harass  his  rivals. In May of this year   he  warned  he  would be ready to âeliminate 100 or 200 peopleâ to prevent  his  own defeat and said Cambodia could return to civil conflict unless  he  won next yearâs vote. This month   he  mooted the possibility of dissolving Cambodiaâs largest  most popular opposition party. On Sept. 3  its leader  Kem Sokha  was arrested and thrown in a prison near the Vietnamese border.