Dangerous hide-and-seek game by Cambodia's royal palace

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Left to rigth: Thomico, Former monarch Sihanouk and Yim Sovann

SRP refuses to pursue exchanges with the royal palace

07 June 2010
By Meas Mony
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

KI-Media notes:

• Thomico: “…the former monarch [Norodom Sihanouk] does not have the right to get involved in state affairs”
• Yet, Thomico forgets that: “the former monarch is OFFICIALLY invited to visit Srok Yuon as a stateman of Cambodia.”
• Well, Thomico, which of the two issues above is correct? Is former king Sihanouk involved in state affairs or not? If he is not, then he shouldn’t visit Srok Yuon, lest he wants to violate Cambodia’s Constitution.

The request made by a group of SRP MPs asking former monarch Norodom Sihanouk to help intervene with the Yuon government on border issue when the latter will perform his 4-day official visit on Yuon land at the end of June, under invitation from Yuon president Nguyen Minh Triet, has turned into a heated verbal exchange. However, recently, the SRP refused to pursue this verbal exchange with the royal palace.

On Monday, Yim Sovann, SRP MP and spokesman, told FPM: “I don’t want to pursue exchanges with the royal palace as it can viewed as if I am opposed to the king. However, all Cambodian citizens have the right and the duty to defend our territorial integrity.”

Yim Sovann made this statement after Sisowath Thomico, the personal secretary of king Norodom Sihanouk, claimed that the request letter by SRP MPs for the king’s intervention: “seems to be like a trap for the throne.”

According to Thomico, the SRP’s letters looks like a challenge for the former monarch who does not have the right to get involved in state affairs. Thomico accused: “Why the SRP does not declare itself as republican directly?”

It should be noted that, currently, the problems of encroachment on Khmer territories – both along the western border with Siam and along the eastern border with Yuon – are reaching a boiling point. In particular, along the eastern border, up to now, two villagers who dare talked about Yuon planting encroaching border posts have already been sent to jail by the Phnom Penh regime. In Takeo province, villagers who appealed for intervention to the loss of their rice fields from border post encroachment are now living in fear for their own safety.

The planting of border posts along the eastern border is conducted in great mystery and without transparency, no Members of Parliament or Cambodian citizens, the rightful owners of the country, can overlook this operation. These irregularities create doubts among civil society, as well as the opposition party, as it can be perceived as if the government is undertaking bad deeds to deliver Khmer lands to the Yuons.