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WORLD NEWS Saturday 29 September 2018

SE Asia microcosm: 2 contrasting leaders address the UN

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON body's Human Rights Coun-
Associated Press cil that the elections had
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Two consigned Cambodia's de-
veteran Southeast Asian mocracy to history for the
leaders who appeared at next five years. Hun Sen's
the United Nations on Fri- party won every single par-
day present a microcosm liamentary seat prompting
of a dynamic region enjoy- rapporteur Rhona Smith to
ing rapid economic growth conclude: "The country is
but struggling to fan away therefore de facto a single
egregious human rights party state."
problems that follow it like With the possible excep-
a bad smell. tion of the 1997 coup that
On the one hand is Malay- Hun Sen launched against
sia's Mahathir Mohamad, a co-premier that brought
who at the grand old age fighting to the streets of
of 93 has shed his authori- Phnom Penh, that marks a
tarian past, ousted a rival nadir in Cambodia's politics
accused of massive cor- since its democracy was
ruption through democrat- established on the back
ic change, and re-entered of internationally-endorsed
the international stage with peace accords in 1991
vigor. In this combination of two photos showing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, left, in Phnom and massive United Na-
On the other is Cambodia's Penh, Cambodia, on Aug. 1, 2018, and Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in tions support.
Hun Sen, who has ruled his Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Aug. 13, 2018. As U.S.-based supporters of
nation with a combination Associated Press the outlawed opposition
of political guile and brute That has spoiled what had more than just the Malay- but does this mean that party protested outside
force for three decades, been one of the region's sian prime minister's age. they have a right to massa- U.N. Headquarters, Hun
and comes to New York democratic transition suc- Angered by a graft scan- cre their own people?" he Sen was still claiming Friday
having won all the seats in cess stories. Just two years dal at the state investment said. that it had been a "free,
an election after outlawing ago, Myanmar's Aung San fund, Mahathir emerged At home, still-sprightly Ma- fair, and credible election."
his main political opposi- Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate from political retirement hathir is promising to hand While the setbacks to hu-
tion. and former political prison- and joined the opposition over the reins of power man rights and democracy
It was ever thus with the er, received a hero's wel- he had persecuted dur- within two years to Anwar in Cambodia and Myan-
10-member Association of come when, after a historic ing his first, 22-year stint as Ibrahim, who had chal- mar have drawn stiff criti-
Southeast Asian Nations, election victory, she be- leader. In the process he lenged Mahathir's rule two cism from the West, and
an unwieldy mix of de- came the first civilian lead- toppled a former protégé decades previously and from activists inside South-
mocracies and autocra- er of her nation in five de- and the party at whose was subsequently convict- east Asia itself, the wider
cies where politics struggles cades to address the Gen- helm Mahathir oversaw ed and imprisoned for years trend lines suggest that au-
to keep pace with social eral Assembly. This year she the rapid development of on charges of sodomy that thoritarianism is on the up-
change. is notably absent and has his young country in the were widely regarded as swing in the region.
It's a grouping that care- sent a government minister 1980s and 1990s while con- politically motivated. Democracy has been
fully balances its relations in her place. centrating power under his Contrast Malaysia's politi- eroded in the Philippines
between the United States But two other familiar South- increasingly authoritarian cal renaissance with Cam- by the strongman tenden-
and China but typically has east Asian icons are here rule. bodia's descent into autoc- cies of its popularly elected
few answers to internation- — and their respective jour- Where once he was an ar- racy under Hun Sen. leader Rodrigo Duterte;
al criticism over gross rights neys are a telling reflection chetype of "Asian values" He's been in power for half Thailand has been under
violations in its midst as it of the competing forces in — a paternalistic view of of his 66 years and extend- military rule since 2014, and
abstains from interfering in their region — the popular government that prioritized ed his rule last month after elections next year are un-
the affairs of its member desire for more democrat- economic progress over in- his party's walkover elec- likely to end the army's sway
states. ic accountability and the dividual rights — now he's tion win. over politics. The opposition
This year, ASEAN is shad- resistance of entrenched showcasing Malaysia as a The government-influ- in Singapore has never had
owed by accusations of leaders to change in po- mature democracy that enced courts had dissolved a sniff of power, and Viet-
genocide perpetrated by litical structures that they upholds the primacy of the the only credible opposi- nam and Laos have been
the military in Myanmar have dominated for de- rule of law. On Friday he tion party last year, and under one-party rule since
against Rohingya Muslims. cades. also criticized Myanmar's Hun Sen says he intends to 1975. Only in Malaysia and
It's a rare instance in which Mahathir returned to the treatment of the Rohingya stay in office for 10 more the region's largest nation,
the Western world and ma- U.N. after a gap of 15 years. and accused the rest of years. Indonesia, does democra-
jority-Islamic nations have It's the culmination of a the world of failing to act. On Thursday, a U.N. special cy appear entrenched or
been united in outrage. comeback remarkable for "Nations are independent, rapporteur told the world in the ascendant.q