Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was criticized this week by an online news service for flaunting a collection of million-dollar watches in a display of vast personal wealth in one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries.

One of these, a Patek Philippe watch distinguished by white gold engravings and a blue leather strap, is valued at $1.2 million, Vice World News said in a July 28 report, noting that the long-ruling prime minister’s official salary is only about $2,500 a month.

“Hun Sen’s love for multi-million dollar luxury watches is just obscene in a country where per capita GDP is just $1,500 a year,” said Edinburgh Napier University lecturer Andrew MacGregor, quoted in Vice World News.

Reports criticizing Hun Sen’s choice of watches is driven only by envy, said Cambodian government spokesman Sok Ey San, speaking to RFA’s Khmer Service on July 29.

“The point here is that it was legally purchased. It was not trafficked or bought with ‘black money,” Sok Ey San said, referring to the watch highlighted in the Vice World News story.

“I have heard that he did not even buy his watch. It was a gift from a tycoon,” the spokesman said, adding that tycoons can easily afford gifts valued at from one to two million dollars.

“I don’t think it is too much,” he said.

Expensive watches had also been presented to Hun Sen by foreign dignitaries during state visits, Sok Eysan said, while urging reporters not to write further stories focused on the issue.

A small, corrupt elite

Luxury watch scandals, often sparked by photographs of leaders wearing pricey timepieces that then set off internet sleuthing campaigns, have dogged politicians in China, Thailand, and Russia in recent years.

“As prime minister, [Hun Sen] has presided over a kleptocratic system of state looting that has involved the forced and violent eviction of Cambodians to free up land for tycoon-dominated industries like logging, mining, and agribusiness,” the environmental and human rights watchdog Global Witness said in a July 20, 2018 report.

The resulting impoverishment of ordinary Cambodians has “[made] a small, corrupt elite vastly wealthy,” Global Witness said.

An ongoing investigative series by RFA examining the overseas real estate holdings of Cambodia’s ruling elite has turned up properties worth $30 million. In 2016 alone, at least $1.8 billion was laundered out of Cambodia, according to an analysis by U.S. think tank Global Financial Integrity.

Cambodia ranked 162 out of 198 countries, close to the bottom, in Transparency International’s 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Reported and translated by RFA’s Khmer Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/watches-07292020175236.html

Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036

They were borrowed from a rich friend who is now dead?

There was a story just a few days ago about Cambodians crapping in the bush because they could'nt afford toilets, yet this clown flaunts million dollar watches, there's plenty wrong with you Mr Hun Sen!

Did anyone really expected anything else from a despot regim? he has no qualm in showing a million dollar watch while many of his people are dying of poverty and disease...

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

Did anyone really expected anything else from a despot regim? he has no qualm in showing a million dollar watch while many of his people are dying of poverty and disease...

 

Indeed. And he has no qualms arresting any who dare criticize, publish derogatory stories or challenge his and his clans grip on the country.

 

A former Khmer Rouge henchman, used by the West and now courting all sides whilst making the chosen few filthy rich through the imposed kleptocracy. 

 

Bet his old eternal buddy is green with envy!

“I don’t think it is too much,” he said.

 

this is more like it

Thank goodness this could never happen in Thailand.

Hun Sen is just misunderstood  ????

7 hours ago, geovalin said:

“I don’t think it is too much,” he said.

Of course you do not think.  YOu work for Hun Sen.  Thinking would ruin your day. 

Sen is well known to be a multi billionaire, and has stolen all of that fortune from his people. Add to that, his serial killing past with the Kymer Rouge, and you have quite an illustrious character. This is all very well known. Criticize him all you want. Means nothing to this despot. 

What is it with Asian dictators and flashy watches? I don't even have a watch, just use my phone...

3 minutes ago, zyphodb said:

What is it with Asian dictators and flashy watches? I don't even have a watch, just use my phone...

Folk don't notice the hair dye..????

8 hours ago, Thailand said:

They were borrowed from a rich friend who is now dead?

Should say "...'watch' you talkin bout Willis" ????????????????

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by DPKANKAN

9 hours ago, geovalin said:

“I have heard that he did not even buy his watch. It was a gift from a tycoon,” the spokesman said, adding that tycoons can easily afford gifts valued at from one to two million dollars.

So he didn't buy it, he accepted a million dollar gift - I guess that makes it all better.

11 hours ago, geovalin said:

Sok Eysan said, while urging reporters not to write further stories focused on the issue.

Ah... the old 'let's draw a line under this and move on' strategy. This one accompanied by a neatly veiled threat...

On 7/30/2020 at 6:53 AM, Thailand said:

They were borrowed from a rich friend who is now dead?

No, I doubt it. This friend is probably alive and living here in Thailand -some fat old <deleted>, I expect.....

Somebody who would borrow off a dead 'friend'!

Human scum

On 7/30/2020 at 7:53 AM, Thailand said:

They were borrowed from a rich friend who is now dead?

No he is still in Thai parliament

On 7/30/2020 at 8:44 AM, ezzra said:

Did anyone really expected anything else from a despot regim? he has no qualm in showing a million dollar watch while many of his people are dying of poverty and disease...

Are you talking about Thailand?