Earlier this yr, the Cambodian authorities introduced the total diplomatic weight of the state down on a seemingly slight goal: a 36-year-old maid working for a middle-class household simply outdoors Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Nuon Toeun was neither an activist nor an opposition chief. She spent her days cleansing her employer’s residence. She did, nonetheless, have an energetic social media presence on TikTok and Fb, the place she “expressed … rage,” she mentioned, at Cambodia’s elite, together with its former authoritarian chief, Hun Sen, and his son, Hun Manet, the present prime minister.
The Cambodian authorities issued a warrant for Toeun’s arrest on Jan. 18, a couple of weeks after she posted a video saying Hun Sen was “dancing very fortunately” regardless of the “mountain of disappointment” confronted by the Cambodian individuals: poverty, land grabs and the concentrating on of opposition figures. Cambodia notified Malaysian authorities of the warrant, alleging she had insulted state establishments in violation of a six-year outdated regulation that critics say has been used liberally in opposition to perceived opponents of the federal government.
In full: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/03/southeast-asia-repression-exiles-cambodia-malaysia/
