Article: Say ChhumSar KhengTea BanhMen Sam AnHun Manet
Sơn Ngọc MinhTou Samouth
Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces Cambodian People's Armed Forces
Central Youth of the Cambodian People's Party
203 Norodom Boulevard, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Centrist Democrat International
Solidarity Front for Development of the Cambodian Motherland
""("Anthem of the Cambodian People's Party")
Sky blue
" ឯករាជ្យ សន្តិភាព សេរីភាព ប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ អព្យាក្រឹត និងវឌ្ឍនភាពសង្គម "("Independence, Peace, Freedom, Democracy, Neutrality and Social Progress")
National Assembly Commune chiefs Commune councillors
Provincial, municipal, town and district councillors
The Cambodian People's Party (CPP) , UNGEGN: , ALA-LC: ; is a Cambodian political party which has ruled the country since 1979. Founded in 1951, it was originally known as the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP). , UNGEGN: Kônâbâks Brâchéachôn Bâdĕvôttân Kâmpŭchéa , ALA-LC: Gaṇapaks Prajājan Paṭivattan ̊ Kambujā ; keanapaʔ prɑciəcɔn paɗeʋɔət kampuciə
During the Cold War it allied itself with Vietnam and the Soviet Union, in contrast to the pro-Chinese Communist Party of Kampuchea led by Pol Pot. After toppling the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea regime with the Vietnamese-backed liberation of Phnom Penh, it became the ruling party of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979–1989), which was later renamed the State of Cambodia (1989–1991). The party's current name was adopted during the final year of the State of Cambodia, when the party abandoned the one-party system and Marxism–Leninism.
Originally rooted in communist and Marxist–Leninist ideologies, the party took on a more reformist outlook in the mid-1980s under Heng Samrin. In 1991, the CPP officially dropped its commitment to socialism, and has since embraced a mixed economy. Along with some major parties of the European centre-right, the CPP is a member of the Centrist Democrat International.
The party's rule has been described as authoritarian.
History
Forerunner organizations and early history
Nationalists in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos held the belief that to successfully liberate themselves from France they needed to work together; the nationalists formed the supranational Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) to oppose the French in 1930.
However, the triumph of the Japanese during the early stage of World War II crippled French rule and helped to nurture nationalism in all three Indochinese countries. Consequently, the idea of an Indochinese-wide party was submerged in the rhetoric of fierce nationalism. In Cambodia, growing nationalist sentiment and national pride married historical mistrust and fear of neighbouring countries, which turned out to be a stumbling block for the ICP. On 28 June 1951, the Cambodian nationalists who struggled to free Cambodia from French colonial rule split from the ICP to form the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP).
In 1955, the KPRP established a subsidiary party named the Pracheachon in order to run in the national election that year. The name of the party was changed to the Workers' Party of Kampuchea (WPK) on 28 September 1960 and then to the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) in 1966. Members of the CPK moved the party's headquarters to Ratanakiri Province, where they were termed "Khmer Rouge" by Prince Norodom Sihanouk.
Pen Sovan's leadership (1979–1981)
In early 1979, the Cambodian communists who overthrew the Khmer Rouge's regime to end the genocide held a congress. At this gathering, they declared themselves the true successors of the original KPRP founded in 1951 and labelled the congress as the Third Party Congress, thus not recognizing the 1963, 1975 and 1978 congresses of CPK as legitimate. The party considered 28 June 1951 as its founding date. A national committee led by Pen Sovan and Roh Samai was appointed by the Congress. The women's wing of the party, the National Association of Women for the Salvation of Kampuchea, was also established in 1979 with a vast national network of members that extended to the district level.
The existence of the party was kept secret until its 4th congress in May 1981, when it appeared publicly and assumed the name KPRP. The name-change was stated to be carried out "to clearly distinguish it from the reactionary Pol Pot party and to underline and reassert the continuity of the party's best traditions".
