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Cambodia does not need political lessons from the countries that are footing much of the bill for its development, according to Second Prime Minister Hun Sen.

"Donors treat receiving countries not unlike a parrot. They give food to the parrot and then want it to repeat what they say," Hun Sen said in an interview. "It is better to be frank and say that this is attached aid, that it is neocolonialism."

Hun Sen, who shares the title of prime minister with his coalition partner Prince Norodom Ranariddh, is not the first Asian leader to complain about arm-twisting by aid donors. But his country, as it tries to bandage the wounds of decades of brutal leadership and war, is among the most heavily dependent on foreign funds. Cambodia soaked up nearly US$1.3 billion of foreign aid money between 1992 and 1995, with another billion promised.

Much of that has come packaged with foreign goods - a traditional trick of donor countries, which works like this: You buy your hospital equipment from a Japanese company and Japan's aid program pays the bills. To this sort of tied aid, Hun Sen has no objection. "I think that is reasonable... What I consider neocolonial assistance is that which will change our political system, or political thinking," he said.

The former Khmer Rouge member railed against the attitude of Westerners critical of what they see as heavy-handed moves by the Cambodian government to stifle political opposition. "It is a mistake (for donors) to try to act as a teacher. I don't want my nation to be a student of any other."

Gareth Evans, Australian foreign minister in the outgoing Labor government, recently intimated that Cambodia's judiciary was heavily stacked in the government's favor, to which Hun Sen reacted: "I was forced to say you are going beyond your limitations, interfering in the judiciary affairs of Cambodia."

Australia has pledged US$81 million in aid to Cambodia over the past three years, and has been among those countries voicing concern that the country's government is growing increasingly autocratic in style. But Hun Sen deflected the question of why other countries should fund governments whose agendas differ from their own. "Human rights and democracy (are) no one's monopoly... Each nation can't necessarily follow the others. It is the right of each country to set its own agenda."

The public face of the formerly communist Cambodian People's Party, Hun Sen said Cambodia's coalition government was an important step in building democracy in a country introduced to political pluralism for the first time during United Nations-backed elections in 1993. He said he expected that structure to remain beyond the next elections, due in 1998.

"Even though the CPP will win the elections in 1998, we will not hold power unilaterally. I can foresee the need for Cambodia to have a coalition government for at least 10 to 15 years," he said. He said he envisioned trying to minimize conflict in the electoral process by agreeing with other parties who would contest which seats. "If we fight for National Assembly seats like this," he said smashing his fists together, "then there will be no political stability... A fight for seats leading to war - how is that good for the country or for democracy?"

Such talk worries some political observers, principally those who believe multiparty democracy is an end in itself. They fear horsetrading over seats will lead to the consolidation of power in the the hands of the CPP, regardless of the wishes of the electorate.

But Hun Sen is adamant that electoral conflict should be minimized. One of his prescriptions: move away from proportional representation to the "one man, one vote" system. "That way people can stand for elections without forming parties... It means that if there is fighting between candidates, it will not lead to a major confrontation between parties." Critics of this view say that it is yet another step toward marginalizing any organized opposition to CPP's well-lubricated party machine.

Despite Hun Sen's title of second prime minister - Ranariddh, whose royalist Funcinpec party won the 1993 elections, is technically the first among equals - many Cambodians are convinced that real power lies with the CPP.

Such suggestions put Hun Sen on the defensive. "I didn't commit any violation against the first prime minister... It is not good to say this one is strong, that one is weak. We can't all be the same... but I do not accept that I have more power than others."

Late last year former foreign minister Norodom Sirivudh, alleged to have threatened Hun Sen's life in a jesting phone call with a journalist, was put under house arrest. Tanks rolled on to the streets of Phnom Penh as if to underline the decisive action against Sirivudh, a half-brother of the Cambodian king now in exile in France, who was tried in absentia last month and sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Speaking at his country ranch, with semiautomatic weapons in evidence among his guards, Hun Sen spoke of the need to use significant shows of military might as a deterrent to violence.

But he denied that the military's most recent sortie on to the streets of the capital was intended as a demonstration of his own strength.

"One shouldn't be surprised just to use a few tanks to defend (CPP) headquarters. For me, if I couldn't command the military or civilians, I should not be prime minister or commander in chief of the armed forces," he said.

Copyright 1996 Asia Times.

(c) 1996 Chamber World Network International Ltd.