Everyone in Phnom Penh remembers the last general elections. The excitement, the mass rallies, the protests, the promises of change and the frenetic activity on social media, which gained unexpected, unprecedented momentum, as often happens in this part of the world. Perhaps that is why the silence now, in the run-up to 29 July elections, feels all the more acute.

Among the things not being talked about are the 25 political prisoners, the systematic corruption, the dismantling of the main opposition party and the massive buying up of businesses and land by citizens of the People’s Republic of China, which has never been closer to the government of the Prime Minister Hun Sen. Organisations such as Global Witness have defined Cambodian democracy as a “kleptocratic system” in which the executive branch is closely linked to the military and business elites, involved in timber smuggling, the expropriation of land, the illegal extraction of sand and cannabis trafficking, among other things.