Social Republican Party
|
Social Republican Party
Sangkum Sathéaranakrâth |
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|---|---|
| French name | Parti social républicain |
| Leader | Lon Nol |
| Founded | June 1972 |
| Dissolved | April 1975 |
| Ideology | • Khmer nationalism • Republicanism • Anti-communism • Militarism • Right-wing populism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
The Social Republican Party (Khmer: គណបក្សសង្គមសាធារណរដ្ឋ) or Socio-Republican Party (French: Parti social républicain; PSR: Khmer: Sangkum Sathéaranakrâth) was a political party in Cambodia, founded by the then Head of State Lon Nol in June 1972 to contest the National Assembly Elections of the Khmer Republic held on September 3, 1972.
The Party was formed around Lon Nol's existing Socio-Republican Association, and was heavily influenced by his brother Lon Non and by the officers of the Khmer Republic's armed forces. It adopted the symbol of Angkor Wat, previously used by Prince Norodom Norindeth's Liberal Party from 1946–56. Its platform was populist, nationalist and anticommunist, Lon Nol being determined to oppose North Vietnamese and Chinese influence in the region in the context of the Second Indochina War: its three principal values were declared to be "republicanism, social responsibility and nationalism". The party's main function, however, was to support and legitimise Lon Nol's leadership of the country; he was later to develop a rather ramshackle chauvinist and semi-mystical ideology called "Neo-Khmerism" to back his political agenda.
The party had, early on, developed two distinct factions. One, known as Dangrek, was led by veteran rightist radical, and (since 18 March) Prime Minister, Son Ngoc Thanh and the left-wing academic Hang Thun Hak. The Dangrek faction, named after the mountain range in which Thanh's Khmer Serei guerrillas had been based, attracted those figures who had long been part of the republican and radical opposition to Prince Norodom Sihanouk in the period before the Republic's establishment. The other faction, known as Dangkor, centred on Lon Non and the army. Tension between these two factions would later prove a serious obstacle to stable government.
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