Hun Manet, the eldest son of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is currently touring North America, beat a hasty retreat from an event over the weekend at a Buddhist pagoda in Canada after attendees began criticising his father’s regime.
Manet, who was confronted by protesters repeatedly during the US leg of the trip, was again confronted by a group of opponents during a Cambodian religious ceremony in Montreal.
A video posted online shows a woman, speaking through a loudspeaker, pushing the scion to elaborate on the situation in Cambodia.
Manet, who has presented himself as a peacemaker during the tour, initially invited the woman to discuss her grievances without a loudspeaker, but soon began making for the exit, as a chorus of criticism started up.
Another woman, who explained her husband was killed under the Khmer Rouge regime, said she had fled her homeland fearing war and had hoped things would have improved.
“But when I went to visit Cambodia, it was getting worse and worse,” she said, before requesting he stay.
“If you are good person, you should wait and listen to people’s views about what your father is doing every day . . . He’s a dictator.”
Another man chimed in. “You use the country as your funny game … Have you witnessed people are suffering?” he said.
However, one man, in support of Manet, berated the crowd for using a religious ceremony to confront the premier’s son.
“I want the politicians to get out of the pagoda . . . He came to respect the monks and did not come to offer propaganda,” he said. “If you want to hold a demonstration, you can do it outside.”
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