Sangkum
상쿰
A Cambodian political organisation created in 1955 by Norodom Sihanouk after he abdicated the throne. Its full name was Sangkum Reastr Niyum (Popular Socialist Community). Sihanouk called it a “movement” rather than a party, but it functioned in practice as a Sihanoukist party and governed Cambodia from 1955 until Sihanouk was deposed in 1970.
In depth
The Khmer source says the Sangkum was a political organisation created by Norodom Sihanouk on 22 March 1955, while the French source says the king abdicated in favour of his father Norodom Suramarit on 3 March 1955 and founded the Sangkum in April to contest the September general election. The Sangkum required its members not to belong to any other political formation; the Khmer source sums up its ideology as nationalism, conservatism, defence of the monarchy and Buddhist conservatism, and judges that its “Buddhist socialism” had nothing to do with real socialism. In May 1955 right-wing monarchist parties joined it, including the Khmer Renovation Party of Lon Nol and Nhiek Tioulong, Sam Nhean’s People’s Party and Dap Chhuon’s “Victorious North-East” party.
The 1955 election took place amid violence and intimidation by police and militia under Dap Chhuon, and the Sangkum won all seats with 82 percent of the vote. Sihanouk, now prime minister, had a Sangkum congress approve constitutional reform by show of hands; such national congresses claimed to offer direct democracy above parties but in practice endorsed Sihanouk’s policies. The Sangkum again took every seat in the elections of 1958 and 1962. Communists such as Hu Nim, Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan accepted posts within the Sangkum, and the Democrats were absorbed from 1957.
From the mid-1960s fault lines widened within the regime. When the right wing led by Lon Nol and Sisowath Sirik Matak won a landslide in the 1966 election, Sihanouk countered with a left-wing “shadow government”, and repression of the left intensified after the Samlaut peasant revolt in Battambang in 1967. On 18 March 1970 the right wing controlled by Lon Nol, In Tam and Sirik Matak deposed Sihanouk, and the Sangkum vanished from political life despite the appointment of a new secretary-general on 24 March. The Khmer source says it was formally dissolved on 18 February 1971. About a decade later former Sangkum members took part in founding FUNCINPEC.