^A: The party continues to follow the "principles of Leninist party organization" and retains a "communist party structure pervading all administrative levels and institutions in Cambodia."[12]
The Cambodian People's Party (CPP)[a] is a Cambodianpolitical party which has ruled the country since 1979. Founded in 1951, it was originally known as the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP).[b]
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. It presents itself as a big tent of supporters of the Prime Minister Hun Sen.[14]
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".
Hun Sen addresses the crowd at a campaign rally in Phnom Penh.
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, the party 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.[19] 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);
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):
^Chandler, David P.; C., D. P. (1983). "Revising the Past in Democratic Kampuchea: When Was the Birthday of the Party?". Pacific Affairs. 56 (2): 288–300. doi:10.2307/2758655. JSTOR2758655.
^Brickell, Katherine; Springer, Simon; Strangio, Sebastian (2017). The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia. Routledge Handbooks. Routledge. p. 79. ISBN978-1-315-73670-9. The CPP presents itself as a big tent in which any opponent is welcome, as long as they divest themselves of political ambitions, humbly accept their place in the scheme of ksae, and recognize the leadership and superior omnaich of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
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