The Man Who Called His Own Government a "Communist Monarchy" — Then Died in Prison While His Country's First Constitution Was Being Written
Laos — Constitution Profile
| 📅 Constitution Adopted | August 14, 1991 — sixteen years after the republic was founded |
| 🏛️ Government | One-Party Communist State |
| 🌍 Capital | Vientiane |
| 📄 Years Without Any Constitution | 16 years — no written constitution or published penal codes |
| ⚖️ Unamendable Core | Article 3 — Party's "leading nucleus" role has never been touched |
| ✏️ Amendments | 2003, 2015, and March 10, 2025 |
In August 1990, a Laotian government official sat down and wrote a letter that would end his freedom and eventually his life. He wasn't accusing anyone of a crime. He wasn't calling for revolution. He was simply resigning from his job — and explaining, with meticulous formality, exactly why his own government had become everything it had promised never to be. The following year, the country adopted its very first constitution. He was in prison when it happened, serving fourteen years for the act of writing that letter.
A Country Ran Itself for Sixteen Years Without Any Written Law at All
When the Pathet Lao seized power on December 2, 1975, King Savang Vatthana was forced to abdicate, ending the Lao monarchy — a royal tradition stretching back to the founding of the Lan Xang kingdom in 1353. A new republic was proclaimed, a new government installed — and then, for the next sixteen years, the country functioned without any constitution whatsoever. During that entire period, Laos operated without a written constitution or published penal and criminal codes.
This wasn't an oversight. It was, in a quiet way, a deliberate feature of how the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party preferred to govern. Between 1975 and 1984, none of the constitutional drafting committee's work was made public. The lack of an institutionalised structure led the party to bypass state structures in decision-making; the LPRP Secretariat reshuffled the First Government in January 1982 in violation of existing law. No explanation has ever been given for why it took so long to write a constitution. Vietnam had approved one four years after reunification. Cambodia took two. Laos took sixteen.
East German Advisers Helped Write the Draft — While Communism Was Collapsing in East Germany
When the drafting process finally got underway in earnest, the choice of consultants said something quietly ironic about the political moment. A constitutional drafting committee worked informally under the chairmanship of Politburo member Sisomphone Lovansai, a specialist in party organization, with the help of East German advisers. On May 22, 1984, the committee was formally appointed with fifteen members.
By the time the draft was made public in April 1990, the political world those East German advisers had come from had essentially ceased to exist. The Berlin Wall had fallen. Communist governments were collapsing across Eastern Europe. Laotian officials watched all of this closely — and drew the opposite conclusion from what reformers had hoped. Rather than opening up, the ruling party used the moment to harden its position and accelerate the constitution's finalisation on its own terms.
The "Public Discussion" of the Draft Came With Warnings of Arrest
In April 1990, the party formally invited public comment on the draft constitution — a gesture that quickly revealed how much dissent the exercise was actually designed to produce. The party Central Committee issued Directive Number 21, calling for discussion of the draft first among party officials and then among the public. An LPRP spokesman then released a memo complaining that "people in many major towns" had dwelled too much on what the constitution had to say about the organization of the state. In June, a member of the Central Committee cautioned against demonstrations to "demand a multiparty system" and warned that demonstrators would be arrested.
Even the party's own newspaper admitted, in print, what the absence of any constitution had meant in practice all those years. The party newspaper Xieng Pasason, commenting in June 1990, acknowledged that "having no laws is... a source of injustice and violation, thus leading to a breakdown of social order and peace, the breeding of anarchy, and the lack of democracy." A government acknowledging its own lawlessness in its own newspaper — while simultaneously warning citizens not to demand anything different.
One Official Called It a "Communist Monarchy." He Was Dead Before the Constitution Was Enforced.
While the party orchestrated its careful public consultation, a small group of government insiders took the invitation at face value. Inspired by the collapse of communist parties across Eastern Europe, a group of around forty government officials and intellectuals began criticizing the country's one-party system in a series of letters and meetings in April 1990. Organized in the unofficial "Social Democratic Club," the group called for a multiparty system in Laos.