Heng Samrin's leadership (1981–1991)
As of 1990, members of the Politburo were Heng Samrin (General Secretary), Chea Sim, Hun Sen, Chea Soth, Math Ly, Tea Banh, Men Sam An, Nguon Nhel, Sar Kheng, Bou Thang, Ney Pena, Say Chhum and alternate members included Sing Song, Sim Ka and Pol Saroeun. Members of the Secretariat were Heng Samrin, Say Phouthang, Bou Thang, Men Sam An and Sar Kheng.
Hun Sen's leadership (1991–2023)
In 1991, the party was renamed to the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) during a United Nations-sponsored peace and reconciliation process. Politburo and the Secretariat to enter into the new Standing Committee, Chea Sim as President and Hun Sen as Vice-president. Despite being rooted in socialism, adopted a pragmatic approach in order to keep power. For instance, the CPP played a major role in Cambodian peace negotiation process, which led to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on 23 October 1991 and the creation of the second Kingdom of Cambodia. The CPP ousted Nodorom Ranariddh in a coup in 1997, leaving the party with no serious opposition. Thirty-two people died in the coup.
Under CPP rule, Cambodia transitioned into a lower-middle-income economy in 2016. The party aims to turn Cambodia into a higher-middle-income country by 2030 and high-income country by 2050. Ideologically, an increasing number of CPP senior leaders claim that the Cambodian ruling party has adopted a centrist position. They believe that the CPP presents a middle path between capitalism and communism, with emphasis on the values and principles of social market economy along with social and environmental protection, and Buddhist humanism. However, academics such as John Ciorciari have observed that the CPP still continues to maintain its communist-era party structures and that many of its top-ranking members were derived from KPRP. Also, despite Hun Sen being only the deputy leader of the party until 2015, he had de facto control of the party.
It won 64 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly in the 1998 elections, 73 seats in the 2003 elections and 90 seats in the 2008 elections, winning the popular vote by the biggest margin ever for a National Assembly election with 58% of the vote. The CPP also won the 2006 Senate elections. The party lost 22 seats in the 2013 elections, with opposition gained. Since 2018 Cambodian general election, the party commands all 125 seats in the National Assembly, and 58 of 62 seats in the Senate. The main opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was banned before the election. Hun Sen, the former Prime Minister of Cambodia, has served as the CPP's President since 2015.
Party leadership (1979–1993) Heng Samrin:
General Secretary of the KPRP (1981–1991)
Chairman of the Revolutionary Council (later the Council of State) (1979–1992)
Chea Sim:
Minister of the Interior (1979–1981)
President of the National Assembly (1981–92),
Chairman of the Council of State (1992–1994)
Pen Sovan:
Minister of Defense (1979–1981);
General Secretary of the KPRP (1979–81);
Prime Minister (1981) Hun Sen:
Minister of Foreign Affairs (1979–1986; 1987–1990);
Deputy Prime Minister (1981–85),
Prime Minister (1985–1993) Chan Sy:
Minister of defense (1981–1982),
Prime Minister (1981–1984) Say Phouthang:
Vice President of the State Council (1979–1993)
Chea Soth:
Minister of Planning (1982–1986),
Deputy Prime Minister (1982–1992)
Bou Thang:
Deputy Prime Minister (1982–1992),
Minister of Defense (1982–1986)
Math Ly:
Vice President of the National Assembly
Kong Korm:
Minister of Foreign Affairs (1986–1987)
Hor Namhong:
Minister of Foreign Affairs (1990–1993)
List of party leaders
Cambodian People's Party (emblem).png
Emblem of the Cambodian People's Party
Tou Samouth
KPRP (General Secretary) CPP (President)
