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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday hit back at the country's opposition leader Sam Rainsy over his comments on the success of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Myanmar's historic election.
Hun Sen said Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), had used the laudable success of the opposition party in Myanmar to attack him and his government.
In a statement posted on his official Facebook page, the prime minister said Cambodia and Myanmar were different in political regime, economics, society and even elections, adding that Myanmar never had elections before, but Cambodia had held elections for five times.
"Your family history could not be compared with Aung San Suu Kyi's because hers was the patriot and yours was the traitor," he said, explaining that Sam Rainsy's father, Sam Sary, was named as "the traitor" by the government of the Sangkum Reastr Niyum regime, or the People's Socialist Community, led by then-prince Norodom Sihanouk in the 1950s.
"If there is no any legal concession for your late father, you still bear the name of the son of a traitor," said the prime minister. "You always call me 'the authoritarian person,'today, I call you 'the son of a traitor.'"
His reaction was made after Sam Rainsy told reporters during his visit to Tokyo on Tuesday that the landslide victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's party was good news for democracy all over the world, especially for Cambodia.
The opposition leader called on the world to keep a close eye on Cambodia's upcoming elections.
Cambodia, which has been ruled by Prime Minister Hun Sen for more than 30 years, is set to hold national elections in 2018, with commune elections a year earlier.
Political dispute in Cambodia has heated up in recent months after the CNRP organized protests against Hun Sen during his visits to the United Nations in New York and France.
In response, thousands of pro-government protesters staged a rally outside the parliament in Phnom Penh on Oct. 26 to urge CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha to step down as the parliament's 1st vice president. Just an hour after the protesters had dispersed, two CNRP lawmakers were dragged from their cars while leaving the parliament and badly beaten by a group of people.
Five days later, Hun Sen's ruling party lawmakers voted to remove Kem Sokha from the post of the first vice president of the National Assembly successfully.
Kem Sokha was accused of using his parliamentary post to slander and attack the government and to incite people to oppose the government and the ruling party. Enditem
