It is worth summarizing these events briefly. In May the director of the Academy of Social Sciences, Khampheuy Panmalaythong was dismissed for his 2011 comments to the National Assembly (NA), in which he questioned the relevance of Marxism-Leninism in Laos’ education system. The major surprise was not his dismissal – his remarks struck at the heart of official doctrine – but that he made the comments at all. While there is often criticism of what might be called development issues (over displacements and evictions for resource projects, official corruption, etc.), public criticism of the party, the political system, or the leadership is almost unheard of. Since his comments, Dr. Khamphuey has published an academic article in the institute’s journal questioning the relevance and effectiveness of one-party systems, implicitly a far more serious critique of the political status quo, although he did not advocate multi-party democracy for Laos. Time will tell if and how this subsequent analysis will be dealt with