No.PortraitNameTerm of officeOffice heldDeputyFromToDuration 1 Tou Samouth21 September 195130 September 1960―— 2 Pen Sovan5 January 19795 December 1981 Minister of Defence (1979–1981)
Prime Minister (1981)— 3Heng Samrin5 December 198117 October 1991 Chairman of the People's Revolutionary Council (1979–1981), President of the Council of State (1981–1992), President of the National Assembly (2006–2023)— 4Chea Sim17 October 19918 June 2015† Chairman of the National Assembly (1981–1993),
President of the Council of State (1992–1993), President of the Senate (1999–2015)Hun Sen 5Hun Sen20 June 2015 Present Minister of Foreign Affairs (1979–1986, 1988–1990),
Prime Minister (1985–2023), President of the Senate (2024–)Sar KhengSay ChhumMen Sam AnTea BanhHun Manet
Organization
The party is headed by a 34-member Permanent Committee, commonly referred to as the Politburo (after its former Communist namesake). The current members are (with their party positions in brackets):
Hun Sen (Chairman)
Heng Samrin (Honorary Chairman)
Sar Kheng (Deputy Chairman)
Say Chhum (Chairman of the Standing Committee)
Say Phouthang Bou Thang Tea Banh Men Sam An Nguon Nhel Ney Pena Sim Ka Ke Kim Yan Pol Saroeun Kong Sam Ol Im Chhun Lim Dith Munty Chea Chanto Uk Rabun Cheam Yeap Ek Sam Ol Som Kim Suor Khuon Sudary Pen Pannha Chhay Than Hor Nam Hong Bin Chhin Keat Chhon Yim Chhay Ly Tep Ngorn Kun Kim Meas Sophea Neth Savoeun Recent electoral history General election
Year Party leader Candidate Votes Seats Position Government # % ± # ± 1981Pen Sovan 2,898,709 90.3 New Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party New 1st KPRP 1993Chea SimHun Sen 1,533,471 38.2 52.1 66 2nd FUNCINPEC–CPP–BLDP–MOULINAKA 1998 2,030,790 41.4 3.2 13 1st 2003 2,447,259 47.3 5.9 9 1st 2008 3,492,374 58.1 10.8 17 1st 2013 3,235,969 48.8 9.3 22 1st 2018Hun Sen 4,889,113 76.8 28.0 57 1st 2023Hun SenHun Manet 6,398,311 82.3 5.5 5 1st
Communal elections
YearParty leaderLeaderVotesChiefs CouncillorsPosition#%±#±#±2002Chea Sim Hun Sen 2,647,849 60.9 New New New 1st 20073,148,533 60.8 0.1 7 441 1st 20123,631,082 61.8 1.0 1 299 1st 2017Hun Sen3,540,056 50.8 11.0 436 1,789 1st 20225,378,77374.3 23.5 492 2,873 1st
Senate elections
YearCandidateVotesSeatsPosition#%±#±2006Chea Sim7,85469.2— 14 1st20128,88077.8 8.6 1 1st2018Say Chhum11,20295.9 18.1 12 1st2024Hun Sen10,05285.9 10.0 3 1st
See also
Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation
Modern Cambodia
People's Republic of Kampuchea
Politics of Cambodia References Notes Citations Bibliography
Guo, Sujian (2006). The Political Economy of Asian Transition from Communism. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. .
External links CPP website
List of incidents attributed to the Cambodian Peoples Party on the START database |
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1945-1960 - Early Cambodian Left
1949-1956 - Paris Student Group
1953-1966 - KPRP Second Congress
1967-1972 - Khmer Communists (KC)
Khmer People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP)
The Kampuchean (or Khmer) People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP) was the ruling Marxist- Leninist party of the PRK. It was an offshoot of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), which played a dominant role in Cambodian resistance against the French and the Japanese. Some leaders of the anticolonial Cambodian resistance, or Khmer Issarak, had been members of the ICP, and they had helped found the KPRP in 1951. The party was formed after the decision by the ICP's Second Party Congress in February 1951 to dissolve itself and to establish three independent parties for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. On September 30, 1960, the KPRP party was renamed the Workers' Party of Kampuchea (WPK). Pol Pot emerged as the key figure. In 1966 shortly after Pol Pot returned from talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing, the party's name was changed to the KCP.
