Khmer Time/Taing Vida
Monday, 07 November 2016
As steady rain fell yesterday morning, hundreds of mourners gathered at Phnom Penh’s Wat Than pagoda to start the funeral rites of former prime minister Pen Sovann.
The body of the first post-Khmer Rouge prime minister – who led the country for a brief seven months in 1981 after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979 – was taken in a procession accompanied by members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), for which he was a member of parliament since 2013, and hundreds of well-wishers and family members to Russey Sanh pagoda in Dangkor district on the outskirts of the city.
This location, far from the center of Phnom Penh where the CNRP had wanted to honor a figure party leader Sam Rainsy had described as a “hero” and “father” of the 1979 Vietnamese-led invasion of Cambodia that had removed the Khmer Rouge, was chosen at the behest of municipal authorities.
Mr. Sovann’s family had wanted him to be cremated in front of Wat Botum due to his historic significance to the country, but this was denied by City Hall on the grounds that he was not, and was simply an ordinary politician.
No politicians from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) were present, the party Mr. Sovann helped form alongside current Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly Chairman Heng Samrin. It was called the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party at the time.
Only Leng Peng Long, the secretary-general of the National Assembly, who was involved in the planning of the event, made an appearance.
CNRP spokesperson Yim Sovann expressed his disappointment over the decision not to allow a central cremation, calling it political discrimination.
“Pen Sovann is a father of January 7 [the date of the liberation of Phnom Penh] and the national liberation after the post-Khmer Rouge genocide,” he said. “He made huge accomplishments for Cambodia and he should not be considered separately and be cremated far away.”
He called the CPP’s avoidance of the ceremony a sign of their negativity.
“The ruling CPP has gained a lot of benefit from Mr. Pen Sovann, so I think he is qualified enough for them to respect.
“To me, Mr. Pen Sovann was a hero and politicians should stop the negative political mindset and participate in the ceremony to share their condolences.” CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan said that attending such a ceremony was a right, rather than an obligation, and the non-attendance of CPP members should not be used for political gain.
“[Attendance] should be from the feeling of the individual. You can’t force anyone to join the funeral, plus it was raining heavily yesterday,” he said.
“To join the funeral or not comes from the mind and heart. Those who went there had had a good relationship with him,” he added.
Mr. Sovann passed away on October 29 at his home in Takeo province aged 80. He had long suffered from the effects of a combined stroke and heart attack.
After his brief role as prime minister in 1981, he was arrested for disagreeing with Vietnamese advisors and spent 10 years as a prisoner in Hanoi in 1992.
He subsequently spent the rest of his life involved in opposition politics.