After 38 years in power, Cambodian Hun Sen hands over power to his son

After the fall of the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge, the UN sent several monitors to Cambodia to try to get this Southeast Asian country to leave behind the bloody dictatorship and open up to the world with a new democratic system.. It was in 1985 when a young former commander who had taken refuge in Vietnam, Hun Sen, took the reins of the country under the promise of defending democracy, holding fair elections and sweeping away endemic corruption.

The idea was to give a complete facelift to this country with 16 million inhabitants located in a region prone to bumping into authoritarian governments that rely on the armies to maintain control.. Experiments in electoral democracy fail time and time again. And Hun Sen was not going to be the exception. He ended up becoming a tyrant, clinging to power and gradually eliminating the opposition, until he was one of the world's longest-serving leaders in office.

After serving 38 years as prime minister and winning his last elections on Sunday, Hun Sen (70 years old) has announced that he is retiring and passing the baton to his eldest son, Hun Manet (45 years old), who is currently the chief cambodian army. “I would like to ask people for their understanding in announcing that I will not continue as prime minister,” the outgoing leader said during a televised address on Wednesday.

The transfer of powers was an open secret. Hun Sen overtook him a couple of years ago and gradually paved the way for his son, opening a place for him in the powerful Central Committee of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).. In April this year, he was promoted to 4-star general, the highest military rank that gave him control of an army that is the armed wing of the CPP.

Hun Manet's resume stands out because he graduated from the prestigious West Point Military Academy, in the United States, and studied for a master's degree from New York University and a doctorate from the University of Bristol (United Kingdom).. Back in Phnom Penh, the capital of his country, he was appointed commander of the anti-terrorist special forces..

From the outside it could be interpreted that, with the western profile of the new leader, covered in his education by the Anglo-Saxon culture, the past democratic commitment could be redirected. An idea that is not shared by analysts who follow Cambodian politics, convinced that Hun Manet will not deviate from the authoritarian course of his father, who persecuted dissent, took control of the courts and closed down critical media.. In addition, the majority opinion is that Hun Sen will continue to pull the strings from the shadows..

Last May, the electoral commission prohibited the Partido de las Velas, the only party that could stand up to the ruling party at the polls, from participating in the elections.. A couple of months earlier, the government shut down one of Cambodia's last remaining independent newspapers, Voice of Democracy, while one of the most prominent opposition figures, Kem Sokha, was sentenced to 17 years of house arrest.

The Cambodian government was threatened after the 2013 elections, when an alliance of parties renamed the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) won more than 40% of the vote.. Since then, the repression against the opposition has increased, getting Parliament to approve the dissolution of any political party for “security reasons”, always under the sole criteria of the ruling party.. That year, the CNRP was banned and about a hundred of its members were prosecuted, leading several leading opposition politicians to flee abroad.

Hun Sen has tried to paint Cambodia as a healthy democracy outwardly, boasting of a pluralistic system where all parties fit.. After the CPP swept the elections on Sunday, taking 82% of the votes – obtaining 120 of the 125 seats in Parliament -, the leader highlighted the “democratic maturity” despite the criticism that fell on him from the United States and the European Union, which had refused to send observers on the grounds that the elections “lacked the conditions to be considered free and fair”. Supervising the elections, there were envoys from Cambodia's international allies such as China and Russia.

In addition to announcing that he will hand over power to his son, Hun Sen said on Wednesday that a “new generation” would take over many of the top ministerial posts within a new government that will be formed on August 22.