A N internal squabble within the low-profile Molinaka party threatens to see its

one and only MP in the National Assembly expelled.

Party leaders say MP

Ros Roeun was dismissed from Molinaka on June 8 by unanimous vote of 11 Board of

Directors. They want him expelled from the assembly next.

But Roeun, the

party's Kompong Cham MP, refuses to recognize the Board of Directors'

decision.

Molinaka, originally started from the ranks of the Funcinpec

army, effectively dissolved after winning only one seat in the 1993

elections.

Roeun said he reformed the party five months ago, collecting

together former members. A group of them formed a Board of Directors and moved

to oust him as MP, he said.

Chheung Kim Eng, who said he was a Molinaka

vice-president, told the Post that Roeun had unforgivably broken the party's

rules.

He said Roeun's sins included obtaining an exemption to the

logging export ban so he could trade in timber.

Eng maintained that Roeun

had told the government the logging profits would go toward the Molinaka party

"but he used that money to buy a house and car and to support his two second

wives".

The situation had angered the co-Prime Ministers, he said, and

"that is why they incited us to sack him".

Eng also claimed that Roeun

had basically joined the Funcinpec party.

Roeun dismissed the claims. He

admitted attending the meetings of other parties such as Funcinpec but only to

observe and learn.

He also rejected the allegations about his logging

business, saying the Board of Directors had no proof. "He's a child," Roeun said

of Eng.

Roeun said party president Prom Neakreach had twice asked

National Assembly chairman Chea Sim to expel him from the assembly.

But

he said nobody cared about the matter, and other MPs would not vote to expel

him.

Eng said he was confident Roeun could be removed, because "we think

we can do what we want because the government or Parliament dare not have a hand

in our internal affairs".

Roeun said Molinaka did not even have an office

after the election, and the people who were now trying to expel him used to come

to him asking for money or jobs.

"But, you see, Molinaka hasn't got any

real structure or a real party, so how can the Royal Government offer them

jobs?

"I have no possibility of offering them jobs so they get angry with

me and try by all means to find my faults," he said.