Prime Minister Hun Sen vowed to quit speaking about politics on Thursday, as Funcinpec rebuked CPP Honorary President Heng Samrin for accusing Funcinpec’s president of prolonging the 10-month-long political deadlock.
At a power plant inauguration ceremony in Siem Reap province, Hun Sen announced he will not utter another word about Cambodia’s political situation.
“I think we should stop talking about politics anymore,” he said, as broadcast on Apsara Radio.
“I don’t know [when a new government will be formed], and we are too lazy to talk about it,” Hun Sen said. “We will just do what we have done: Just keep the peace. That’s it. When [the government] comes, it comes. We cannot predict it.”
His announcement came as Funcinpec issued a statement attacking Heng Samrin, a day after Heng Samrin blamed royalist President Prince Norodom Ranariddh for stalling the formation of a new government.
Heng Samrin “completely violated” an agreement between the two parties to cease publicly criticizing each other while they negotiate the terms of a new coalition government, the statement said.
“[T]he comments of Samdech Heng Samrin…are not true, not appropriate and not just to” Prince Ranariddh, it said.
The statement said Heng Samrin “has not been clearly aware of the affairs of the negotiations” between Funcinpec and the CPP.
On Wednesday, Heng Samrin said Prince Ranariddh’s frequent visits abroad have delayed progress in the parties’ negotiations.
Heng Samrin maintained his stance Thursday, but retracted his strongest criticism of the royalist leader.
“I said that the prince has been away from the country, so we cannot contact him properly when his party wants to discuss” unresolved issues, Heng Samrin said. But, he added, “I did not mean the prince was playing a trick to stall the process.”
Prince Ranariddh is in the US on private business and will return Saturday, Funcinpec officials said. Throughout the deadlock, he has been absent for weeks at a time, reportedly traveling in Europe and Southeast Asia.
