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| Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni in Prague on March 19, 2010. (Michal Cizek/AFP/Getty Images) |
King Norodom Sihamoni, who took the throne in 2004, is seen by some as a prisoner in his own palace.
May 29, 2011
Emily Lodish
Global Post
Poor King Norodom Sihamoni.
It doesn't sound like he wants to be king.
It's true the monarchy is more of a figurehead these days, with the true power lying in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
But the bidding of Hun Sen, who helped turn Cambodia into a forced labor camp with the Khmer Rouge in the late 70s, can't be pleasant work.
Sihamoni spends his days pushing papers and receiving guests — despite his lack of interest in political affairs — and then he retires to dine alone and read, says one royal adviser.
He is a symbol of national unity, no doubt. Everywhere he goes, people bow at his feet.
But even so, he feels "sad, lonely and abandoned," according to a new AP article.
Many think of him as a prisoner in his own palace.
The 58-year-old bachelor clearly longs for the years he spent in Europe -- France and what used to be the Czechoslovakia -- as a ballet dancer and cultural ambassador. It isn't hard to imagine him dreaming of those far-off places from the confines of his castle.
"I think we can use the words 'puppet king.' His power has been reduced to nothing," says Son Chhay, an opposition leader. "The king must please the prime minister as much as possible in order to survive. It is sad to see."
But this isn't news to me. I knew something was up when he refused to go to Will and Kate's wedding.
He said he had "something important to do."
A cry for help if ever I heard one.
12 comments:
Poor king..
Must be his royal karma.
I love king, he will use his constitute power when time has come.
It is good for article to show inside the wall of palace. like me have been brought up in the west, freedom is my way of life so as the king, but unlike the king I dine with many people, the king work alone is pretty bored.
The king will and must exercise his constitutional provisions: The formation of a potentially powerful Supreme Council of National Defense headed by the king, and an annual National Congress that would continue the tradition of citizens appealing directly to the monarch and jurisdiction of justice to serve people.
Government has no right to veto on this constitutional provisions.
Global post, i don't buy your news,,
Sihamoni is king? What the hell? I thought Preah Samdech Ah Pleur Sapung Yuon HunSenvarman was the king since he acts more so like an absolute monarch and is already grooming his son to succeed him in the Hun Sen Ah Jao-maciet Dynasty.
LOL...
Very sad.
I'm not a fan of the Cambodian monarchy, but at the same time, I'm not a fan of seeing this Cambodian cultural tradition being tossed around like water buffalo dung by an uneducated traitorous Khmer Rouge bumpkin such as Hun Sen.
Sihamoni appears to be a man in struggle. Deep down he doesn't want to be king, but yet he has to maintain that balance of keeping dignity (or whatever is left of it) of the monarchy and pleasing Hun Sen (who occasionally threatens the Royals with abolishing the monarchy).
Sihamoni is a tragic character, but in a different way than his father Norodom Sihanouk.
king sihamoni is very smart, wise and intelligent and well educated both on cambodia and the world as well. yes, cambodia changed a lot since the 1960s when cambodia saw the monarch participated in active politics, etc. i think khmer monarchy should be like that of england. please study more before assuming a wrong conclusion, etc.
the king has to play by the rule of law as well, you know, so can't assume cambodia to be the in politics like in the past era, you know! it's called changes or even better reforms and that is really good for cambodia, believe it or not, really!
EVIDENCE OF POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS AND KILLINGS OF FUNCINPEC LOYALISTS.
LIST OF INSTANCES OF EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS during 1997 coup by PM Hun Sen. These people with their name list below were murdered by PM Hun Sen.
• Ho Sok, 45, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and second ranking FUNCINPEC official in the Ministry of Interior.
• 2-3. Gen Chao Sambath, alias Ngov, Deputy-Chief of the Intelligence and Espionage Department, RCAF Supreme Command since 1993
• 4 and 5. Maj. Gen. Ly Seng Hong, Deputy-Chief of Staff, RCAF General Staff (second highest-ranking FUNCINPEC official in the RCAF General
• 6. Colonel Sok Vireak, Chief, Transmission Bureau, Army General Staff. A former KPNLF General Staff officer in charge of military training who joined Nhek Bun Chhay after the Paris Agreements. Status
• 7. Colonel Thlang Chang Sovannarith, Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Fifth Military Region, RCAF General Staff
• 8. Colonel Hov Sambath, Deputy-chief of Military Training Bureau, RCAF General Staff
• 9. Lietenant Colonel Sao Sophal, 42, an officer of the First Bureau of the RCAF General Staff.
• 10. Navy First Lt. Thach Soeung, aged about 30, an ethnic Khmer from southern Vietnam, stationed at Dang Kaum Navy base on the eastern bank of the Tonle Sap.
• 11 to 14. Seng Phally, Lt. Col. Chao Keang, Chao Tea and Thong Vickika - security officers working under Gen. Chao Sambath.
• Seng Phally, alias Huot Phally, aged 25, single, a gendarme who worked as chief of the security team at the Pipoplok 2 Hotel/Casino
• Lt. Col. Chao Keang, aged about 25. He was an officer in the Research and Intelligence Bureau of Chao Sambath
• Chao Tea, 29, brother of Chao Keang, a security guard at the Regal Hotel/Casino. His body bore a bullet hole in the left side of the chest and in the right side of the stomach. He was also handcuffed and blindfolded
• Thong Vicchika, aged about 27-28, a body-guard of Chao Sambath and a security staff at the Regal Hotel/Casino.