The communist party in Cambodia had a history of bitter factional feuds. After the Second Party Congress in 1960 and the disappearance of party General Secretary Tou Samouth in 1962, the party split into pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese factions. The dominant faction, led by Pol Pot, adopted a position that was pro-Chinese and anti-Soviet. In January 1979, the split became irreversible as the pro-Vietnamese/pro-Soviet faction under Pen Sovan replaced the Pol Pot faction as the de facto ruler in Phnom Penh. The rival factions even disagreed on the founding date of the communist party in Cambodia: the Pol Pot faction, under Khieu Samphan, in late 1987, claimed September 30, 1960; however, the other group, the mainstream KPRP under Heng Samrin, continued to honor 1951 as the founding year.
The Heng Samrin faction held the Third Party Congress of what would later become the KPRP between January 5 and 8, 1979. Heng Samrin's faction claimed that it alone was the legitimate descendant of the communist party founded in 1951. Very little is known about the Third Party Congress (also known as the Congress for Party Reconstruction) except that Pen Sovan was elected first secretary of the Central Committee and that the party then had between sixty-two and sixty-six regular members.
Some key figures in the Pen Sovan leadership were former collaborators with Pol Pot, but this information, and the communist ideological convictions of the new leadership were not publicized because the leadership feared backlash from people who had been brutalized by the Pol Pot regime. Such concern was implicit in Pen Sovan's political report to the Fourth Party Congress held from May 26 to May 29, 1981. In the report, he was careful to distance the KPRP from Pol Pot's KCP, and he denounced the KCP as a traitor to the party and to the nation.
The KPRP decided at the Fourth Party Congress to operate "openly." This move seemed to reflect the leadership's growing confidence in its ability to stay in power. The move may have had a practical dimension as well because it involved the people more actively in the regime's effort to build the country's political and administrative infrastructure.
The Fourth Party Congress reviewed Pen Sovan's political report and defined the party's strategy for the next several years. The Congress adopted five "basic principles of the party line," which were to uphold the banners of patriotism and of international proletarian solidarity; to defend the country (the primary and sacred task of all people); to restore and to develop the economy and the culture in the course of gradual transition toward socialism; to strengthen military solidarity with Vietnam, Laos, the Soviet Union, and other socialist nations; and to develop "a firm Marxist-Leninist party." At the Congress it was decided that henceforth the party would be known as the KPRP, in order to distinguish it from "the reactionary Pol Pot party and to underline and reassert the community of the party's best traditions."
The Fourth Party Congress also proclaimed its resolve to stamp out the "reactionary ultra-nationalist doctrine of Pol Pot," to emphasize a centralized government and collective leadership, and to reject personality cults. The "ultra-nationalist doctrine" issue was an allusion to Pol Pot's racist, anti-Vietnamese stance. The Congress, attended by 162 delegates, elected twenty-one members of the party Central Committee, who in turn elected Pen Sovan as general secretary and the seven members of the party inner circle to the Political Bureau. It also adopted a new statute for the party, but did not release the text.
According to Michael Vickery, veterans of the independence struggle of the 1946 to 1954 period dominated the party Central Committee. A majority of the Central Committee members had spent all or part of the years 1954 to 1970 in exile in Vietnam or in the performance of "duties abroad."
The KPRP's pro-Vietnamese position did not change when Heng Samrin suddenly replaced Pen Sovan as party leader on December 4, 1981. Pen Sovan, who was reportedly flown to Hanoi under Vietnamese guard, was "permitted to take a long rest," but observers believed that he was purged for not being sufficiently pro-Vietnamese. In any case, the new general secretary won Hanoi's endorsement by acknowledging Vietnam's role as senior partner in the Cambodian- Vietnamese relationship. The party recognized the change in leadership symbolically by changing the official founding date of the KPRP from February 19, 1951, to June 28, 1951, in deference to the Vietnam Workers' Party (Dang Lao Dong Viet Nam), which was established in March 1951.
In mid-1981, the KPRP was essentially a skeletal organization. It had few party branches except for those in Phnom Penh, in Kampong Saom, and in the eighteen provincial capitals. Party membership was estimated at between 600 and 1,000, a considerable increase over 1979 but still only a fraction of the number of cadres needed to run the party and the government. In 1981 several of the 18 provinces had only 1 party member each, and Kampong Cham, the largest province with a population of more than 1 million, had only 30 regular members, according to Cambodia specialist Ben Kiernan.
