More F'pec internal dispute: Serei Kosal opposed to Nhiek Bun Chhay's nomination as party secretary-general

F'pec Serei Kosal (Photo RFA)

21 March 2006

The installation of Nhiek Bun Chhay may be forced under pressure

By Rithy
Kampuchea Thmey Newspaper
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media

The recent installation of Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay as Funcinpec secretary-general met with opposition as happened during the installation of Prince Norodom Chakrapong also. One Funcinpec official suspects that [this latest installation] was done under some kind of pressure.

On 18 March, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, president of Funcinpec signed a letter naming Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay as the secretary-general without the need for a vote from the leadership committee of the Funcinpec party. This nomination is similar to the one performed on Prince Norodom Chakrapong on the morning of 03 March 2006, right after Prince Ranariddh resigned from his position as president of the National Assembly. At the time, Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay was one of the most vocal opposition to the nomination of Prince Chakrapong, and he wanted to see an election being conducted by the leadership committee.

The strong opposition [to the nomination of Prince Chakrapong] led Prince Chakrapong to resign from his secretary-general position.

Soon after forcing Prince Chakrapong out of his new position, a nomination letter was issued on 18 March 2006 by Prince Ranariddh making Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay the secretary-general of Funcinpec. Similar to the opposition which Prince Chakrapong encountered during his nomination, Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay also encounters opposition to his nomination. This opposition group accused Nhiek Bun Chhay of pushing them aside so that he can take the position of secretary-general for himself.

Mr. Serei Kosal, the former fighter in the Funcinpec rank, is now opposing and refuses to provide his support to Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay in his new position. Serei Kosal said that this nomination is laughable, and he is very disappointed. Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay was opposed to the nomination process of the party secretary-general, and he requested that this position be selected by vote from a majority support from the party, but now, it turns out that the nomination process is still in use just like before, and Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay remains silent on this issue. Therefore, this is nothing more than Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay pushing others out so he can get that position. However, if Nhiek Bun Chhay is a democrat and respects the party rule, he would have refused this type of nomination. Therefore, if Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay does not want to obtain his own advantage at the expense of others, he should think it over again, the current situation does not look good.

Mr. Serei Kosal said that in the past, he saw Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay talking on CTN TV station, talking to newspapers, to firmly oppose against the nomination of the party secretary-general without approval vote. However, if he said one thing then acts another way, there is no telling what he is thinking about. Mr. Serei Kosal said that the nomination of secretary-general without approval vote has no value, as for the objective, it is irregular. Serei Kosal believes that Prince Ranariddh was under some kind of pressure to nominate Nhiek Bun Chhay recently. He added also that if we step back a little, when Prince Ranariddh left for France on 14 March 2006, he transferred the responsibility of the party to Prince Sirivudh, making him the interim president with full responsibility inside the country. But it was learned that the nomination of Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay as secretary-general was done by Prince Ranariddh instead, and the nomination letter was handwritten by Prince Ranariddh and marked as “Phnom Penh, 18 March 2006”, in reality, the prince was already in Paris, France on that date, why did the letter mention Phnom Penh instead?

Serei Kosal also said that the nomination of Nhiek Bun Chhay happened on 18 March 2006, coinciding with the anniversary of the Lon Nol coup d’état removing Prince Sihanouk from power on 18 March 1970. Therefore, the date of the nomination should be thought over again, it is not an event to rejoice about.

Kampuchea Thmey tried to contact Mr. Nhiek Bun Chhay on this issue, but nobody picked up his phone.