Funcinpec’s political disintegration continued on Thursday with the government’s surprise removal of the royalist party’s first deputy governor of Phnom Penh and the reported removal of the governors of Siem Reap, Kandal and Banteay Meanchey provinces.
Political infighting also escalated, with warnings by royalist lawmaker Princess Norodom Vacheara that republicans had hijacked Funcinpec and that the party should now change its name.
Prime Minister Hun Sen removed Phnom Penh Vice Governor Mam Bun Neang shortly after returning to Cambodia from a three-day visit to South Korea. No reason was stated for the removal, which saw Mam Bun Neang transferred to the Interior Ministry.
Commenting on his removal, Mam Bun Neang thanked Hun Sen. “This is not in connection to any wrongdoing. Instead, I would like to thank Samdech Prime Minister [Hun Sen] for allowing me to work at City Hall for 25 months,” he said.
“The removal is not just myself, but also the governors of Kandal, Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey,” he added.
Banteay Meanchey Governor Heng Chantha and Lao Sunpa, governor of Kandal province, said they had heard rumors of their removal but had not received official notification. “Maybe it is a decision from [Hun Sen] alone. It depends on him,” Lao Sunpa said. “None of us committed mistakes and our ability is enough for the job.”
Siem Reap’s Governor Sim Son said he knew nothing of the reported removals. Information Minister and CPP spokesman Khieu Kanharith was too busy to speak with a reporter.
Funcinpec Secretary-General Nhiek Bun Chhay could not be contacted for comment. Former secretary-general Prince Norodom Sirivudh, who lost his three posts—interior co-minister, party secretary-general and deputy prime minister—in as many weeks this month, was unwilling to speak to reporters, an aide said on Thursday.
Compounding Funcinpec’s woes and its weakening position in government, bickering continued inside the party as the chasm between royalist and non-royalist members deepened amid warnings that 11 prominent Funcinpec members were in fact republicans. The republican faction has actively worked to undermine royal family members, and the party should change its name, Princess Vacheara said.
“I have observed that there is a group of people who is leading the party away from the royalists,” Princess Vacheara said. “They should give the Funcinpec party name to retired King Norodom Sihanouk, who named it, and they should make up a new name,” she said.
Funcinpec, a French acronym meaning the National United Front for an Independent Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia, was formed in Paris in 1981 by then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who remained president of the movement until 1989.
The republicans, whom the princess did not name, had enriched themselves through their positions and launched attacks to undermine their royalist colleagues, she said. Funcinpec senior minister Serei Kosal said only those who had fought for Funcinpec could understand the meaning of its name. “People who sacrificed their lives understand deeply the meaning of the party,” he said, adding that any name change would be up to party President Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
Serei Kosal also denied there was party infighting between royals and non-royals.
Prince Sirivudh lost his job and the party’s support because he was not a capable leader and had led the party from 43 seats to just 26 seats in the National Assembly, he said.
But Funcinpec’s long decline in popularity, and now the apparent breakdown of the latest coalition government with the CPP, should be no surprise, Ambassador Julio Jeldres, Norodom Sihanouk’s official biographer, said in an e-mail.
“Should we be surprised at the end of this third marriage of convenience between Funcinpec and the CPP since 1993?” Jeldres wrote. “No, because the power remained firmly in the hand of the CPP and Funcinpec never did anything, as a junior coalition partner, to change the situation or to show that it was an efficient, reliable partner discharging governmental duties.”
“Since 1998, elections in Cambodia have become nothing more than a sideshow, helping to bolster what some observers have rightly named the ‘electoral-authoritarian regime’ that Hun Sen has built.”
Jeldres said he was not sure if Norodom Sihanouk, who is currently in North Korea, is aware of the events engulfing Funcinpec.
But his refusal last week to intervene to enable the return of Prince Ranariddh to the presidency of the Assembly shows, possibly, “that His Majesty has had enough of the politics of Phnom Penh, at least for the time being,” Jeldres added.
(Additional reporting by Lor Chandara)
