Keo Puth Rasmey (Photo: Simone Ahrend. SAH•Photo)Cambodian royalists oust ex-PM Ranariddh as leader
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia’s royalist FUNCINPEC party ousted Prince Norodom Ranariddh as its leader on Wednesday at an extraordinary meeting denounced by the former co-Prime Minister.
Ranariddh, who had devoted less and less attention to politics since a 1997 putsch by his co-Prime Minister and arch rival Hun Sen, was in Malaysia when the meeting took place. His spokesman told Reuters the event was "illegal".
A FUNCINPEC statement said the extraordinary congress had voted unanimously for Keo Puth Rasmey, Cambodia’s ambassador to Germany and a son-in-law of retired King Norodom Sihanouk, as its president to contest national elections due in 2008.
Ranariddh, a son of Sihanouk, won landmark United Nations-backed elections in 1993 that marked the beginning of the end of decades of war and unrest, including the Khmer Rouge "Killing Field" years in the 1970s.
However, he was forced to become co-prime minister with Hun Sen, who was appointed Foreign Minister and then Prime Minister in the 1980s by the Vietnamese after they toppled Pol Pot and installed a government in Phnom Penh.
Since the 1993 elections, FUNCINPEC had played an increasingly second-fiddle role in coalition governments dominated by Hun Sen’s formerly communist Cambodian People’s Party.
With Ranariddh at the helm, analysts and diplomats had expected FUNCINPEC to struggle to maintain its position as the southeast Asian nation’s second largest political faction, ahead of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.
Ranariddh, who had devoted less and less attention to politics since a 1997 putsch by his co-Prime Minister and arch rival Hun Sen, was in Malaysia when the meeting took place. His spokesman told Reuters the event was "illegal".
A FUNCINPEC statement said the extraordinary congress had voted unanimously for Keo Puth Rasmey, Cambodia’s ambassador to Germany and a son-in-law of retired King Norodom Sihanouk, as its president to contest national elections due in 2008.
Ranariddh, a son of Sihanouk, won landmark United Nations-backed elections in 1993 that marked the beginning of the end of decades of war and unrest, including the Khmer Rouge "Killing Field" years in the 1970s.
However, he was forced to become co-prime minister with Hun Sen, who was appointed Foreign Minister and then Prime Minister in the 1980s by the Vietnamese after they toppled Pol Pot and installed a government in Phnom Penh.
Since the 1993 elections, FUNCINPEC had played an increasingly second-fiddle role in coalition governments dominated by Hun Sen’s formerly communist Cambodian People’s Party.
With Ranariddh at the helm, analysts and diplomats had expected FUNCINPEC to struggle to maintain its position as the southeast Asian nation’s second largest political faction, ahead of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.
8 comments:
In every organisation, the highest authority is up to their AGM ( Annual general meeting). If the General meeting of their members has decided to remove someone from their head, that is final. Noone on earth can help the disgrace leader back except of arms rebellions like Sihanouk in the 1970. Nor United Nation, Nor the head of state and nor the highest court in the court can help the oust leader back to power. I suggest Rannarith to stay calme and keep making children with Ouk Phalla is far better to make all the nonsense noise.
O.K his wife Arun Rasmey is the ambassador to where? Malaysia? and he is to Germany. Wonder how they maintain man and wife relation with those two addresses?
Let's hope, he is a little smarter than old brother in law...
Ashame on them! The CPP Party is getting stronger and corruptier but the non-Communist parties are getting smaller. Molika, Suen San was splitted and disappeared. Now, FUNCINPEC is splitted and sooner this party will be disappear again. What party is next? Maybe Sam Rainsy Party.
Ashame on them! They have asked the people to be united and chose them as the party which can provide all the needs, yet they cannot work together to lead Cambodian to prosperity.
What kind of pic behind him there??? That suits real well with the current POLITICS of FUNCIPEC...
10/17/06
AK4AnetKhmer
No doubt, it is the tricks of CPP especially of Youns
To AK4AnetKhmer
I was thinking the same way. What was he doing in a place like that?
Do mai Ah chker! kongcho:r
Hell is for you all, sucker!
It's about time that Ranariddh is ousted. He has never been a good leader. People followed him because he's the son of the former king. Many people died for him during the coup, and for what?
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