Star Metro - Chosen son: Cambodia's next PM Hun Manet to succeed father

Groomed for years, the eldest son of Cambodia's iron-fisted ruler will take over next month in a dynastic transfer long in the making, which sees Hun Manet move from the premier's bodyguard unit to the seat of power in the capital Phnom Penh.

After nearly four decades as Cambodian leader, Hun Sen on Wednesday announced his resignation in a televised speech, three days after claiming a landslide victory in a one-sided election that the ruling party was guaranteed to win after having silenced all viable opposition.

Hun Manet, already a member of the ruling Cambodian People's Party's (CPP) powerful permanent committee, has served as commander of the Royal Cambodian Army since 2018.

Born on October 20, 1977, the princeling graduated from West Point in 1999 and has more recently met world leaders including President Xi Jinping of China -- Cambodia's main ally and benefactor.

But the 45-year-old four-star general only contested a parliamentary seat for the first time in Sunday's election, a poll he has insisted was legitimate, while Western powers criticised it as neither free nor fair.

- 'After Hun Sen' -

While Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving rulers, has trailed the handover to his son for a year and a half, he has also made it clear that he intends to wield influence after he steps down, scotching the notion the country could change direction when Hun Manet assumes power.

While Hun Sen's politics are shaped by his experiences of revolution and war as a young man during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, his son was raised in luxury and educated abroad.

Hun Manet holds a PhD in economics from the University of Bristol in Britain, and was the first Cambodian to graduate from the prestigious US military academy.

He has also served in leadership roles in the ruling CPP's youth movement, his father's bodyguard unit and the counterterrorism special forces.

But a Western education is no guarantee of a more liberal approach, exiled politician Sam Rainsy, a longstanding foe of Hun Sen, told AFP this month -- pointing to Syria's brutal Assad dynasty.

"Syria's Bashar al-Assad is more educated than Hafez al-Assad, but the son is politically worse than the father," he said.

Sebastian Strangio, author of a book about Hun Sen's rule, told AFP that so far Hun Manet had shown "little evidence that he will introduce anything more than cosmetic reforms to the current political system".

Without his father's backing, it is not clear Hun Manet would be able to make changes even if he wanted to.

He remains untested in the political arena, analyst Ou Virak told AFP this month.

"The problem is he's been spoon-fed, mostly with a golden spoon," Ou Virak said.

Married with two daughters and a son, Hun Manet will assume the role of prime minister on August 22.

S.Clark--SMC