Democratic Party (Cambodia)
|
Democratic Party
ក្រុមប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ |
|
|---|---|
| Secretary-General |
Ieu Koeus Norodom Phurissara |
| Founder | Sisowath Youtevong |
| Founded | 1946 |
| Dissolved | 1957 |
| Ideology | • Khmer nationalism • Anti-imperialism • Democratic socialism • Social democracy |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| Election symbol | |
| elephant's head and three lotus flowers | |
The Democratic Party (Khmer: ក្រុមប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ, "Democratic Group") was a left-leaning, pro-independence political party formed in 1946 by Prince Sisowath Youtevong, who had previously been a member of the French Section of the Workers' International. It was the sole dominant party in Cambodia from 1946 until the creation of Sangkum in 1955.
Its slogan was "Peace, Independence, Discipline and Courage" and its electoral symbol an elephant's head and three lotus flowers.
In the first elections to colonial Cambodia's Constituent Assembly, held in September 1946, the Democrats won 50 out of 67 seats, and for several years they remained the most popular party in Cambodia, despite Yuthevong's early death in 1947. The Democrats - in contrast to their rivals, the Liberal Party (Kanak Sereipheap) of Prince Norodom Norindeth and the Progressive Democrats led by Prince Norodom Montana - were in favour of immediate independence based on the model of French democracy; they also maintained that the Thai-sponsored Khmer Issarak resistance were patriots, thereby irritating the French.
The Party was to sweep the 1947 National Assembly elections, assisted by an enthusiastic team of activists (including a young Saloth Sar, later to become known as Pol Pot, and Ieng Sary). Other prominent figures associated with the Democrats in this period were centrist In Tam and leftist Hu Nim, another future Khmer Rouge cadre.
The defection of Yem Sambaur and several other deputies to the Liberals in 1948, and the subsequent assassination of Democrat leader Ieu Koeus in 1950 by a member of Norindeth's entourage, led to a period of fragmentation and division in the party. However, despite the temporary ascendancy of the Liberals, the Democrats continued to attract many members of the Khmer intellectual elite in the period leading up to and immediately following Cambodian independence in 1953, and retained particular support amongst civil servants and the urban educated classes. Son Ngoc Thanh, a former Prime Minister under the Japanese occupation, was also to join the Democrats between 1951 and 1952, when he left for the forests of northern Cambodia to start his own right-leaning independence movement.
...
Wikipedia