Funcinpec lawmaker Princess Norodom Vacheara on Friday condemned Prime Minister Hun Sen’s announced plan to sign a border agreement with Vietnam, saying any decision on such a crucial matter should have been submitted to the National Assembly.
“Before signing, I hope the prime minister will allow the National Assembly to debate [the matter] first,” said the princess, who heads the Assembly’s Commission on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Information and Media.
“We represent more than 12 million people. We want to know what to tell our constituents,” she said in an interview broadcast Saturday on Beehive Radio.
Hun Sen said Dec 24 the government will sign a land border agreement with Vietnam in March. He said six issues already had been negotiated and only one remained. But he has not said what the seven issues are, complained Princess Vacheara, an outspoken critic on border issues.
She said she is concerned the agreement involves exchanging territory in Kandal province with Vietnam. Land could also be exchanged in Mondolkiri and Ratanakkiri provinces, she said.
“I am very concerned, if land is going to be exchanged, about whether the government has asked the people what they are thinking,” she said. “Cambodians will become Vietnamese and Vietnamese will become Cambodian.”
She said the government should share its decisions to assuage these fears. “I don’t want to scare the people—I believe that when the Cambodian government signs something, they have the nation’s interests in mind,” she said. “We just want to know what it says.”
National sovereignty is too important to be discussed behind closed doors, she said. “Vital issues such as those relating to territory can’t be decided unilaterally,” she said. “The government should consult the National Assembly and the King.”
