Khieu Kanharith is the Cambodian

Politics of Cambodia

The Politics of Cambodia takes place in a framework of a constitutional monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government and a Monarch is head of state. The kingdom formally takes place according to the nation's constitution in a framework of a parliamentary, representative...

 Minister of Information

Minister of Information

The Ministry of Information , headed by the Minister of Information, was a United Kingdom government department created briefly at the end of World War I and again during World War II...

. Khieu, formerly a newspaper editor, was first elected to the National Assembly of Cambodia

National Assembly of Cambodia

The National Assembly of Cambodia or Radhsphea is the lower house of the Parliament of Cambodia.It has 123 members, elected for five year terms by proportional representation, using provinces as constituencies of 1 to 18 members, and the D'Hondt method of seat distribution.-Elections:Summary of the...

 in 1981. He was jailed in 1990 for suspicion of dissident activities; in 1991, Hun Sen

Hun Sen

Hun Sen is the current Prime Minister of Cambodia.He has been the sole leader of the Cambodian People's Party , which has governed Cambodia since the Vietnamese-backed overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979...

 asked him to serve as an advisor, and in 1992, he was promoted to Minister.

Khieu was born in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...

. He is also an author and translator, and has produced an unauthorized Khmer language

Khmer language

Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...

 version of the James Clavell

James Clavell

James Clavell, born Charles Edmund DuMaresq Clavell was an Australian-born, British novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war...

 novel Shōgun

Shogun (novel)

Shōgun is a 1975 novel by James Clavell. It is the first novel of the author's Asian Saga. A major bestseller, by 1990 the book had sold 15 million copies worldwide...

, which he has had printed with his own money.