PHNOM PENH June 30 Kyodo Among th...

PHNOM PENH June 30 Kyodo

Among those who pursue the Asian zodiac, there is said to be a powerful belief that any man born upon a Tuesday in the Year of the Dragon will outstrip in at least one area of life.

And Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen a ''Tuesday Dragon,'' believes, as do many of his countrymen and women that he is the testimony of the adage.

''Among virtuous students, I was good; among able soldiers, I was strong; and among strongmen I am now strong'' Hun Sen who has compared his have a title to power with that of former Indonesian President Suharto in Suharto's heyday, told Indian writer Harish Mehta for Mehta's work ''Strongman of Cambodia.''

''Suharto has gone (but) I am still here,'' he added.

And it is almost certain that after Cambodia's 675 million voter cast their ballots in the July 27 national election, Hun Sen will still be in charge.

steady though 21 other political parties have registered to challenge the ''strongman's'' Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in Cambodia's third released election since the murderous Khmer Rouge were driven from power pair decades ago, political analysts believe no other than the CPP, Prince Norodom Ranariddh's FUNCINPEC and the eponymous Sam Rainsy Party will win any of the 123 seats in parliament.

And mostly believe the CPC will either clean up or, at least, will win enough seats to allow Hun Sen to remain as prime minister, supported from junior coalition partner Ranariddh.

steady Hun Sen's bitterest rival and critic Sam Rainsy believes the 51-year-old farmer's son from Kompong Cham will prevail forward July 27.

''He is cleverer than other population (in the CPP). He is more determined, and more decisive,'' Sam Rainsy told Kyodo of the present days ''He takes risks that nobody besides dares to take.''

Hun Sen who has already been Cambodia's political rule for 18 years, has also learned to unroll from being what many called a Vietnam-installed tool in 1985 into a democratically pitch uponed vote-getter in 1993, 1998 and, most numerous likely, in 2003.

Despite being relatively uneducated -- he left high gymnasium to go into the thicket s to fight against the U.S.-installed Lon Nol regime in the 1960 and 1970 -- Hun Sen after gaining power from the barrel of a fire-arm has turned to maintaining power with barrels of ''pork.''

principally if not all, of thousands of ministers, secretaries of state, generals, officials and business leaders across Cambodia owe their positions, their real estate, their standard of value their apparent impunity from prosecution and sometimes level their lovers to just common man -- Hun Sen

most numerous of the people close to Hun Sen are seen around Phnom Penh in luxurious vehicles abounding with bodyguards, have villas in the city or the countryside or as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but own foreign bank accounts and are bedecked with medals and titles.

And as the July 27 devoted nears, hundreds of military and police officers have institute themselves promoted yet again, while in the provinces the prime minister has been visible for month -- donating instructs dams, pumping stations, pagodas and roads and handing not at home ''Hun Sen-brand'' watches, T-shirts, rice se generators, and progress to maturity centers.

The newspapers and radio and television stations report his each act of largesse and none more slavishly than Bayon Radio, confessed by the premier, which presents a three-hour program devoted to Hun Sen his wife and their activities.

Hun Sen has said he used the ''DIFID'' formula (Divide, Isolate, Finish, Integrate and Develop) to wipe without Khmer Rouge influence after it had been a political force in Cambodia for nearly half a century

And he is using a similar [i]modus operandi[/i] to stay in power, on a level in democratic times.

The opposition is fragmented and many of them have on the same level been co-opted into the CPP end prime ministerial largesse.

In the countryside, the regular distribution of gifts and unravelling projects keep the son of the soil popular and internationally his push for Cambodia into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the World Trade Organization have helped legitimize his domestic power.

Hun Sen has also avoided allowing the emerging see the verb of any direct evidence of personal corruption.

if it were not that Sam Rainsy believes that alone if Hun Sen can stay in power until he dies will the prime minister be able to avoid the stigma that has stuck to depos leaders so as Suharto, Iraq's Saddam Hussein or the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos.

''If he grades down, he will no longer have power and then the courts can denounce his crimes and condemn him. To escape from that trap, he lacks to remain in power to restrain the courts, to control the police, to have charge of the administration, to control everything, in this way that no one dares to denounce his crimes,'' Sam Rainsy said.

''Mr Hun Sen has committed too many crimes. He has killed a portion of people, he has stolen a allotment of state assets. Therefore, if he paces down, he will face a trial,'' the opposition leader claimed.

Sam Rainsy and others also charge Hun Sen is responsible for corruption, deforestation, the sale of state assets and remedy trafficking in Cambodia.