As part of a plan for “extreme reform,” Prime Minister Hun Sen demanded on Monday that people who have purchased the names and positions of government officials step forward and abandon their posts or face prosecution.
Hun Sen said the country is rife with governors, military police chiefs, police chiefs and soldiers who are operating under identities that they have bought from the real officials, who he said are working on farms.
“I urge those [government officials] who bought names to come forward and confess immediately, because the real people are farming in the provinces,” Hun Sen said during an inauguration ceremony in Siem Reap province on Monday, which was broadcast over Apsara Radio.
“Those who bought the names should walk away from the government. Those who bought names will be erased from the government and might be sent to the court to be prosecuted,” he continued.
Hun Sen added that those who stepped forward now would be forgiven, and that those who sold their names would be recruited to work in the government at competitive salaries.
“People whose names were sold, please file complaints to me directly,” Hun Sen said.
Hun Sen pledged to institute “extreme reform” by culling the government of officials he says are incompetent.
Though he said he plans to remove incompetent CPP officials, all removals so far have been members of his party’s beleaguered coalition partner, Funcinpec.
Hun Sen also announced yet another removal of a Funcinpec official from the government. He said Oddar Meanchey Provincial Governor Kuch Moly had been fired and replaced by CPP member and third deputy governor of Siem Reap province Pich Sokhin.
Kuch Moly is trained only as a customs officer and is not qualified to be a governor, Hun Sen said.
Hun Sen added that Funcinpec member and recently removed Siem Reap provincial governor Sim Son would be a new secretary of state for the Ministry of Rural Development.
Hun Sen also warned Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh that he is considering firing 1,200 royalist government officials in response to critical comments from Funcinpec lawmaker Monh Saphan.
Last month, Monh Saphan asked why only Funcinpec officials had been removed as part of Hun Sen’s reform plans.
Mon Saphan said Monday that he would cease posing such questions.
“I will stop talking about it, because if I talk, I will not succeed.”
Foreign diplomats said they were watching the situation develop, but were not worried about the possibility of one-party rule.
One diplomat said on condition of anonymity that it was normal for a ruling party to consolidate its power ahead of an election, and that government functions would suffer little if Funcinpec was removed entirely.
“Donors are worried about many things, but they are not worried about that,” the diplomat said, adding: “After the election, the odds are that we will have a one-party government.”
(Additional reporting by Whitney Kvasager)
