The Phnom Penh Post‘s February expose on intermarriage and blood links among members of the CPP’s political elite finally confirms what many have long suspected – that political alliances and loyalties in Cambodia are built solidly on the well trodden grounds of nepotism and arranged marriage.
A commentary on the article notes that:
Significantly, the CPP’s family connection is emerging simultaneously with a waning of the royal family’s influence over national politics. Ever since Hun Sen and his inner circle of friends and advisers ousted former prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh in a 1997 coup, the royalist Funcinpec party’s political fortunes have waned.
The consolidation of power through deepening familial ties amongst elites comes as no great surprise however. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world and is noted for its long history of civil war and foreign occupation; state power and control, be it colonial, royal or otherwise, has always been patchy at best. Far from imposing systematic rules and regulation, power in Cambodia is reliant on intimate personal relationships to ensure the kind of obsequious behaviour that only one’s in-laws could inspire.
[Maylee Thavat is an ANU PhD scholar working on development and commodity chains in Cambodia.]
You could draw the same chart for the Cabinet of Thailand, except it would be much much much larger.
The Mahidols, Sanitwongs, Issararangkuls, Chulanonts, Kalayanamitrs, Devakulas, Amranands, na Songkhlas, Pibulsonggrams, and Yodmanees are all related, going back at least a hundred years.
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Look at the Bush family, or the Waltons, or Enron. Nepotism is not the domain of the third world elite, nor a unique cultural trait of mainland southeast asia, nor reserved for so-called ‘weak’ states. It is an identifiable structure of supposedly vested interests (even though families are as divided within as they are between). I wonder whose interests are at work in the publication of the story. I don’t believe it is ‘the Cambodian people’ whatever the Daily professes.
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saisen-
You obviously don’t know the definition of nepotism.
It means favoring relatives for positions of power.
In your three American examples, there is not one case of nepotism.
In the US, nepotism is against the law, and it has been frownedupon since President Kennedy hired his brother Bob to be attorney general back in the 60′s.
In some cases, congressmen put wives or children on staff. Guess what? It becomes a scandal.
In Thailand, giving relatives undeserved high positions is a way of life.
George Bush never put a relative into a position of power.
As for Enron and Wal-Mart, those are private businesses.
Private businesses can do what they want.
If we went by your definition of “nepotism” in the business world and it was a crime in Thailand, most of the country would be in breach of the law.
And yes, Southeast Asian countries do have a higher level of nepotism than many other parts of the world.
Off the top of my head, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand are the most egregious practitioners of nepotism.
Where, outside Southeast Asia, is nepotism just as bad?
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I’m not sure this is odd or even avoidable. There is a very small, limited elite — by position, title or money — in Cambodia, and they have now had stability for a decade or so, long enough to create a “hi-so” and to raise a next generation thinking about advancing the family interest over generations inside the country, rather than just trying to get out (though I doubt they have given up escape routes).
To this end they have limited choices of who to do business with, whom to call on to get their kids a ministry job, and whom to marry their children to. Realistically speaking, they are not going to marry far beneath themselves.
Perhaps there is some academic theory on elites and intermarriage in societies which maps out just when the society is advanced enough that the utility of such connections means less than absolute skills — which is the case in the US, despite the Bushs etc.
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That is brilliant.
The hard working people who dug up that info should be applauded. It is ***so systematic*** that words would merely clutter the description.
Nepotism is a very slippery thing and sometimes disappears into its hole as quickly as it emerges, without a trace.
Take, for instance, the article from the Bangkok Post below (with a little threat of defamation suit kicker, doing honour to Lee Kuan Yew’s innovation).
The BTS was in bankruptcy proceedings and actually looking further into the situation would have cost the main parties money, so the issue disappeared. But the seasoned reporter Nuntawun Polkuamdee did a good job of uncovering the facts.
http://www.readbangkokpost.com/economics/corporate_governance/bts_corporate_governance_confl.php
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Jon,
The BTS case is not a real nepotism issue, and despite the Post report it is hardly a new story. Kerree Kanjanapas launched his scheme more than a decade ago as part of his family run business, with the idea that he could flip it on the stock market to get back his own investment and keep control if it to earn whatever more of the profits that he could, including , from the beginning, controlling the advertising by his own private company, and taking advantage of real estate along the route. The banks and other key investors were in trouble on the project from the beginning but had their own little side deals to earn back fees etc, as well as their own real estate projects. Suffice it to say no investor had the public interest first in mind on this project.
This is how family businesses work and probably should work — at least until they fail! It is only nepotism to those in the company who are not family and don’t get to be boss. They may be publicly listed but the behavior is nothing strange or unexpected, except perhaps to unwitting investors from the public.
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