Profile: National Assembly Second Vice President Khuon Sudary

Published: 25-Apr-12 

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) – Khuon Sudary, elected Wednesday as the second vice president of the National Assembly, is one of only three women in the 34-member politburo of the Cambodian People's Party, the inner sanctum of the party officially known as the permanent committee of the central committee.

Born in Battambang, the 59-year-old lawmaker attended Khmer-English High School in Phnom Penh from 1963, graduating in 1969 when she started working as an English teacher. After graduating from the Faculty of Pedagogy in 1970, she studied at the Royal University of Phnom Penh where she completed a Bachelor of Literature degree in 1975.

With the fall of Phnom Penh to Pol Pot's forces in 1975, her dream of studying in Australia was never fulfilled. Following the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, however, she won a scholarship in 1980 to study in Hungary which was by far the most economically liberal communist country at the time. In 1982, she graduated from the International Institute of Journalism in Budapest with a diploma in journalism.

After returning to Cambodia, Khuon Sudary  became a member of the Cambodian Peace Council in 1985, the same year that Hun Sen first became prime minister. Two years later, she was appointed editor in chief of Pracheachun, the official organ of the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party, the forerunner to the CPP, and a position she holds until this day.

Following multi-party elections in 1993, Khuon Sudary became an advisor to the president of the National Assembly. She  was first elected to parliament in 1998, the same year she was first elected as a member of the central committee of the Cambodian Red Cross.

She was re-elected to parliament in 2003 and 2008, when she became chairwoman of the National Assembly Commission of Human Rights, Reception of Complaints, Investigation and National Asssembly-Senate Relations, a post she has held until now. At the same time, she has also served as treasurer of the Cambodian Association of Parliamentarians for Population and Development (CAPPD) since 2000.

Over the past few years, Khuon  Sudary has been particularly active in supporting the work of First Lady and Cambodian Red Cross President Bun Rany Hun Sen in the field of HIV and AIDS. More recently, she has been closely involved in the First Lady's work on maternal and child health, an area in which fellow Red Cross central committee members concede she has considerable expertise despite not being a mother herself.

In being elected as second vice president of the National Assembly, Khuon Sudary succeeds Say Chhum, chairman of the politburo standing committee who is now vice president of the Senate following upper-house elections in January. As second vice president, she will serve alongside fellow politburo member Nguon Nhel, the first vice president, under National Assembly President Heng Samrin, the honorary CPP chairman.

Khuon Sudary has received numerous awards from the king including the Prah Rahchea Nachak Kampuchea Grade Moha Sereiwat Medal, the Monisaraphorn Grade Moha Sereiwat Medal, and the Prah Rahchea Nachak Kampuchea Grade Thepadeen Medal.

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Khmerization's Note: How smart was she to have graduated from an English High School and taught English at the age of 16 (born 1953 and graduated in 1969)? And at the age of 17 in 1970, she graduated from a teacher training college (Faculty of Pedagogy)? Her claim of completing a Bachelor Degree of Literature in 1975 is questionable because the Khmer Rouge took power on 17th April 1975 and around that time of the year, the first semester of university study had just started.