Cambodian PM says not to appoint capable children in posts

Cambodian PM says not to appoint capable children in posts

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that he could not appoint his children in the cabinet posts even though they were qualified.

"I have five children and five children-in-law. All of them have possessed degrees ranging from bachelor's degrees to doctorate's degrees, but I cannot include them into the government 's cabinet members in order to avoid the criticism of nepotism," the prime minister told the closing ceremony of an international symposium, which was attended by some 600 university scholars from 42 countries.

He said his eldest son Hun Manet, 36, was the first Cambodian person who graduated from West Point Military Academy in the United States in 1999 and obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Bristol of the United Kingdom.

"I can arrange others' competent children to hold positions in the government, but I cannot appoint my own children for those positions," Hun Sen said.

"It's really difficult for me in the status of the father and the prime minister concurrently."

The prime minister's youngest son Hun Many is currently a parliamentarian and president of Cambodia's Union of Youth Federation and another son Hun Manith is a deputy chief of the Defense Intelligence Unit, while his two daughters are businesswomen.

Hun Sen, 62, has been in power for 29 years.

In a reaction to an article published by a Thai newspaper The Bangkok Post last month which assumed that Hun Manet, currently deputy commander of the Headquarters of Infantry, will be his father's successor, Hun Sen said in democratic societies, prime ministers are elected by people, not by transferring power from fathers to sons.

"In all democratic countries, prime ministers are chosen by elections. How can I transfer the position to my son?" he said.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140806/cambodian-pm-says-not-appoint-capable-children-posts