Three high-ranking members of Funcinpec confirmed on Monday their defection to the Sam Rainsy Party, a shift of political alliance that party officials said will be followed by at least 10 more senior royalist party defections before the July elections.
The party switch follows months of speculation that as many as a dozen senior royalist party members could defect to the Sam Rainsy Party before the national ballot, and reopens old wounds suffered during earlier party infighting.
Funcinpec Ministry of Rural Development Undersecretary of State Mak Sophy, RCAF Brigadier General Vong Kim Han and Chea Chun, adviser to Funcinpec Senate Vice Chairman Nhiek Bun Chhay, blamed disillusionment with the royalist party leadership for their departure to the opposition.
“I am happy to leave Funcinpec. I was not pressured by anyone. I left by myself because of my unhappiness with Prince Ranariddh’s leadership,” Mak Sophy said in an interview Monday.
“I help this party because I see it has assisted poor people, workers and dares to criticize the government’s work,” he said.
Mak Sophy accused his former party president, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, of breaking pre-election promises to royalist supporters once the ballots from the 1998 election had been counted.
Vong Kim Han, a Funcinpec RCAF general based in Kep municipality, said he decided to defect on Sunday.
“I need a party that…does not betray its ideals. I see Sam Rainsy does not betray his followers,” he said.
Vong Kim Han said he has received several calls of support from colleagues and former royalist resistance members who said they too will join the opposition.
But news of his defection was quickly followed on Monday by a threatening telephone call, Vong Kim Han claimed.
The threat has been reported to human rights workers and Vong Kim Han said he plans to continue reporting to work.
“I do not resign my name in the Defense Ministry because I do not affect the government. This is just between party and party,” he said.
Chea Chun, an adviser to Funcinpec Senator Nhiek Bun Chhay, also said he was joining the opposition.
The officials said at least 10 more senior members will join the opposition party before April.
However, Prince Ranariddh and other senior royalist leaders said Monday they were not perturbed by the reported defections and countered with claims that several hundred Sam Rainsy Party supporters have joined the royalists.
“[The Sam Rainsy Party] has just picked up one general,” the prince said outside the Assembly. “The people who leave the party have their own karma and the right to do so,” he said.
Though presenting a united front in recent months, the royalist party was divided for most of last year by infighting and political soul-searching after it was trounced in the February 2002 commune elections by Hun Sen’s CPP.
Noranarith Anandayath, an adviser to the prince, said he could not confirm or deny the defections, but officials who jump from one political ship to another had no future in Cambodian politics, he said.
“The grass is always greener on the other side,” he said adding that defections do not necessarily mean more voters for the Sam Rainsy Party.
“We’re not worried about a couple of people. We have 1,000 [voters] who have defected from the SRP to us,” he added.
Funcinpec spokesman Kol Pheng said he has not received any resignation letters and scolded newspapers for not reporting the mass defections of opposition members to Funcinpec.
Sam Rainsy said on Monday the three defections were the “tip of the iceberg.”
“I’m not surprised [with the defections]. I have been in touch with many [Funcinpec] people for a long time…I expect many others to join,” Sam Rainsy said.
(Additional reporting by Lor Chandara and Kevin Doyle)
