The Information Ministry could revert to CPP control and several new ministers could debut in the next government if a set of conditions that the ruling CPP said emerged from last week’s talks with Funcinpec proves true.
According to reports, Khieu Kanharith, Information Ministry secretary of state, is competing with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s adviser Om Yentieng to replace Funcinpec Minister of Information Lu Laysreng.
A draft of the CPP’s negotiation plans obtained Sunday indicated that the CPP intends to ask Funcinpec to relinquish control over the Information Ministry under a new power-sharing arrangement.
Lu Laysreng on Sunday would not comment on the ministry’s future, but said “the CPP wants it back.” Khieu Kanharith declined last week to say whether he was a candidate for the minister’s post.
Several attempts to reach Om Yentieng were unsuccessful.
Oum Daravuth, the royalist secretary of state at the ministry, said either Om Yentieng or Khieu Kanharith could get the ministerial post if, indeed, Funcinpec loses the ministry.
Khieu Kanharith was a journalist in the 1980s while Om Yentieng has served as a media officer for Hun Sen, as well as chief of the government’s human rights commission.
However, according to reports of the tentative agreement reached by Prime Minister Hun Sen and Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh during talks last week, Om Yentieng may already be out of the race.
Khieu Kanharith said last Tuesday that both parties had agreed that only elected National Assembly members will receive ministerial posts and positions as secretaries of state. Under this condition, Om Yentieng would be ineligible. Khieu Kanharith was elected to parliament for Kompong Cham province.
By that same condition, nine other ministers would lose their posts, including Funcinpec’s popular Mu Sochua, current minister of Women’s Affairs. Oum Daravuth would also lose his position.
Mu Sochua declined last week to comment on the negotiations.
Article 119 of the Constitution says any member of a party represented in the Assembly is eligible for a government position.
