You are feeling very depressed. In thejuly election in cambodia for the national assembly, the Ruling Peoples Party won 120 of the 125 seats. Was that really the final nail in the coffin of your Opposition Movement . No, we continue the fight. It is an uphill battle. But i think in the end, democracy will prevail. What makes you think that, given the track record of the last 30, a0 years, why on earth do you still believe what you call democracy will prevail . Because nobody is eternal. Hun sen is 72 year old. And many, many cambodians among the young generation, they are hoping for a democratic change. But the point about hun sen, he is clearly getting older but the whole point of this election is that as soon as the election was done he told the nation that he is handing the reins of power to his son, hun manet, who now sits in the parliament and will be cambodias next Prime Minister. But for the cambodian people, this succession within the same political clan, the same family, actua
Given the track record of the last 30, a0 years . Why on earth do you still believe what you call democracy will prevail . Because nobody is eternal. Hun sen is 72 year old. And many, many cambodians among the young generation, they are hoping for a democratic change. Well, yes, but the point about hun sen is that hes clearly getting older but the whole point of this election is that as soon as the election were done, he told the nation that he is handing the reins of power to his son, hun manet, who now sits in the parliament and will be cambodias next Prime Minister. But for the cambodian people, this succession within the same political clan the same family, actually is just unacceptable. Scoffs. Its easy in a way for you to say that with great confidence, sitting here with me in the hardtalk studio and from your home in exile in paris, but the reality for cambodians is the Hun Sen Regime if i can put it that way, because he still is the leader of the ruling party, even though he is
using that word? no, it is a matter of it s a controversy. people who are native cambodian, who speak cambodian or khmer naturally, they consider they do not consider any word that we use currently in cambodia as derogatory. you re not going to apologise for your use of language? are you going to apologise for saying things like this now, this was nine years ago, but i don t know if you still believe it today you said of the hun sen leadership, you said that leadership is destroying our country, murdering it bit by bit and they are giving the and then you used this racial derogatory word which i am not going to use they are giving the vietnamese, you meant, the chance to kill cambodia. do you apologise for saying that? i did not say that that is a bad translation.