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Nouhak Phoumsavanh

Nouhak Phoumsavanh (04 February 1914 - 09 September 2008), along with Prince Souphanouvong and Kaysone Phomvihan, both of whom held the presidency before him, Nouhak was one the three principal leaders of the Lao revolution that succeeded in overthrowing the former Royal Lao regime in December 1975, after 30 years of civil war. He was one of the main founders and leaders of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the Lao People's Army. He was appointed president of Laos following the death of President Kaysone Phomvihane, and served as the President of Laos from November 25, 1992-September 24, 1998. He was a founding member of the Laos Communist Party. He was recognized as the number two political figure in the People's Revolutionary Party for over four decades beginning in the late 1950s.

Nouhak Phoumsavanh was born in an ordinary peasant family in Paluka Village, Mudahan / Mukdahan City, Savannakhet Province, Thailand]. He was born on 08 April 1910 [or 09 April 1914], the son of Thongphak. Nouhak Phoumsavanh graduated from Agnicultaral Economics with a doctorate degree in Khonkaen, Thailand. Nouhak moved to Savannakhet as a young man where he found work as a truck driver. In 1941 he established his own trucking business, operating between Laos and Vietnam, where he was later recruited by the Vietminh.

When he was young, he embraced patriotism and devoted himself to the "Ishara" patriotic democratic movement that opposed French colonial rule and strived for national independence. After 1945 Nouhak made contact with Souphanouvong, and represented the Lao Issara, the nationalist Free Lao movement, in Hanoi. With the outbreak of the First Indochina War, Nouhak directed guerrilla activities in close coordination with the Vietminh along the mountainous Lao-Vietnamese border.

Nouhak joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1950 led by Ho Chi Minh with a group of revolutionary youth such as Kaishan Fengweihan, prior to the Congress of the Free Laos Front that followed the division and dissolution of the Lao Issara. He was named minister for the economy and finance in the Pathet Lao (Lao country, or nation) Resistance Government elected by the Congress. He went deep into the vast rural and mountainous areas of Laos to mobilize the masses, establish and develop the party's organization and armed forces, and continue engaged in the struggle against the French.

Since the establishment of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party alone in the early 1950s, Noha had been one of the main leadership members of the central government. In 1954, he was appointed to the negotiating committee of the Lao Patriotic Front in Vientiane. With the founding of the clandestine Lao People's Party in 1955, he was elected a member of the party central committee, ranked second after Kaysone in the seven-member Politburo. He was also prominent in the Lao Patriotic Front that served as a screen for LPP direction and activities.Nouhak represented the PL at the 1954 Geneva Conference that brought the First Indochina War to an end.

After the formation of the First Lao Coalition Government in 1957, Nouhak was elected deputy from Sam Neua in the National Assembly. In 1959 he spent ten months in prison in Vientiane accused along with other PL representatives of treason, until escaping with them to carry on the revolutionary struggle.

In 1958, he was a member of the Royal House of Representatives for the first time in Laos. But the pro-U.S. rightists overthrew the coalition government formed after difficult negotiations, and in 1959, he was arrested by the Royal Government along with his majesty king Suphanuvong and a number of Lao patriotic front leaders. Together with Prince Sufanu Fong and others, he was thrown into prison by the rightists in Vientiane. In 1959, he escaped miraculously with the help of patriotic people and guards. After success, he arrived at Xieng Khouang and established a headquarters here to continue to lead the Lao people's struggle against the United States and for national salvation.

For the next 15 years, Nouhak, like Kaysone, remained a shadowy figure, providing political direction for the Pathet Lao. From 1960 to 1962, he was a member of the negotiating committee for the formation of the second coalition government and the secretary of the Central Party Committee in Khang Khai (Xieng Khouang Province), leading the parties to join the coalition government. In 1966, he was a member of the Party Central Committee in charge of organizational and financial affairs.

At the Second Congress of the LPP in 1972, when the Party changed its name to the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, Nouhak retained his second ranking in the Politburo. In February 1972, he was elected as a member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of the Secretariat of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.

In 1975, Laos abolished the monarchy. He only emerged as a public figure after 1975, when he took charge of the director of economic affairs in the first government of the Lao. On December 2, 1975, the National People's Congress elected Comrade Nouhak as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic [LPDR]. For the next ten years Nouhak enforced the socialist economic policies that first nationalised finance and industry, and then attempted to cooperativise Lao agriculture. In April 1982 and November 1986, Nouhak was appointed First Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Chairman of the Economic Council.

As economic conditions deteriorated, the more stringent controls over movement of goods and prices were lifted, and cooperativisation was abandoned. But it was not enough. Under Soviet urging, the LPRP agreed to free up markets, allow foreign investment, and accept more aid from the West. Kaysone championed these reforms, which Nouhak opposed.

Nouhak's standing as number two in the Party was too great for him to be sidelined. However he did surrender his ministerial position as deputy prime minister with oversight of all economic ministries, and in 1989 he was elected to the National Assembly. He was elected Speaker of the Second Supreme People’s Assembly and Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committeeon 25 November 1992. Nouhak shepherded through the LPDR's first constitution.

When Kaysone died on 21 November 1992, Nouhak was the obvious choice to succeed him as the chairman of the country. He did not, however, become Party leader. That position went to General Khamtay Siphandon. Nouhak remained president of the LPDR until 24 February 1998, when he retired from both the presidency and the Party and Kande Sipanton became the chairman of the country.

Even in old age, however, he retained his influence, and was regularly consulted by the next generation of leaders. He remained in remarkably good health almost to the end of his days, and enjoyed reminiscing about his achievements. He was a real old soldier. He seemed to get more lively towards the end, always appearing with a strong-worded quote in the news media. Yong was quoted in one article as saying they had only persuaded him to stop visiting the provinces in his reserve helicopter in 2007.

He married his first wife Chanthome Thakheak in 1933 and they had four children, Phouthone, Phonesavanh, Khankeo and a son. He later remarried in 1944 to Bounema Savannakhet who was of vietnamese descent. She was also the founder of the foundation for the poor in Lao PDR. Nouhak Phousavanh was on time to go to work. He was a hand worker and he liked to read the newspaper every day before going to work.

He died of unspecified causes 09 September 2008, aged 94 [the New York Times reported he was 98] It is not clear how the difference between Stuart-Fox’s ‘94’ and the paper’s 98/99 can be explained - in Lao society relative age is clearly more important than absolute biological age. Many people in Laos do not actually know their true age due to lack of institutionalisation at birth and mostly in rural remote areas. Nouhak is remembered as a tough and dedicated communist who was a leading figure among the small band of Lao revolutionaries who changed the direction of Lao history; even if the subsequent Lao social and economic reality was not what they envisaged.