Rumors of alleged love affairs will not damage the royalist party or the reputation of National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a Funcinpec lawmaker said Tuesday.
One day after popular Cambodian starlet Duch Sophea, 20, moved to quash speculation that she was romantically involved with the prince, Funcinpec lawmaker Monh Sophan said such rumors were the private concern of individuals.
“This is a private matter of an individual. It doesn’t affect working efficiency,” Monh Sophan said in a telephone interview.
Prince Ranariddh is Funcinpec’s president and those who support the party still back him, Monh Sophan added.
Prince Ranariddh left the first National Assembly session of 2006 on Tuesday morning without speaking to reporters.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Hun Sen continued his verbal campaign against adulterous government officials, whom he did not name but accused of lavishing money on their mistresses and allowing them to dictate government appointments.
Duch Sophea said Monday that rumors of her romantic entanglement were false and that they had put her reputation and life at risk.
Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang, who resigned from his position as opposition secretary-general in December because of a gambling problem, said that the public thinks poorly of gallivanting government officials.
“It would affect [their] political influence. The public focuses on the public figure,” Eng Chhay Eang said.
In the past, royal family members have often taken many wives, but it is probably time that this tradition changed, said Hang Puthea, director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia.
“A husband should only have one wife,” Hang Puthea said, adding that an official with mistresses is more likely to lapse into corrupt behavior to support them, and would be less able to fulfill his professional duties. “When a person has many wives, he needs a lot of material and budget to support the wives.”
