Meng is the youngest of three sons of
Chinese Cambodian businessman Kith Peng Ike. He lived in
Kandal Province until 1975 when the advent of the
Khmer Rouge regime caused major social upheaval. His family were among those
targeted by the Khmer Rouge because of their wealth, ethnicity and socio-economic status. The entire family was sent to a labour camp where, upon arrival, Meng and his two brothers were separated from their parents who later died of starvation. During the confusion resulting from the
Vietnamese invasion of
Kampuchea, Meng escaped with his older brother Kith Thieng to
Phnom Penh, from which they then fled for the refugee camps in
Thailand in 1980. While living in Suan Plu,
Bangkok, Meng later related, “They put us in a pig farm...we slept with the pigs...we no longer existed; we had no state, nothing." Meng studied at
Melba High School and then received a degree in economics from
Australian National University. He worked several jobs in Canberra including selling
Kodak film and then in financial services before returning to Cambodia at the start of the
UNTAC administration. ==Career==