The Guardian View on Southeast Asian Dynasties: Political Leaders are Keeping it in the Family

Indonesian vice-presidential candidate Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
Picture: Bagus Indahono/EPA

In this editorial piece on political dynasties, The Guardian examines the shifting of political power from father to son in the Southeast Asian region, much like the age of kings and emperors where dynasty politics prevailed.

A 2018 study found that more than one in ten leaders worldwide came from families where a close relative was already involved in politics.

Now dynastic rule appears to be entrenching itself further in south-east Asia. After four decades in charge, and following another stage-managed election, Cambodia’s authoritarian leader Hun Sen this year handed over the prime ministership to his son, Hun Manet. The West Point-educated leader reportedly has a more diplomatic manner than his father, but there is no sign that he plans to diverge from him politically.

The most striking development, however, is in Indonesia, the world’s third largest democracy. The 2014 victory of a political outsider – President Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi – was hailed as the shaking up of a slothful, corrupt and nepotistic system. “Becoming a president does not mean channeling power to my children,” he wrote pointedly in his autobiography.