Funcinpec shows sign of internal problem (4): Lu Laysreng reveals Nhiek Bun Chhay's ambition to become party president

Voters give royalists a stiff dose of reality

Funcinpec parliamentary candidate Princess Norodom Arun Rasmey finds her name on the voter list at a polling station in Phnom Penh on July 27. (Photo: Vandy Ratanna)

The rise and demise of funcinpec
Funcinpec was founded by former King Norodom Sihanouk in Paris on March 26, 1981 with the aim of opposing the Vietnamese military occupation of Cambodia. Although Sihanouk resigned the party presidency in 1992 in order to be maintain his “neutrality” in the UN-sponsored 1993 elections, his son Prince Norodom Ranariddh led the party to a stunning victory on the back of his father’s popularity, clinching 45 percent of the popular vote and 58 seats in the National Assembly. But the party has lost ground at every election since, dropping from 43 seats in 1998 to 26 seats in 2003. According to preliminary election results released by the NEC Saturday, the party lost 24 of its remaining seats in 2008, winning just five percent of the national vote. ELECTION results, no matter how preliminary, have shown a dismal showing for Funcinpec, the Kingdom's once-dominant political force whose electoral popularity appears to have plummeted as Cambodians voted against royalists candidates, despite their enduring support for the monarchy.

Monday, 11 August 2008
Written by Sebastian Strangio and Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

Since scoring a substantial win in the national elections in 1993, beleaguered royalists now find themselves a spent political force despite the monarchy’s enduring popularity

The party lost 24 of its 26 National Assembly seats, gaining just five percent of the vote and being surpassed as the second most powerful political player by historic underdogs, the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, according to figures from the National Election Committee (NEC).

The aftermath of the July 27 parliamentary polls have revealed a party fractured by infighting, its factions pitted against one another by the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), the royalist's former coalition government partner.

But it is this closeness over the years - Funcinpec and the CPP first came together following the UN-sponsored 1993 elections - that is at the heart of the party's demise, some Funcinpec officials say, blaming the party for becoming "too comfortable" as the CPP's junior coalition partner, a role that gradually saw its power, and credibility disappear.

"I think that royalist supporters have lost confidence in [Funcinpec] because the party is too close to the CPP," said Monh Saphan, a Funcinpec parliamentary candidate for Kampong Cham province.

Prime Minister Hun Sen continues to play a divisive role in Funcinpec, offering another coalition deal to one faction inside the royalist party who remain loyal to his CPP, led by party secretary general Nhek Bun Chhay, while freezing out others who joined the opposition parties in condemning the election results.

"There is no space for you in our alliance and don't try to bargain for a power-sharing coalition government," Hun Sen told Funcinpec president Keo Puth Rasmey, its second secretary general Sisowath Sirirath and their followers during a speech last week in Kampong Speu province.

CPP spokesman and Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith denied on Thursday that Hun Sen was deliberately encouraging a further splintering of the royalists.

"We do not want to see Funcinpec breaking up, but they were wrong in selecting their political strategy during the campaign period," he said, adding that those in Funcinpec who do find themselves in partnership with the CPP are likely to pick up 30 government positions, including a ministerial post.

Wrong political strategy has long been the problem with Funcinpec, say some observers, explaining that the party has failed to adapt to Cambodia's changing political times, instead clinging too much to its association to former King Norodom Sihanouk, Funcinpec's founder, rather than find policies that reflected the reality of what Cambodians wanted out of their government.

"The question is not whether the monarchy continues to be relevant, but whether the political parties that claim they are royalist continue to be relevant," said Prince Sisowath Thomico, the former personal secretary of King Father Sihanouk.

"I don't believe that the people of Cambodia do not support the monarchy and royalism as a political philosophy. Rather, I believe the people lack confidence in the leaders of the so-called royalist parties," he added.

"The biggest mistake the royalists made was to use the monarchy to lead their movements. The decline of the royalist parties is linked to the birth of the new regime."

Benny Widyono, a former representative of the UN secretary-general who was stationed in Siem Reap during the 1993 election campaign, also said that Funcinpec had previously benefited from its association with the former king, but that the lustre had faded since the 1990s.

"The reason that Funcinpec won in 1993 was personality recognition and name recognition. When [former Funcinpec president Prince Norodom] Ranariddh was campaigning in Siem Reap, we didn't allow him to use Sihanouk on his banners, but he was still wearing a t-shirt with Sihanouk's face," Widyono told the Post.

"Name recognition is one thing, but effective campaigning is another....The way I see it, this election will be the end of Funcinpec," he added.

