Caught between loyalty to retired King Norodom Sihanouk and support for the head of their coalition government, Funcinpec officials declined Tuesday to take sides after Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly criticized Norodom Sihanouk’s prior leadership on Monday.
Asked about their views on Hun Sen’s rebuke of the former King’s Sangkum Reastr Niyum regime—a period commonly regarded by the royalist party as Cambodia’s golden age—several Funcinpec officials on Tuesday refused to comment.
“This is beyond my [ability to] comment,” Funcinpec spokesman Chea Chanboribo said. “Please go ask veteran Funcinpec members.”
Funcinpec Senior Minister Veng Sereyvuth, the former minister of tourism, also dismissed questions about Hun Sen’s criticisms.
“I have no comment,” Veng Sereyvuth said. “You can ask me about tourism issues, and about other relevant issues, but not about politics.”
In his speech on Monday, at a pagoda inauguration ceremony in Kompong Cham province, Hun Sen said Cambodia is now better off than it was in the 1960s when then-Prince Sihanouk was in power.
During that era, he said, “there was peace without stability” and noted that several political activists, accused of being traitors to Norodom Sihanouk, were summarily executed at the time.
Such executions by Sangkum Reastr Niyum soldiers paved the way for Norodom Sihanouk’s overthrow and subsequent years of civil war, Hun Sen said. He also took aim at the retired King’s pen pal and alter ego, Ruom Ritt, threatening to broadcast footage of the Sangkum Reastr Niyum executions on state television if Ruom Ritt writes any more letters critical of the prime minister.
Only weeks before, Hun Sen suggested that Ruom Ritt, whom many speculate is a pseudonym for Norodom Sihanouk himself, would be better off dead.
Hun Sen also announced that Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the retired King’s son, was also fed up with Ruom Ritt’s letters, which until recently Norodom Sihanouk posted regularly on his Web site.
Prince Ranariddh had called the retired King’s pen pal, “Ah Ruom Ritt,” using the derogatory prefix “Ah,” Hun Sen said in a speech on March 28.
In response to Hun Sen’s speeches, Norodom Sihanouk on Tuesday issued a fax, saying he would no longer publish any controversial statements.
“It is my privilege to announce that from now on the texts of political importance that ‘are shocking’ will no longer be published in my Internet site nor in my [monthly bulletin],” Norodom Sihanouk wrote.
While they declined to speak directly about Hun Sen’s statements Tuesday, several Funcinpec officials defended the Sangkum Reastr Niyum and Ruom Ritt.
Funcinpec lawmaker Khek Vandy, who was a politician during Sangkum Reastr Niyum, said Norodom Sihanouk’s leadership was widely supported by the people.
“If the Sangkum Reastr Niyum was not that popular, we would not have gotten people behind us,” he said.
Fellow royalist lawmaker Monh Saphann, chairman of the National Assembly’s Interior and Defense Commission, stood up for Ruom Ritt.
“I support Ruom Ritt’s recent comments and beliefs regarding the border disputes. I have seen that many of Ruom Ritt’s comments are constructive,” he said.
“But,” Monh Saphann added, “I don’t make any more comments than this.”
Funcinpec lawmaker Khieu San echoed his comments. “Ruom Ritt made constructive comments about the country,” he said, adding that he had never heard Prince Ranariddh refer to the retired King’s pen pal as “Ah Ruom Ritt.”
But he, too, declined to speak further on the issue.
Political observer Lao Mong Hay, of the Center for Social Development, said Tuesday that Hun Sen should not have been so vocal in his criticisms.
“It is not good what Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday,” Lao Mong Hay said. “It shows that both the prime minister and the [retired] King lack maturity in resolving problems between them.”
He added that instead of publishing Ruom Ritt’s criticism against Hun Sen, Norodom Sihanouk should meet directly with the prime minister to share with him his experiences of running the country.
“That would be more constructive than raising comments critical of each other,” Lao Mong Hay said. “In this highly divided society, the culture of dialogue between these top leaders has to be established.”
