CPP lawmaker and senior party insider Say Chhum, the second vice president of the National Assembly, suffered a stroke Tues-day night and was transferred to hospital in Singapore on Wednes-day morning, colleagues said.
The family of Say Chhum, 63, brought him to Phnom Penh’s Calmette Hospital at 10 pm Tues-day, and doctors kept him in stable condition until he was transferred to Singapore at 9 am Wednesday, CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said.
“At last report, His Excellency Say Chhum is awake and can talk,” Cheam Yeap said.
Calmette doctors said Wednes-day that the hospital’s director, Chhea Ra, went with Say Chhum to Singapore.
Say Chhum is chairman of the CPP’s standing committee and chairman of the powerful permanent committee of the party’s central committee.
Born in Kompong Cham prov-ince, Say Chhum was a secondary school teacher before being elected to the central committee of the ruling party’s precursor People’s Rev-olutionary Party of Kampuchea in 1985. He first served as provincial secretary for Kompong Speu be-fore being appointed minister of ag-riculture in 1986, a position he held until 1990.
He was appointed first deputy prime minister in Hun Sen’s government from 1992 to 1993.
Fellow CPP lawmaker Ney Pena described Say Chhum as an “im-portant member” of the party.