Other royalists, however, maintain that their party's crashing performance in this year's elections was the fault of vote rigging committed by the CPP, rather than a devastating loss of popularity - a claim echoed by many of Cambodia's other opposition parties.

"The royalist parties failed because the election was not free and fair according to international standards," Prince Sisowath Sirirath, Funcinpec's second deputy secretary, told the Post shortly after the election, referring to both Funcinpec and the Norodom Ranariddh Party, led by Funcinpec's former president.

"The National Election Committee (NEC) has set the system up to benefit the CPP by confusing voters and removing their names from polling stations," he added.

NRP spokesman Muth Chantha also said that due to the manipulation of voter lists by the CPP, the Cambodian people were deprived of their opportunity to cast their ballots for royalist parties.

Keo Puth Rasmey sacked for trying to withdraw F'pec lawsuit against Ranariddh?

Government sweep

30 July 2008
By Pen Bona and Leang Delux Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

Khieu Kanharith, the minister of Information and government spokesman, declared during a press conference held in the morning of 30 July in Phnom Penh, that “the CPP will pursue its coalition government with Funcinpec, but with the Funcinpec of Nhiek Bun Chhay…”

“Very soon, the government will sack Keo Puth Rasmey, the current president of the royalist party and vice-prime minister, and Prince Sisowath Sirirath, the current government advisor,” Khieu Kanharith added.

Prince Sisowath announced on Monday, the day after the election, that he joined the SRP, the HRP and the NRP, in a coalition to protest the election results.

When asked by CSH, the prince declared that he did not have any reaction about this news, “as long as he does not receive the confirmation from prime minister Hun Sen.”

In the morning of Wednesday 30 July, a rumor circulated in which Keo Puth Rasmey would have written a letter to the Phnom Penh municipal court asking for the withdrawal of the Funcinpec lawsuit against Prince Norodom Ranariddh who is currently in exile in Malaysia, in order to allow the latter to return back home. Keo Puth Rasmey could not be contacted for confirm or deny this rumor. Nhiek Bun Chhay, Funcinpec secretary-general, would be elected in Banteay Meanchey according to the preliminary results by the CPP.

Nhiek Bun Chhay Said To Be Discarded by Hun Sen in Next Government for Bad Record

05 Apr 08
"Today's Comment"
Samleng Yuveakchon Khmer
Translated from Khmer by Anonymous

The FUNCINPEC [National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, and Peaceful Cambodia] Party of Nhiek Bun Chhay and Keo Put Reaksmei is breaking up and, at the last moment that these phony politicians are grasping for their last breath, they still engage in mutual fighting that in Cambodian society is described as the poor men's fight to the grave. This is the nature of the opportunist politicians who smell the stink of death because of their betrayal in the coup de parti that they stupidly waged at the instigation of an outsider to overthrow their own leader and benefactor.

Nhiek Bun Chhay, Keo Put Reaksmei, Sisowath Sirirat, and Lu Lay Sreng said that allowing Serei Kosal, Ok Socheat, and Kim Vien to join their FUNCINPEC Party might somehow benefit their populist policy to fool the people. In the end, however, this decision is not different from using these adventurer-cum-politicians to burn their party. In such a snafu, Nhiek Bun Chhay should not blame Kev Put Reaksmei in order to show that it is not his fault; and Kev Put Reaksmei, too, should not feel sorry or disappointed because of the seething internal dispute that is plaguing the party, for all of this is an unavoidable retribution because of the coup-de-party and betrayal against Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

Just as Hun Sen told Nhiek Bun Chhay and Keo Put Reaksmei, the Cambodian People's Party [CPP] does not want them to join the next government if they could not help themselves and try only to cling to other people to get high positions and gains. Keo Put Reaksmei, Arunrasmy, Nhiek Bun Chhay, and their followers need not worry and do not have to go around lying to the Cambodian voters, for even Neou Sovatthero, who kept repeating like a parrot that the in-depth 18 October 2006 reform made the FUNCINPEC Party stronger, could not help but deserting Nhiek Bun Chhay's FUNCINPEC Party and defecting to Hun Sen's CPP.

After the 27 July 2008 election if Hun Sen's CPP wins again, which will be a cowardly victory achieved when the people's spirit is weakened, Nhiek Bun Chhay and Keo Put Reaksmei should not dream of getting from Hun Sen even the posts of state secretaries, let alone having the posts of deputy prime ministers, senior ministers, or ministers that they used to get from Prince Norodom Ranariddh. The best that could be expected is that Hun Sen would give scraps of positions such as state undersecretaries to Nhiek Bun Chhay and Kev Put Reaksmei because this is proportionate to the personal values and knowledge level of Nhiek Bun Chhay and to the behaviors of these people who did not hesitate to betray their own leader for the sake of a position as someone else's bootlickers.

