Hun Sen to hand power to son next month
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Wednesday he will step down in August and hand the position to his oldest son, though Asia’s longest-serving leader is expected to continue to wield significant power. The widely anticipated move comes after Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party secured a landslide victory on Sunday in elections that Western countries and rights organisations criticised as neither free nor fair, partially because the country's main opposition was barred from competing. The rise to power of Hun Sen’s son – 45-year-old Hun Manet, who won his first seat in Parliament just days ago and is chief of the country’s army – is part of a larger generational shift.  Many younger lawmakers are expected to take up ministerial positions, including Hun Sen’s youngest son and others related to other older party members. Many were educated in the West, like Hun Manet, who has a bachelor's degree from the US Military Academy West Point, a master’s from New York University and a doctorate from Bristol University in Britain, all in economics. That could herald a change in tone from Cambodia's leaders, said Ou Virak, president of Phnom Penh’s Future Forum think tank, but he does not expect any major policy shifts. “There will be an obvious change in style of leadership," he said in a telephone interview. "The shift to the younger generation just makes the conversations on policy potentially a little more vibrant.” Still, he said it represented a critical moment. “He won’t let go, he can’t let go,” he said of Hun Sen. “But I think once you go into semi-retirement, there’s no turning back. Hun Sen – who has progressively tightened his grip on power over 38 years in office while also ushering in a free-market economy that has raised the standards of living of many Cambodians – is expected to retain a large amount of control, as his party’s president and president of the senate. He suggested as much himself in his televised address to the nation announcing when he would be stepping down. “I will still have the ability to serve the interests of the people and help the government oversee the country’s security and public order, as well as joining them on guiding the development of the country,” he said.  Under Hun Sen, Cambodia was elevated from a low-income country to lower middle-income status in 2015, and expects to attain middle-income status by 2030, according to the World Bank. (AP)