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Six Months of Hun Manet in Cambodia: Change or More of the Same?

After six months in office, Hun Manet has demonstrated an understanding of Cambodia’s economic challenges but has continued the political repression of his father’s rule.

<p>Cambodia&#8217;s Prime Minister Hun Manet leaves after concluding his speech during the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Jakarta on September 4, 2023.</p>
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet leaves after concluding his speech during the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Jakarta on September 4, 2023. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images

By experts and staff

Published

Experts

Since taking over the leadership of Cambodia last summer following an undemocratic election that led to the banning of the main opposition party, Hun Manet, who was appointed as prime minister by his father, Hun Sen, has held power for approximately six months. There are now signs suggesting that the new dictator has a better understanding of the country’s need for broader economic growth and attracting a wider range of foreign investment. Yet on political issues, Hun Manet seems as repressive as his father, who had been one of the most brutal autocrats in Asia. And, lacking his father’s aura and longtime legitimacy among senior Cambodian elites, Hun Manet has had to expand the circle of elite graft, while also dealing with his still-meddling father, who is hardly in retirement.

For more on my assessment of Hun Manet’s first six months in power in Cambodia, see my new World Politics Review article.

This publication is part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy.