Senator Kem Sokha, deputy secretary-general of Funcinpec, announced Wednesday that he will leave the party—which he condemned as weak and ineffective—to work in civil society.
“I think that if I work for an NGO, I can serve my country better than if I stay in such a party,” he said. “In politics we cannot use our power to do anything for the people because the party I have been in is not strong enough.”
For months, critics of Funcinpec have been predicting a stream of high-profile defections from the troubled royalist party. Kem Sokha’s marks the first.
It comes just days after Kem Sokha’s car was broadsided by a suspicious, unmarked vehicle as he pulled into his driveway—an act the senator said he believes was an assassination attempt.
But Kem Sokha said he had made the decision to leave Funcinpec and the Senate before the Saturday evening incident, an account confirmed by Senate Second Vice President Nhiek Bun Chhay, who also holds the rank of deputy secretary-general in Funcinpec.
“I was informed by Kem Sokha that he wanted to leave the party and return to civil society before the accident,” Nhiek Bun Chhay said Wednesday.
Kem Sokha expressed gratitude to Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh for giving him the chance to serve the party. But he said Funcinpec has not lived up to the ideals of Son Sann, the charismatic leader of the 1980s Khmer People’s National Liberation Front and the mid-1990s opposition Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party.
When the BLDP fell apart, Kem Sokha, like many Son Sann loyalists, joined Funcinpec. “I joined Funcinpec in hopes that I and my Son Sann faction, the [KPNLF], could join with fellow democrats to make the country better,” he said. “But nothing has been done for the nation. Funcinpec just follows the CPP’s orders.”
Kem Sokha said he will leave politics, at least for a while, to run an NGO devoted to human rights, public education and political advocacy. However, he did not rule out an eventual return to politics if the political situation would allow him to have more influence.
Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay said he suspects that Kem Sokha might be taking a “cooling period” before re-entering the political arena, especially if he plans to switch parties.
“Generally, it doesn’t look good if a politician leaves one party and goes right to another,” he said.
But neither Son Chhay nor opposition leader Sam Rainsy made any claims that Kem Sokha might be joining the Sam Rainsy Party. “If he wants to join the [Sam Rainsy Party], he is welcome, but it’s up to him,” Son Chhay said.
Kem Sokha had recently been reprimanded by Prince Ranariddh for his relationship with Sam Rainsy. Kem Sokha said he and Sam Rainsy had been friends for years and met only as friends, but Prince Ranariddh thought their meetings reflected badly on Funcinpec, Kem Sokha said.
Also chastised by the prince, for the same reason, were Nhiek Bun Chhay and Kieng Vang, a Ministry of Interior secretary of state and Funcinpec Steering Committee member. On Wednesday, both men voiced dissatisfaction with Funcinpec, and both refused to comment on whether they were considering leaving it.
Kem Sokha’s resignation is not official. He said he has informed Nhiek Bun Chhay and party dean Khy Taing Lim, minister of Public Works and Transport, but could not notify the party’s two top leaders because Prince Ranariddh is in France and party Secretary-General Prince Norodom Sirivudh is in the US. “I am still waiting for a decision from Prince [Sirivudh] and Prince [Ranariddh] to accept my resignation, but I plan to leave the party before the end of this month,” he said.