To put it more bluntly, Nhiek Bun Chhay should learn to control his feelings right now so that he would not be too surprised or too hurt when Hun Sen accepts a fragment of the FUNCINPEC Party after the elections. When this happens, it is not the group of Nhiek Bun Chhay but that of Kev Put Reaksmei that will be chosen. At that time, allow us to warn that Nhiek Bun Chhay and Serei Kosal should not blurt out that Kev Put Reaksmei betrays the resistance fighters because the term resistance fighters uttered from the mouths of Nhiek Bun Chhay and Serei Kosal just belies the real resistance fighters, and Hun Sen does not know the meaning of resistance fighters, who were led by the King Father and later on by Prince Norodom Ranariddh in the fight to drive the Vietnamese aggressor troops out of the country.

Besides, Nhiek Bun Chhay and Serei Kosal should never dream that Hun Sen wants to hear the phrase "real FUNCINPEC resistance fighters" who are not the fighters of the current FUNCINPEC Party of Nhiek Bun Chhay. Hun Sen's desire to let go of Nhiek Bun Chhay and abandon him to his fate has many reasons, including the fact that normally the reputation of the Prime Minister's party is already not very good but it could get worse when there is rumor that he is leading Cambodia into confusion and involvement with the narcotic crime, the trafficking in person, and so on. This is because Nhiek Bun Chhay has a bad record. He used to have a close relationship with a Chinese named Chea Chung, who later on was found to be a drug lord together with the late Um Chhay, former adviser to Heng Samrin, concerning the several tons of narcotics in Treng Troyeung, Kampong Speu province. With all of this, do you think that Hun Sen wants Nhiek Bun Chhay near him? Like it or not, even if you do not like thinking or are not good at thinking, you would not mistake that Hun Sen now has no need for Nhiek Bun Chhay. This is reminiscent of the time when this CPP vice president duped the group of Tun Chay, Duong Khem, Ung Phan, Toek Ngoy, and so on before kicking them away. And since Nhiek Bun Chhay used to have an adviser who became a major drug criminal in Kampong Spoe, Nhiek Bun Chhay's chance of winning Hun Sen's favor and joining the next government is very slim.

Nhiek Bun Chhay, Keo Puth Reaksmei, Sisowath Sirirat, and Lu Laysreng were of course well aware of all these facts, but they could do nothing because they were fooled. Once they understood that they were duped into toppling Prince Norodom Ranariddh, they tried hard to beg the prince to return and lead the FUNCINPEC Party again. But the prince did not want to save these corrupt opportunists. He wanted to listen to the people and to help the people. When Nhiek Bun Chhay, Keo Puth Reaksmei, Sisowath Sirirat, and Lu Laysreng went out of their way to beg Prince Norodom Ranariddh to help lead and save the FUNCINPEC Party like in the past, their main concern was to keep the FUNCINPEC Party from dying in their hands, which would earn them condemnation by the people. Besides, they thought that if the prince could help to revive the FUNCINPEC Party, they would have a chance to implore the prince for posts and perks. It is because of this issue that Prince Norodom Ranariddh refused to come to the rescue of the Nhiek Bun Chhay-Keo Puth Reaksmei FUNCINPEC Party. Now these gentlemen are quarrelling over the last shred of assets left behind by the FUNCINPEC Party on its death bed.

Lu Lay Sreng:Thomico is a "useless royal" (Sdech Choal-msiet) who talks nonsense

Thomico’s accusation met with Lu Lay Sreng’s rage

Friday, November 02, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Prince Sisowath Thomico criticized the Funcinpec party, and considered this party of no longer being Sihanoukist anymore. The prince’s accusation was met with Lu Lay Sreng’s rage, and the latter ended up calling the prince “a useless royal.” Lu Lay Sreng’s reaction published in the Friday’s edition of the Kampuchea Thmei newspaper which quoted him telling others not to be concerned with a person who is at a deadend. Lu Lay Sreng considers the prince as a useless royal who talks nonsense. He said that in the past, he said again and again not to let this royal join (Funcinpec) because he will bring difficulties (to the party), at the end, it turns out the way he predicted. Lu Lay Sreng added that he is not replying to this useless royal, and that he will let the royals cuss each other.