Prime Minister Hun Sen and Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh announced a press blackout on Friday as negotiations were scheduled to start between the two parties on the formation of a new government.
Hun Sen told reporters after a Council of Minister meeting on Friday that negotiations with Funcinpec were similar to a game of cards. In order to protect his hand, no information will be given to the media on the substance of the upcoming talks.
“To your fist question, [my answer] is no,” Hun Sen said. “The second will also be no, and so will the third. Until the 100th question, the [answer] is also no.” During the negotiations “I don’t want incorrect predictions and consideration on these issues,” he said. “One cannot show one’s cards for others to see until [the game] is over.”
After a Friday meeting with more than a dozen senior Funcinpec officials and three opposition party members including party leader Sam Rainsy, Prince Ranariddh warned royalist officials they would be fired if they spoke to the press.
“[Prince Ranariddh] warned he would fire anybody from Funcinpec if they defy his orders and have the newly fixed political approach spoiled by their comments,” claimed an official who attended the meeting, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
In a statement issued later Friday, Funcinpec said Prince Ranariddh, party Secretary-General Prince Norodom Sirivudh and spokesman Kassie Neou were the only royalist officials allowed to speak with the press.
Contacted on Friday, Kassie Neou declined to comment. Opposition party officials could also not be contacted on Friday.
CPP spokesman Khieu Kanharith said his party was scheduled to begin talks with Funcinpec on Wednesday but that meeting had now been postponed until March 28 at the request of the royalists.
“I don’t know why they made this request but maybe they have an internal problem,” Khieu Kanharith said.
Indicating a possible end to eight-months of political stalemate, Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh agreed on Monday night to form a coalition government, and the CPP would not block the royalist party from sharing some of their positions with the Sam Rainsy Party.
Though Sam Rainsy said he might be willing to accept the “two-and-a-half-party” deal, some of the opposition’s strongest supporters have cautioned against joining a Hun Sen-led government.
In a letter posted on his Web site on Friday, King Sihanouk published extracts from correspondence sent to him by Sam Rainsy in which the opposition leader appears critical, though resigned, to accepting government posts.
“A government position in the current circumstances, whose appealing side for some resides in the false honors and abundance of dirty money, such a position acquired through the ‘main’ or ‘side’ door, could not diminish my shame in view of the sheer poverty of the Cambodian people, nor make me forget my responsibility to history in what shall be the disappearance of Cambodia,” the King quoted from the opposition leader’s letter.
The King added that members of his “entourage” in Beijing who saw Sam Rainsy’s comments were wondering if the opposition leader would allow members of his party to join a “Hunsenien” government.
“If SE Sam Rainsy lets certain SRP parliamentarians join the new RGC, this will mean that a portion of the famous SRP would enjoy the ‘false honors,’ ‘the abundance of dirty money,’ ‘the shame,’” the King wrote.
The King also said that Hun Sen notified him in Beijing on Thursday that he had not earmarked Prince Ranariddh to be the next King.
“Samdech Hun Sen never designated nor has chosen [Samdech Krom Preah] Ranariddh to be the new King,” the King wrote.
Lamenting the current system for choosing a royal successor, which needs a unanimous Throne Council vote, King Sihanouk said a dispute over the next choice of King could stonewall the issue and “Cambodia will become again ‘in fact’ if not ‘in law’ a republic.”
