Cambodia leaders rev up Facebook rivalry as popularity soars

A file photo of Cambodian Prime Minister and Cambodian People’s Party president Hun Sen greeting his supporters in Phnom Penh. — AP

Cambodia’s long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen and exiled Opposition leader Sam Rainsy have gotten an early start on campaigning for elections in 2018, vying for “likes” in Facebook as the political role of social media grows among the country’s youthful electorate.

Both Hun Sen and Sam Rainsy tend to favour a casual approach, like Sam Rainsy riding a bicycle in the snow, or standing at the beach in a swimsuit. Hun Sen, swathed in a plush, white terrycloth bathrobe, clutching two mobile phones in the dark; sitting on the ground eating noodles, watering flowers, or hugging his grandchildren.

“Technology can make you ubiquitous,” said one of Sam Rainsy’s recent posts. Given his nearly daily updates from villages, ceremonies and golf courses, Hun Sen appears to agree.

With a general election due in 2018 and local polls next year, Hun Sen increasingly is using Facebook as a way to answer public complaints, monitor dissent and polish his public image. On February 8, he ordered government officials to set up a working group to track citizens’ complaints and appeals. “We are in a pre-election campaign already,” said Jonathan Bogais, an expert on Southeast Asia at the University of Sydney. “Hun Sen knows it will be very difficult so he is taking action early.”

Cambodia got a late start: Software enabling use of the local language Khmer script was only developed about a decade ago. But since then the country has leapfrogged straight into digital politics. Now, almost all adults in Cambodia own mobile phones and nearly a third say they have Facebook accounts, according to an Asia Foundation study compiled in 2015.

More Cambodians rely on Facebook for news than on the radio, though television still is their leading source of information, the Asia Foundation study showed.

Cambodia has not invested in the kinds of sophisticated surveillance technology used to police the Internet in communist-ruled China, and is unlikely to do so, says Tharum Bun, a blogger and communications specialist.