The most consequential act came from Thongsouk Saysangkhi, a vice minister who wrote a formal resignation letter on August 26, 1990 — addressed directly to Prime Minister Kaysone — in which he accused the leadership of establishing a "communist monarchy" and a "dynasty of the Politburo." He was arrested on October 8, 1990, along with two colleagues, Latsami Khamphoui and Feng Sakchittaphong. All three were held without charge or trial for over two years before being sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment on November 4, 1992. Thongsouk never completed that sentence. According to Amnesty International, he died in prison in February 1998, after being denied medical treatment for diabetes. The constitution he had been arrested for criticizing was by then seven years old.
The Constitution Guaranteed Rights — and Said Nothing About Torture or Arbitrary Arrest
When the 1991 constitution finally appeared, it included what looked like a standard set of civil liberties. A chapter on the rights and obligations of citizens set forth rights found in modern constitutions, including freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly. Women and men were proclaimed equal, and all citizens could vote at age eighteen. On paper, it was a recognizable document.
Amnesty International read the fine print and found the gaps more significant than the guarantees. The organization noted the absence of provisions for protecting the right to life, abolishing the death penalty, guaranteeing the inalienability of fundamental rights, prohibiting torture, safeguarding against arbitrary arrest and detention, and providing for a fair trial. Three men were sitting in a re-education camp when that assessment was published, serving fourteen-year sentences for writing resignation letters. The omissions were not accidental.
One Article Has Been Amended Three Times. One Has Never Been Changed at All.
Since 1991, Laos has amended its constitution in 2003, 2015, and most recently March 10, 2025 — a regular cycle the country's leadership treats almost as scheduled maintenance. But across every one of those revision rounds, one provision has remained entirely untouched. Article 3 has never been amended through any of these processes. It crystallizes the status of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party as the country's "leading nucleus." As one legal analyst put it, it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that everything begins and ends with the Party in Lao PDR.
The most recent 2025 amendment process followed the same pattern as every one before it. In May 2024, the 13-member Politburo authorized the formation of the drafting committee and set out the framework for the process. The committee was led by National Assembly President Xaysomphone Phomvihane — the son of Kaysone Phomvihane, the first leader of the party and the very man Thongsouk addressed his resignation letter to in 1990. The son is now overseeing the latest revision of the document his father helped create.
The Parliament Votes on Laws — After the Party Has Already Decided What They Will Say
In formal constitutional terms, Laos has a National Assembly, an elected president, a prime minister, and a functioning legislature. The gap between that structure and the actual exercise of power is not hidden — it is written into the document itself. The 1991 Constitution explicitly grants the LPRP the "leading nucleus" role in the entire political system and society, ensuring the Party's supremacy over the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. National policy is determined by the Party's highest organs: the Politburo and the Central Committee.
In practice, that means candidates must clear the party before voters ever see them. In the most recent general election in 2021, LPRP-endorsed candidates won 158 of the 164 available seats; independents took the remaining six. The assembly's candidate slate and legislative agenda are shaped by the LPRP well before any vote takes place. As of 2026, the president and the party's General Secretary are the same person — concentrating the country's two most powerful positions in a single individual, exactly as the constitution permits.
Constitution at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Lan Xang Kingdom Founded | 1353 (origin of Lao royal tradition) |
| Lao PDR Founded | December 2, 1975 (King Savang Vatthana abdicated) |
| Years Without Constitution | 16 years (1975–1991) |
| Drafting Committee Formally Appointed | May 22, 1984 |
| Draft Made Public | April 1990 |
| Thongsouk Saysangkhi Arrested | October 8, 1990 (for calling for multiparty democracy) |
| Constitution Adopted | August 14, 1991 (80 Articles) |
| Thongsouk Sentenced | November 4, 1992 — 14 years imprisonment |
| Thongsouk Died in Prison | February 1998 (denied medical care) |
| Amendments | 2003, 2015, March 10, 2025 |
| Article 3 (Party's "Leading Nucleus") | Never amended across any revision |
📥 Read the Constitution of Laos
Read the complete, official text of the Constitution of the Lao People's Democratic Republic:
👉 Read the Constitution of Laos — Full Text (Constitute Project)
A country that governed itself for sixteen years without a single written law. A constitution drafted with the help of East German advisers while East Germany was collapsing. A man who died in prison for writing a resignation letter — while the document he criticized was being ratified. What part of Laos's story surprised you most? Tell us in the comments below.
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