New Cambodian democracy group says it could ‘legitimize’ Hun Manet
Former opposition leader Mu Sochua’s new US-based organization aims to train a new generation of leaders.

by Alex Willemyns
March 15, 2024

A new U.S.-based Cambodian pro-democracy group stands prepared to work with Prime Minister Hun Manet to put the country on a path of reform and thereby “legitimize” his rule, its leader said Thursday.

Exiled former deputy opposition leader Mu Sochua announced the creation of the Khmer Movement for Democracy in September, saying it aims to reform Cambodia’s corrupt judiciary and reintroduce fair elections while training a new generation of political leaders.

Speaking with Radio Free Asia in Washington, D.C., on Thursday after meeting with officials from the National Endowment for Democracy and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mu Sochua conceded Hun Manet would likely not let the group operate openly in Cambodia.

Hun Manet last year took over as premier from his father, Hun Sen, after an election in which the opposition Candlelight Party was barred from competing. Mu Sochua, meanwhile, stands subject to arrest if she returns to Cambodia and faces an eight-year prison sentence.

But she said she hopes her group will in time be allowed to emerge from the shadows in Cambodia, and said the group’s aim was not to topple Hun Manet or his ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP.

“Of course, physically, we cannot be in Cambodia at this moment – in the near future, we cannot be – but at the same time, we are saying the approach that we take is not a confrontational approach,” Mu Sochua said, adding the group could “legitimize” Hun Manet’s rule.

“The message to Mr. Hun Manet is that there are solutions to reform the justice system and the approach, or technique, or strategy is not to … leave it to your own people,” she said, advising he instead “open up” and “go to talk to the people about how to reform the judiciary.”

Mu Sochua argued that Hun Manet’s power still rested on the support of Hun Sen, but that he has an opportunity to make his own name by stepping out of his father’s shadows and pursuing real reforms.

“If he wants to be the legitimate prime minister of Cambodia, that's the way to go,” she said. “Be free. Don't be afraid of your own people.”

Hun Manet did not respond to a request for a comment.

New generation

Mu Sochua served as minister of women’s affairs for the FUNCINPEC party when it was in a coalition with the CPP in the 1990s. But she emerged as one of Cambodia’s most outspoken opposition leaders as vice president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP.


The united opposition party, which formed from the merger of two previously rival parties in 2012, was forced to disband by Cambodia’s Supreme Court in 2017 after looking set to potentially unseat Hun Sen at the 2018 election. The Candlelight Party then emerged from the party’s ashes before itself being banned from last year’s election.

Besides repression, though, the Cambodian opposition’s top leadership faces long-running generational issues. Its two main leaders, Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha, are aged 75 and 70, respectively, and have dominated the opposition scene for nearly three decades.

Mu Sochua herself turns 70 in a few months.

Meanwhile, after 38 years in power, the 71-year-old Hun Sen handed power to his son Manet, 46, following last year’s election as part of a generational turnover of the CPP that also saw the sons of the interior and defense ministers replace their aging fathers.

Though Mu Sochua said Thursday that age is only a number and she “still wants to be a part” of Cambodia’s pro-democracy movement when she turns 80, she acknowledged that “my role will be different” as the years go by and that a new generation of leaders was needed.


Exiled Cambodian politician and rights activist Mu Sochua walks with Kimhun Thit, left, and Cambodian political analyst Seng Sary in the Dirksen Senate Building, Washington, D.C., March 14, 2024. (Gemunu Amarasinghe/RFA)
One of the barometers of success for the Khmer Movement for Democracy, then, will be its ability to train workers, community leaders and women to engage in politics, so they are one day “able to take over the torch from Mr. Sam Rainsy or Mr. Kem Sokha,” she said.

Still, that could be easier said than done.

Until the group is able to operate openly in Cambodia, the group’s training efforts will mainly have to take place through podcasts, short videos and written research documents, Mu Sochua said.

“It's a hybrid kind of capacity building: face-to-face when we can, and then through social media,” she said. “It’s like a marathon, you know – take one step at a time. It's a long journey.”

Edited by Malcolm Foster.