(Reuters) – Cambodia’s long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on Wednesday he will hand over power to his son Hun Manet, ending a near four-decade reign in the Southeast Asian country increasingly criticised as autocratic.
The announcement came just days after Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) swept a general election after running virtually unopposed.
Here are details about his son, Cambodia’s 45-year-old leader in waiting:
WHO IS HUN MANET?
The eldest of Hun Sen’s five children, Hun Manet was born on October 20, 1977.
His father later poetically described the birth by saying Hun Manet was born from a spirit that emerged from a banyan tree in a flash of light.
He is married to Pich Chanmony, the daughter of a prominent Cambodian politician. The couple have three children.
WESTERN EDUCATION
Hun Manet grew up in Phnom Penh and joined the Cambodian military in 1995, but also did much of his higher education in the United States and Britain.
He was the first Cambodian to graduate from the U.S. military academy at West Point in 1999.
He then got a masters degree in economics from New York University in 2002, and a PhD in economics from the University of Bristol in 2008.
MILITARY AND POLITICAL CAREER
Hun Manet also rose up the ranks of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, including the posts of deputy of his father’s bodyguards, commander of counter-terrorism, commander of the army, and deputy commander-in-chief.
He also became head of the youth wing of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and joined its standing committee.
In December 2021, Hun Sen named his eldest as his choice to succeed him as leader, and the CPP soon endorsed him as “future prime minister”.
WHAT ARE HIS POLITICAL VIEWS?
Hun Manet has given few media interviews and few clues about his vision for Cambodia and its 16 million people.
He has largely avoided lengthy speeches on the campaign trail, restricting himself mostly to smiling and waving. At a large campaign rally on Friday, he said a vote for the CPP was a vote for a bright future and warned of unspecified “extremist” attempts to “destroy the election”.
In 2015, Manet told the Australian Broadcasting Corp channel that Cambodia must preserve peace, stability and security “at any cost”.
WILL HE GOVERN DIFFERENTLY THAN HIS FATHER?
Major powers will be watching closely for signs of whether Hun Manet will maintain the authoritarian status quo of his father or pursue greater liberalisation and a more Western style of democracy.
Hun Sen has indicated that he expects his heir to rule in his own model.
Asked by the Phnom Penh Post if his son might govern differently, Hun Sen laughed.
“In what way? Any such divergence means disrupting peace and undoing the achievements of the older generation.”
(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
