Author: Will Brehm, University of Canberra

After Cambodia’s 1998 elections, Hun Sen declared he was ‘the only captain of the ship’, finally shedding the conflicting title of co-prime minister he shared with Prince Norodom Ranariddh for the previous five years. Fast forward a quarter century, the captain successfully orchestrated a power transfer to his son, Hun Manet.

Hun Sen has evaded mutiny, rebellion and revolt from the vying factions within his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). Yet, as many commentators have pointed out this year, the captain still holds some power, leaving him and his son as perhaps best described as co-prime ministers, a historical irony worthy of remembrance.

If 2023 will be remembered for anything, it will be the political acumen that Hun Sen showed as he found new ways to broaden the meaning of Cambodian democracy to now include hereditary succession. For over 30 years, Hun Sen re-defined the meaning of democracy and human rights to suit his needs. He cosied up to political leaders of all ideological stripes to keep international pressure at bay. How he did this and to what effect will be studied for years to come by would-be authoritarians and scholars alike.

In full: https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2024/01/12/hun-manet-faces-his-fathers-uneven-economic-legacy/

One of this columnist’s earliest experiences of Cambodia, perhaps a week or so after he arrived, was of a mob. Hitching a ride with a motodop, we pulled up near what at first seemed a standard traffic accident, the kind that becomes routine when you live in Phnom Penh for some time. From a safe distance, which my driver insisted on, I could see an injured man lying on the pavement, I think some blood flowing from him, and perhaps 20 people surrounding him.

At first, I thought this might have been the injured motorcyclist. A skeletal Honda lay sideways in the road. Instead, I learned, after my driver made a quick inquiry, that the prostrate man was actually the driver of the SUV that had collided with the motorcyclist, who seemed to have disappeared somewhere. The driver had been stopped by the mob after trying to flee the scene, bundled out of the vehicle, and then beaten. And then the beating started again. Punches from the crowd rained down. Not many, but enough for the scene to become menacing. I recall a pot-bellied man pacing across the street in order to land a kick. Then the police arrived, the crowd dispersed and my driver insisted we move on.

In full: https://thediplomat.com/2024/01/why-cambodias-government-cannot-win-its-fight-against-corruption/

Last summer, after an unfree election in which the main opposition party was banned, longtime Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen handed the premiership to his son, Hun Manet, in a dynastic succession. In the roughly six months since then, Hun Manet has shown some signs that he has a better understanding of the country’s need for broader economic growth—and the importance of attracting a wider range of foreign investment—than his father.

Yet on political issues, he seems as repressive as Hun Sen, who was one of the most brutal autocrats in Asia. And lacking his father’s stature and legitimacy among senior Cambodian elites, Hun Manet has in many ways had to expand the circle of elite graft, while also dealing with his still-meddling dad, who will not be content to just wash his hands of the political system he built and dominated for 38 years.

In full: https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/cambodia-economy-hun-sen-manet/