Cambodia’s Hun Sen will step aside as prime minister after nearly four decades in power, leaving his West Point-educated son Hun Manet to form a new government after the ruling party claimed a landslide election victory over the weekend.
Speaking during a televised address Wednesday, the 70-year-old strongman leader said the decision was made to keep the country stable. He along with other top ministers in his cabinet will resign as ruling party leaders pave the way for a younger generation of politicians, with his son set to assume the job on Aug 22.
“If I remain PM and resign after one or two years in office, there will be instability,” he said. “It is necessary that the new government be filled with a new generation of young ministers.”
Hun Manet, 45, is a political novice who contested elections for the first time following a career in the armed forces in which he rose through the ranks to become a four-star general. He was among the children of the ruling elite serving in positions of power as the government transitions from the old guard to the new generation for the first time since 1979.
Hun Sen is not expected to withdraw from government completely any time soon, saying in his address he would continue to be the President of the Cambodian People’s Party and a lawmaker. He further plans to run in senate elections next year, all but assuring he continues to loom large over the country’s politics for the foreseeable future.
The move comes as the Southeast Asian nation draws even closer to China to shore up an economy that is on the mend following the pandemic. Hun Manet would inherit an economy the World Bank has forecast will accelerate 5.5% this year after China accounted for more than 90% of the foreign direct investment in 2022.
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“Despite relinquishing the prime ministership, Hun Sen’s influence will endure,” said Sebastian Strangio, author of the book “Hun Sen’s Cambodia.” “In the years to come, particularly during the early phases of the Hun Manet prime ministership, he will play an important role in backstopping his son’s administration in order to ensure a stable balance among the country’s fractious ruling elites.”
Preliminary results show the Cambodian People’s Party nearly swept the vote on Sunday, winning 120 of 125 seats up for grabs in the National Assembly, after the main opposition was barred from participating for a second time. The vote was criticized by some western nations, and prompted the US to impose visa restrictions on individuals “who undermined democracy and implemented a pause of certain foreign assistance programs.”
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When Hun Sen was first appointed premier in 1985 — at the age of 33 — Cambodia’s Vietnamese-controlled government was still battling remnants of the Khmer Rouge. After losing the first election following a United Nations-brokered peace in 1993, he threatened to break up the Southeast Asian nation unless he was made co-prime minister. Four years later, a de facto coup put him solely in charge.
As the leader of one of Asia’s poorest countries, Hun Sen was adept at playing to foreign interests to secure donor funding needed to grow an economy left in shambles after years of civil war. His rule saw the longest spell of peace in modern Cambodian history, one that has seen rapid economic advancement, urbanization, and the emergence of a substantial middle-class.
Hun Sen’s also spent much of his rule consolidating control over the country, moving to quash any political dissent following a narrow election win in 2013 when the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party nearly won the popular vote. With no viable opposition at present, rumours of a split within the CPP have been rife in recent years including throughout succession planning, something officials have sought to taper down.
“The CPP has good experience with this,” Phay Siphan, the main government spokesman, told Bloomberg News following the announcement Wednesday. “They know if they split they will die together, so they have consolidated together.”
Externally, Hun Sen has notably brought Cambodia much closer to China, accepting cash from Beijing in return for supporting its geopolitical aims in the region – particularly regarding disputed territory in the South China Sea. Cambodia’s relationship with the US and its allies has meanwhile come under considerable strain as Washington condemned what it sees as the growing influence of China’s military in the country.
While the US criticized the vote, Chinese President Xi Jinping as Hun Sen’s biggest backer abroad, congratulated the leader in a letter saying Cambodia had “achieved political stability.” Cambodia too touted the election as “a true reflection of the country’s democratic maturity.”
Analysts have said that a Hun Manet administration would create an opportunity for some version of a diplomatic reset between Cambodia and Western governments, despite any criticism over fairness at the polls. To what extent that will happen, however, may depend on how long his father remains active in government.
Hun Sen “is now attempting to enshrine his legacy, and the current political dispensation, by engineering a dynastic succession from one generation of CPP elites to another,” Strangio said. “Whether this is successful over the long term remains to be seen.”
