Prince Thomico fully supports Hun Sen’s speech

Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Kampuchea Thmei
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

Recently, Hun Sen called on King Sihamoni to send a letter to all political parties to prevent them from using the word “monarchy” in their election campaign, because this could bring down the king when the party using this word loses the election. A royal prince and the civil society fully support the ban on the use of the word “monarchy” and they claimed that the government has the full right to issue this ban on the political parties during the election campaign.

Prince Sisowath Thomico, the former secretary of Hero-King Norodom Sihanouk, told the Kampuchea Thmei in the afternoon of 03 June that he fully supports Hun Sen’s speech calling all political parties to stop using the word “monarchy” in their election campaign.

The prince added: “I don’t want any political party using the word “monarchy” or the name of the king for their campaign. We all live in the Kingdom of Cambodia, and the king is the king for all 14 million of us, therefore, we shouldn’t use the king in the campaign because he represents the nation. If they talk about the monarchy, it means that some parties do not like the monarchy regime. This is where the difference lies, therefore I am fully supporting Samdach PM Hun Sen when he requested that all parties shouldn’t use the monarchy or the name of the king (for their election campaign).”

Prince Thomico also indicated that: “From what I see, the government has the full right to ban political parties from using the word monarchy and the name of the king to campaign. Therefore, in my opinion, the king of the Hero-King have no need to issue this royal letter because the law clearly stipulates about the ban of the use of the king’s picture for the election campaign. Therefore, everything is in place for banning the political parties.”

At the same time, Thomico also indicated that the parties competing each other to the claim of being a royalist party are: Funcinpec and the NRP. He indicated that the parties claiming to be royalist, to be the defender of the monarchy, they shouldn’t use the word monarchy. As long as these parties behave appropriately and have a good moral code of conduct, that would be enough, and that those who love the king are not just the Funcinpec and the NRP alone, there are in fact many other parties that love the throne and they defend the monarchy.

Dr. Pung Chiv Kek, President of the Licadho human rights organization, support Hun Sen’s call also, by saying: “I believe the same thing also, political parties shouldn’t use the name of the king because he does not govern, therefore, we shouldn’t use his name. We should concentrate on other issues faced by the country, such as social problems, etc… these issues would be better (to discuss about).”

It should be noted that on 02 June, during a road inauguration in Chi Kreng district, Siem Reap province, Hun Sen said that the NEC already banned parties from using the monarchy in their campaign, but nobody listened to it, so the king (must take action). This then would entail the NEC to send a letter to the king (to request his issue of the ban letter).

Im Suosdey, director of the NEC, said that the NEC already has a legal mean to issue this ban, therefore, whatever Hun Sen said in his speech, it will be actually followed through.