At least two Funcinpec ministers who returned from self-imposed exile have not been allowed to take up their jobs despite government promises they would be reinstated, officials confirmed.
Minister of Education Tol Lah and Minister of Rural Development Hong Sun Huot have not been permitted to go back to work. Hong Sun Huot is not even allowed to enter the ministry building where he used to work, the CPP officials who have replaced him said last week.
“Hong Sun Huot is not allowed to enter the ministry because he has not gotten a letter from the Council of Ministers allowing him to come back. This means he has no right to come to the ministry to meet with anyone,” said Yim Chhay Li, the secretary of state for rural development.
“He has called me on the phone to say he wants to come to the ministry to discuss this with me, but I tell him it is not right for him to come here. This is the law,” said Yim Chhay Li, a CPP member who has been acting minister since Hong Sun Huot fled the country after the July 5-6 fighting.
Ngy Chanthol, the ministry’s CPP undersecretary of state, said Hong Sun Huot was banned because of his support for deposed first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
“He was one of those with the prince who opposed the government,” Ngy Chanthol explained. “We do not dare accept him on the job unless he is fully recognized by the government.”
In the Education Ministry, acting Minister Kea Sahorn (CPP) said that Tol Lah has not been back to work and would need permission from the two prime ministers to return.
“He was absent from the country for nine months….It is normal that I am given the minister position when the minister is away,” Kea Sahorn said. “Whether he comes back or not is the government’s decision.”
A top aide to Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, Prak Sokhonn, said the ban on Funcinpec returnees at their ministries was “strange.”
“I don’t think this is true. The government always said that it would give back the former post to people who come back,” Prak Sokhonn said.
“As far as I know, there has been no decision to ban those people from their ministries.”
Neither Tol Lah nor Hong Sun Huot could be reached for comment. An assistant to Tol Lah said Sunday that he had gone to Bangkok.
A spokesman for deposed first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh said he was unaware that Funcinpec returnees were being banned from returning to work.
“No, I did not know anything about that,” said Lu Laysreng, who added that he was not surprised by the government’s actions. “They always make promises like this but never go by them.”
Lu Laysreng himself has not attempted to return to his post as undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Commerce.
“It’s too late to go back to work anyway. We are working toward the elections,” he said. “If we win, then we will have our jobs back.”