• Dr. Seng Kim Ly, a military medical doctor
• Major Lak Ki, Head of Operations, Research and Intelligence, RCAF High Command
• Four unnamed body-guards of Nhek Bun Chhay were summarily executed after his office-cum-house in Somnang
• Major Lak Ki, Head of Operations, Research and Intelligence, RCAF High Command
• Pheap, a body-guard of Major Lak Ki, in his late twenties
• Dok Rany, 27, an officer and body-guard of Gen. Chao Sambath who worked at the Research and Intelligence Bureau
• Ros Huon, aged 23, Sopheap, aged 25, two alleged members of the Gendarmerie
• Dok Sokhun, alias Michael Senior, a Khmer-Canadian journalist who taught English at ACE Language School in Phnom Penh
• Major Aek Eng (CPP), Head of Administration of Phnom Penh Thmei police station
• At least four, and possibly up to 22 persons described as FUNCINPEC soldiers executed and cremated in Pich Nil on 9, 10 and 11 July 1997 by Military Region 3 soldiers. Status: Confirmed executions in at least 4 cases
• 34 to 36 (and possibly 45). On 17 July, at about noon time, the body of a soldier was witnessed floating near the bank of the Tone Bassac near the Watt Chum Leap, in the village of the same name, Rokakpong commune, Saang district, Kandal province. The body was headless and both hands were tied up behind the back with a kramma. It was dressed in dark olive military uniform
• 37 and 38. Two unidentified men, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind the back. Status: Confirmed executions
• Pheap, aged 33, a bodyguard of the First Prime Minister. Status: Confirmed execution.
• Sok Vanthorn, 21 and Sou Sal, two villagers from Ampeov village, Kompong Speu province. Status: Confirmed execution.
• Brig. Gen. Chea Rittichutt, a founding member of the Moulinaka movement and the Governor of Kep-Bokor
• Navy officer Meas Sarou, Deputy-director, First Bureau, Navy, based in Chrouy Changvar, and one of his body-guards, and a third person, a woman named Luch.
• Ung Sim, Second Deputy Governor, Kompong Speu province - missing since his arrest, reportedly near Pich Nil by CPP soldiers on 7 or 8 July 1997.
• Col. Sam Sarath, Deputy Chief-of-Staff, Third Military Region
• Put Som Ang, male, aged 42, a KNP activisit in Siem Reap province, and Sam Sophan, 38, an activist in Takeo province
• Major So Lay Sak and Major Chin Vannak, officers working in the Logisitics department of the RCAF General Staff
• Som Taing, Deputy Chief, Inspection Office, Provincial Governor's Office, Kompong Speu
• Chum Sarith, Chief, Criminal Bureau, Provincial Police, Sihanoukville
Forty-six bodies were brought in and dumped at the crematorium of a Phnom Penh pagoda between 5 and 9 July
In the case of Ho Sok (executed on 7 July, brought to Watt Lanka on 8 July); of Seng Phally, Chao Keang, Chao Tea and Thong Viccheka (executed on 5-6 July and brought by the police to Wat Unalom on the morning of 7 July - see cases number 13-16 above) and in the case of a fifth corpse which was brought to the same pagoda on the same morning, but which could not be identified, the police ordered that cremation of the bodies be conducted without question and without proper cremation permit.
Between 9 and 11 July, according to a variety of reliable corroborating accounts, the bodies of 4 and probably up to 22 soldiers were alleged to have been executed in Pich Nil and burned
Plus many and many more names with lose count that order and executed by Hun Sen and CPP.
Sihamony is a king,
he lives exactely as Elisabeth II
and other kings and queens do..
There are 25 kingdoms in the world.
The Lon Nol govt wiped out monarchy
in 1970.
The Lao kingdom was wiped out in 1975 and Cambodia in 1976.Khmer Rouge jailed Sihanouk and family in his own palace.Khmer Rouge killed many king family members.
Khmer monarchy is reborn again under fake neutral kingdom of Cambodia.
King Sihamoni is similar to queen
Ang Mei under Vietnam few hundred
year ago.
Khmer people should wipe out monarchy in Cambodia.
9:13 PM
You said, "Khmer Rouge jailed Sihanouk and family in his own palace.Khmer Rouge killed many king family members." However, you missed the points that the secret Vietnamese agents hiding among Khmer Rouges troops and Pol Pot's regime pretended or acted like Khmer Rouges, could speak and write Khmer language very well, and killer/murdered those monarchy family like Siri Matak and king's family members and higher educated Khmer people. The real Khmer Rouges troops were very young just like teenagers from remote areas and farming/peasant families who were lack of educations or had no educations at all. Those young and older Khmer Rouges soldiers were so busy to fight with Red Communist Vietnamese armies at the border between Khmer Kandal and Khmer Krom (Southern Vietnam), trying to get Khmer Krom (Southern Cambodia land) back in Southern Vietnam and Pol Pot and his inner circles were toppled by Hidden Vietnamese faces and Secret Vietnamese agents or armies.
Hun Sen was one of the Khmer Rouges army (like other low educated or non educated Khmer Rouges armies) coming from his peasant family or parents in the farming or remote area. He had no education or a little education. He was shot right in one of his eyes and fled to Vietnam and then took revenge. He is the most ruthless and dumbest person as Primer Minister of Cambodia after Vietnam Communist leaders installed him illegally.
AH YUON HUN XEN LE VRAI ROI DU CAMBODGE PAS NORODOM SIHAMONI
SAM CHHUN ENG (PM 1970)
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