Cambodia’s longtime Prime Minister (PM) Hun Sen, who has led the country for more than three decades, has backed his eldest son, Hun Manet, for the highest office of the country when he steps down.
“Why would someone else’s son be able to become prime minister and the son of Hun Sen not be able to?” the PM said while speaking at the inauguration of roads and other infrastructure projects in the coastal southern province of Preah Sihanoukville.
He added that his son, who has been educated at the Bristol University in Britain and the Military Academy at West Point in the United States, would have to face an election because Cambodia “practices democratic pluralism.” “Today, I declare that I am supporting my son to be my successor, but he cannot do so except through election,” he said.
Urging his son to act for the good of the nation and its people, Hun Sen said: “I have not been training him to be the leader of a gang of thieves. To be clear, Hun Manet is one among the candidates to become the next prime minister, and his father is fully supporting him.”
It has been speculated for quite some time now that the PM has been grooming Hun Manet to lead the kingdom. Two of his other sons have also been suggested as possible successors. In fact, the 69-year-old Cambodian PM has frequently touted his children’s achievements as the product of education and training and has dismissed claims of nepotism.
Hun Sen’s 44 year-old son holds several important military posts, including the rank of lieutenant general. He is a four-star deputy commander-in-chief of his father’s elite bodyguard unit and deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. Hun Manet is also the chief of the country’s counterterrorism force.
Despite the leader professing support, Hun Sen added that his son’s elevation to the high profile position could still be a decade away. Having been in power for 36 years, Hun Sen is one of the world’s longest-serving leaders and has not elaborated on his retirement plans. The country is expected to hold elections in 2023.
Critics have accused Hun Sen of scaling back democratic freedoms in the country and misusing courts to suppress opposition and activists. As evidence of the autocratic regime’s oppression, Cambodian authorities have been known to arrest dozens of former opposition members and rights campaigners in recent years.
Moreover, in the last election, which was held in 2018, Hun Sen’s party won every seat in Parliament after the Supreme Court dissolved his party’s main opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, one year earlier.