Loy Sim Chheang may be out of the National Assembly and out of Funcinpec, but he is not out of a job.
The former first vice president of the parliament has returned to his first love—farming.
Since Sangkum Thmei, the political party he formed last year after being thrown out of Funcinpec, lost badly in the July elections, Loy Sim Chheang has retired to his 4-hectare farm off Pochentong Boulevard.
“I wanted to live in a quiet and peaceful place, so I retreated to make a simple living as a farmer. I am so fed up with politics,” he said in a recent interview.
“So now, I have returned to the job I was originally trained for—agricultural engineer.”
Trained in agricultural techniques in the 1960s at Kompong Cham’s Phoumin University, Loy Sim Chheang’s early professional career was dominated more by farming concerns than political ones. He was chief of the Rice Research Institute in 1970 and director of an experimental irrigation station in 1972. In the late 1970s, he was forced into manual labor in one of the Khmer Rouge’s disastrously ill-managed farming collectives.
It was after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, when Loy Sim Chheang emigrated to Japan for 10 years, that he first became politically active. Like many overseas Cambodians, he rallied to then-Prince Sihanouk’s campaign against the Vietnamese-backed government that replaced the Khmer Rouge.
“I decided to join the king to liberate Cambodia from the communist regime,” he said.
He was named secretary-general of Funcinpec and was elected to parliament in 1993. Later he was elected first vice-president of the National Assembly.
But Loy Sim Chheang’s political fortunes took a turn after Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh was ousted as first prime minister in July 1997. While other Funcinpec parliamentarians fled the country, he stayed behind and chaired the Assembly session that officially deposed the prince the next month.
Enraged, Prince Ranariddh labeled his secretary-general a traitor and threw him out of the party.
Loy Sim Chheang says he has no regrets and would not rejoin Funcinpec even if asked. Although he is tired of politics, he insisted that Sangkhum Thmei is not dead and may participate in the commune elections.
For now, though, he is concentrating on his farm, where he grows rice and sugar palms as well as vegetables. “My rice harvest was good. I think I can get about 3.5 tons of milled rice from it,” he said.
He might need the rice to feed his expanded household. Living with him is former Funcinpec radio personality Ek Mongkul, the “Golden Voice” who disappeared after the July fighting and was rumored dead. In fact, Ek Mongkul and his family were hiding all the time in Loy Sim Chheang’s home.
The family still is living with him, as are other friends and relatives. Loy Sim Chheang estimates he is the sole breadwinner for about 60 people. “This is the real way to help each other in society,” he concluded.
