Yem Sambaur was an influential political figure in Cambodia, mainly during the turbulent years between the end of World War II and final achievement of independence in 1953.

Although Sambaur maintained close relationships with the palace and traditional elites of Khmer society,[1] he was initially a member of the Cambodian Democratic Party, a heavily left-leaning coalition of groups which favored immediate independence, a Cambodian government modeled after the French Fourth Republic and sympathized with the armed resistance of the Khmer Issarak guerrilla movements.

In January 1949 Sambaur, as commissioner of the police, exposed a political scandal involving Cambodia's fisheries and Prime Minister Penn Nouth who was forced to step down.

King Norodom Sihanouk then persuaded Ieu Koeus, the president of the National Assembly to appoint Sambaur as the new prime minister.

His administration lasted nine days until the King, tired of ministerial instability, took advantage of ambiguous wording in the Democratic Party drafted constitution and stepped in.