The party held its Fifth Party Congress from October 13 to October 16, 1985, to reflect on the previous five years and to chart a new course for the next several years. The party's membership had increased to 7,500 regulars (4,000 new members joined in 1985 alone). The party had an additional pool of 37,000 "core" members from which it could recruit tested party regulars. There were only 4,000 core members in mid-1981. According to General Secretary Heng Samrin's political report, the KPRP had twenty-two regional committees and an undisclosed number of branches, circles, and cells in government agencies, armed forces units, internal security organs, mass organizations, enterprises, factories, and farms. The report expressed satisfaction with party reconstruction since 1981, especially with the removal of the "danger of authoritarianism" and the restoration of the principles of democratic centralism and of collective leadership.
It pointed out "some weaknesses" that had to be overcome, however. For example, the party was "still too thin and weak" at the district and the grass-roots levels. Ideological work lagged and lacked depth and consistency; party policies were implemented very slowly, if at all, with few, if any, timely steps to rectify failings; and party cadres, because of their propensities for narrow-mindedness, arrogance, and bureaucratism, were unable to win popular trust and support. Another major problem was the serious shortage of political cadres (for party chapters), economic and managerial cadres, and technical cadres. Still another problem that had to be addressed "in the years to come" was the lack of a documented history of the KPRP. Heng Samrin's political report stressed the importance of party history for understanding "the good traditions of the party."
The report to the Fifth Congress noted that Heng Samrin's administration, in coordination with "Vietnamese volunteers," had destroyed "all types" of resistance guerrilla bases. The report also struck a sobering note: the economy remained backward and unbalanced, with its material and technical bases still below pre- war levels, and the country's industries were languishing from lack of fuel, spare parts, and raw materials. Transition toward socialism, the report warned, would take "dozens of years."
To hasten the transition to socialism, the Fifth Congress unveiled the PRK's First Plan, covering the years 1986 to 1990. The program included the addition of the "private economy" to the three sectors of the economy mentioned in the Constitution (the state sector, collective sector, and the family sector). Including the private economy was necessary because of the "very heavy and very complex task" that lay ahead in order to transform the "nonsocialist components" of the economy to an advanced stage. According to the political report submitted to the congress, mass mobilization of the population was considered crucial to the successful outcome of the First Plan. The report also noted the need to cultivate "new socialist men" if Cambodia were to succeed in its nation-building. These men were supposed to be loyal to the fatherland and to socialism; to respect manual labor, production, public property, and discipline; and to possess "scientific knowledge."
Heng Samrin's political report also focused on foreign affairs. He recommended that Phnom Penh strengthen its policy of alliance with Vietnam, Laos, the Soviet Union, and other socialist countries. He stressed -- as Pen Sovan had in May 1981 -- that such an alliance was, in effect, "a law" that guaranteed the success of the Cambodian revolution. At the same time, he urged the congress and the Cambodian people to spurn "narrow-minded chauvinism, every opportunistic tendency, and every act and attitude infringing on the friendship" between Cambodia and its Indochinese neighbors. (He was apparently alluding to the continued Cambodian sensitivity to the presence of Vietnamese troops and of about 60,000 Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia. CGDK sources maintained that there were really about 700,000 Vietnamese settlers in the country.)
The KPRP's three objectives for the period 1986 to 1990 were to demonstrate military superiority "along the border and inside the country" for complete elimination of all anti-PRK activities; to develop political, military, and economic capabilities; and to strengthen special relations with Vietnam as well as mutual cooperation with other fraternal countries. Before Heng Samrin's closing address on October 16, the 250 party delegates to the congress elected a new Central Committee of 45 members (31 full members and 14 alternates). The Central Committee in turn elected Heng Samrin as general secretary, a new Political Bureau (nine full members and two alternates), a five-member Secretariat, and seven members of the Central Committee Control Commission.
After the Fifth Congress, the party's organizational work was intensified substantially. The KPRP claimed that by the end of 1986 it had more than 10,000 regular members and 40,000 candidate members who were being groomed for regular status.
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