File Photo Prime Minister Hun Sen confidently announced April 23 he would solve a host of economic problems, but warned the nation could slide back into political chaos if his party, the CPP, did not win national elections this July. Courtesy of Phnom Penh Post at http://www.phnompenhpost.com
Written by Susan Postlewaite
Friday, 02 May 2008
Sitting center stage at the head of a retinue of top government officials, Prime Minister Hun Sen opened this year’s annual Government-Private Sector Forum with an announcement that his finance minister, Keat Chhon, had a laundry list of obstacles hobbling commerce in Cambodia.
He then confidently pronounced to the April 23 gathering of hundreds of foreign and Cambodian business people that, “the prime minister will solve all of these problems.”
Over the next several hours an animated Hun Sen bellowed, joked, cajoled and criticized his way through a characteristically earthy performance usually reserved for building political capital with farmers in some distant province.
But this time he was playing to a crowd of mostly private sector leaders, bluntly soliciting for their backing in upcoming national elections … or else.
“In Southeast Asia no one has been longer in premiership than Hun Sen. But I also need to win the election … I need private sector support,” he said.
“If I lose (and there is instability) you might have to flee the country,” he warned, drawing together business and politics ahead of national elections on July 27 in which the economy is likely to play a key role.
Written by Susan Postlewaite
Friday, 02 May 2008
Sitting center stage at the head of a retinue of top government officials, Prime Minister Hun Sen opened this year’s annual Government-Private Sector Forum with an announcement that his finance minister, Keat Chhon, had a laundry list of obstacles hobbling commerce in Cambodia.
He then confidently pronounced to the April 23 gathering of hundreds of foreign and Cambodian business people that, “the prime minister will solve all of these problems.”
Over the next several hours an animated Hun Sen bellowed, joked, cajoled and criticized his way through a characteristically earthy performance usually reserved for building political capital with farmers in some distant province.
But this time he was playing to a crowd of mostly private sector leaders, bluntly soliciting for their backing in upcoming national elections … or else.
“In Southeast Asia no one has been longer in premiership than Hun Sen. But I also need to win the election … I need private sector support,” he said.
“If I lose (and there is instability) you might have to flee the country,” he warned, drawing together business and politics ahead of national elections on July 27 in which the economy is likely to play a key role.
No comments:
Post a Comment