Hou Yuon - in Cambodian Domestic Politics 1958-67

In Cambodian Domestic Politics 1958-67

Sihanouk, by now Prime Minister of an independent Cambodia, invited a number of prominent leftists, including Hou Yuon, into his Sangkum party and government to provide a balance to the right-wing. Yuon was to serve in several ministries between 1958 and 1963. He was eventually forced to resign after losing a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly; he was considered to have committed lèse majesté by not following Sihanouk's demands closely enough. However, despite his open public disagreements with Sihanouk - he once accused Sihanouk of using scarce electric power to light his own street, and was the target of Sihanouk's most furious personal tirades - he approved of the Sangkum policies of nationalisation implemented after 1964.

In 1964, Yuon was also to publish a revision of his 1956 book The Co-Operative Question, which now formally proposed an alliance between socialists and Sihanouk's regime. It contained an in-depth study of how co-operative organisation might help poorer farmers and peasants, particularly in avoiding the need to use unscrupulous money-lenders, and redress the urban "oppression" of rural areas: though contrary to the line later adopted by the Khmer Rouge, Yuon identified that city workers or landowning peasants did not themselves oppress the poor peasantry.

In the 1966 National Assembly elections, Sihanouk abandoned his previous policy of nominating one candidate for each electoral district. Most leftist Sangkum deputies now had to compete with members of the traditional elite: only Hou Yuon, Hu Nim and Khieu Samphan chose to stand, their task made harder by Sihanok actively campaigning against them: nevertheless, Yuon won by a large margin in his constituency, receiving 78% of the vote. Later that year he was briefly made part of a "counter-government" set up by Sihanouk to balance the right-wing cabinet of Prime Minister Lon Nol. However, after the Samlaut Uprising of 1967, Yuon was accused by Sihanouk of stirring up unrest, and threatened with arrest and possible execution: he fled to join the communist maquis, led by Saloth Sar (Pol Pot), Ieng Sary and Son Sen, in the forests.