One is a de jure communist one-party state. The other is a communist dictatorship in all but name. Yet both the countries have of late enjoyed remarkable economic success. Vietnam’s economy grew by an average of 6.3 per­cent between 2005 and 2018. The rise of Cambodia has been even more stellar, with its GDP growing at an astonishing 7.59 percent in average between 1994 and 2017. During his visit to these two countries, Prime Minister KP Oli, we are told, hopes to discover the secret sauce of their economic miracle and apply it to Nepal. But the lead-up has been marred by growing criticism of the ‘irrelevant’ visits to these distant countries from which Nepal has little to gain. Besides, the criticism goes, the prime minister of the new federal democratic republic paying an official visit to two undemocratic and illiberal countries will send all kinds of wrong signals to the international community. These criti­cisms miss the point.

 

Nepal, a full-fledged democracy, is no Vietnam. The ‘Social­ist Republic’ with a GDP of $224 billion is home to nearly 100m people, compared with Nepal’s GDP of around $25 billion and 30m people. Nor is Nepal as closely connected to the west as Vietnam. Oli may get some pointers on com­munist rule from Vietnam (where he is also addressing an international conference). But his true destination is Cambo­dia. It has half the population of Nepal, but a near identical GDP-size and comparable per capita income. Cambodia is also a democracy, of a kind, with a hard-left government at the helm. What PM Oli and his NCP comrades want to know is: How does a communist party tweak state machinery to hold power for 40 consecutive years while also maintaining a veneer of democracy?

 

In fact, PM Oli seems fascinated by his Cambodian counter­part, Hun Sen, who has been in power for 34 years in a row. Oli held an extensive one-on-one with Hun Sen while he was in New York for the UNGA in September 2018. Two months later, the two again held extensive consultations on the side­lines of the Asia Pacific Summit in Kathmandu. So keen was PM Oli to confer with Hun Sen that he stayed for three days in Soaltee Hotel, which was hosting the Cambodian prime minister in Kathmandu.

 

While he is in Cambodia, besides trying to learn a few tricks of the trade in centralization of power from Hun Sen, Oli will also discuss another common fascination: China. How does Cambodia maintain “best ever” relations with China while its neighbors remain highly suspicious of the Middle Kingdom? With such close ties to Beijing, isn’t it increasingly harder for Phnom Penh to deal with western powers? Can a ruler in this region be so openly pro-China and still retain power for so long?