The 20th Asean summit: Hun Sen's show

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s face was all smiles and deep satisfaction as he successfully pulled off one of the biggest shows in the region. Asean’s longest-reigning leader made it clear at this week’s regional summit meeting that Cambodia is now the driving force of Asean. Indeed, no other Asean leaders dared to challenge him. During Cambodia’s time as chair of Asean, Hun Sen wants to lead the regional grouping forward both in terms of achieving its goal of greater economic integration and in its external relations. 

Doubtless, Hun Sen wants to leave a legacy and a reminder of his leadership for future generations of Cambodians, and also within the regional organisation. Kudos to him; he chose the right issues to tackle during this summit, calling for a greater effort to integrate Asean’s poorer and richer members – the same appeal he made when he chaired the 2002 Asean summit, three years after his country joined Asean. 

Bridging the income and development gap was the main theme of this week’s summit, and it will remain so throughout Cambodia’s term as chair. It is a tall order because the development gap exists not only between the new and old members of Asean but within the old members as well.

However, it was Hun Sen’s brinkmanship over the ongoing South China Sea territorial disputes that attracted international attention and media headlines, as well as a variety of comments from Asean colleagues. As host, however, he cleverly managed the summit’s agenda to ensure that it would not turn into a China-bashing meeting, as the world witnessed during the Asean summit in Vietnam in 2010. 

Indeed, Hun’s Sen’s leadership at this juncture very much depends on how he plays off China and the US. The two superpowers have both have increased their strategic presence in the once war-torn countries of Southeast Asia. Ironically both countries, which were on opposite sides during the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, are now actively seeking support from these fast-growing economies. 

It remains to be seen whether Asean and China can overcome their differences in drafting the implementation of the guidelines of the 2002 code of conduct, which details joint cooperation programmes in the disputed areas in the South China Sea. Asean and China continue to argue and there is no consensus yet. Asean’s claimants in the contested maritime areas want the grouping to finish its own discussions first before China joins in, while others believe that Beijing’s simultaneous participation is crucial. China appears to have the upper hand at the moment.

At the summit, the Asean leaders tried to play down the opposition National League for Democracy’s electoral achievement in Myanmar last weekend. Some members have already made the rather pompous claim that Asean has helped to democratise the country through discreet diplomacy. Truth be told, most of the Asean members do not hold transparent, free and fair elections themselves, let alone respect media freedom to allow the opposition to have their say.

Finally, despite Hun Sen’s personal effort to ensure that there was an interface between representatives of civil society groups and the Asean leaders, the whole thing turned sour when the Indonesian and Philippine delegates boycotted the carefully managed encounter. And lest we forget, during the previous interfaces, Hun Sen was the only leader who insisted that the representatives from Cambodia be handpicked by the government.

It remains to be seen whether Hun Sen’s leadership will continue to light up the region, as attention is now zeroed in on an upcoming series of new summit meetings. The acid test will be how many global leaders come to Phnom Penh for the November rendezvous, especially the sixth East Asia Summit. If all the EAS leaders come, including the US and China, it will further enhance Hun Sen’s prestige and lengthen his political reign in Cambodia for years to come.