Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen challenged the United States on Sunday to cut all aid after it announced it was ending funding for a general election next year in response to the dissolution of the main opposition party, media reported. Cambodia has been accused of “killing off democracy” after the country’s supreme court dissolved the opposition party and outlawed more than 100 politicians ahead of a general election. Authoritarian rule is ascendant in South East Asia. It now poses an existential challenge to human rights and democratisation all over the region. And Cambodia is leading South East Asia’s authoritarian ways, writes Thitinan Pongsudhirak for Myanmar Times.