Sin Sen, a former top official with the CPP, is in line to become Funcinpec’s newest senator.
National Assembly President Prince Norodom Prince Ranariddh, who heads Funcinpec, is floating the idea of naming Sin Sen to replace Senator Chea Peng Chheang, who has been tapped for a new position as auditor-general of the National Auditing Authority.
Chea Peng Chheang is chief of the Senate’s Finance and Bank Commission. His nomination as auditor-general is awaiting approval by the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly.
Sin Sen was a CPP secretary of state for the Ministry of Interior before joining an attempted coup by Prince Norodom Chakrapong in 1994. He subsequently joined Funcinpec.
The prince wants to gauge whether Funcinpec members will support Sin Sen’s appointment before proceeding, one source said. Funcinpec currently holds 21 of the senate’s 61 seats.
Nhiek Bun Chhay, deputy senate president, said Sin Sen has been serving as the prince’s adviser for interior and military matters.
“I fully support him, but I don’t know about other [Funcinpec] members,’’ Nhiek Bun Chhay said. Sin Sen’s appointment has to be approved by the Funcinpec steering committee, which has not yet discussed the matter.
The question of support is an important one, given the party’s tumultuous history during the 1990s. Critics say Funcinpec welcomed too many people into the party for the wrong reasons in 1993, especially friends, relatives and big donors.
That group monopolized party hierarchy and patronage positions, squeezing out former resistance fighters and some who battled the Vietnamese troops in the 1980s.
In addition, at least one previous attempt by Funcinpec to promote a former CPP member ended badly for the party when, in early 1997, one-time CPP member Ung Phan left Funcinpec to join former Siem Reap Governor Tuon Chay in a rebellion against Prince Ranariddh.
That split weakened Funcinpec, contributing—observers say —to the party’s defeat at the hands of the CPP in the July 5-6 factional fighting.
Lu Leysreng, Minister of Information, said the memory of that defection haunts Funcinpec today. “I am worried about people coming in and later walking away,’’ as they did in 1997, he said.
But Lu Leysreng said he thinks Sin Sen would not do such a thing. “I do not think he is like those persons in the July fighting,’’ he said.
Tol Lah, secretary-general for Funcinpec, said he does not object to Sin Sen because he joined the party so long ago. ‘’He is a very important person and a former high official,’’ he said.
‘’I think he wants to serve the nation and the people,’’ Tol Lah said.
A previous plan by Prince Ranariddh to appoint Sin Sen as Funcinpec’s secretary of state for interior was quashed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who feared too many Interior police would feel loyalty to Sin Sen from his earlier stint at the Interior Ministry.
