Is the Current Cambodian Monarchy still Relevant to the Cambodian people?

The King and the King-Maker. Two of Cambodia's ancient and most revered institutions - the Monarchy and the Buddhist Clergy - have been effectively ostracized and transformed into no more than ceremonial vestiges and polite spectacles by the demands of the country's rapacious ruling brand of politics and political elite. Both present King Sihamoni and his late father and former King Sihanouk have been part hereditary and part fortuitous beneficiaries of the ingrained reverence and loyalty attached to these two traditional institutions. Everyone - Royals included - have understood and accepted the present futility and the hollow facade of the Monarchy in the veneer of its once pervasive, binding, ruling, protective and corrective influence; and yet this inward acknowledgement has not been enough to dissuade or sway them against their cynical private calculations and their unconfined hypocrisy in relations to the Cambodian people and their true, actual aspirations, which alone legitimise and underpin the Spirit of the Monarchy as such. The Cambodian Monarchy will therefore be "preserved" and violently "defended" against its perceived foes even, as long as this enforced docility and public futility remain - School of Vice [image reproduced]

Two young mourners pray for the soul of the deceased former Monarch outside the Royal Palace, Phnom Penh. Reverence towards traditional institutions and public symbols of authority is ingrained in the Khmer people - School of Vice [image: google]

The suffering of the people is the suffering of the King - Young victims of BKL forced eviction pleading for their King's intervention to no avail in front of the Royal Palace. ["It is not private afflictions, but public sorrows that make griefs of Kings": Khmer King Jayavarman VII] - School of Vice

"After all, the recent Cambodian royals have not achieved or done anything much for the country anyway. They are unnecessary burdens for the country."

Opinion by "Pissed Off"

The article is right. It is just a matter of time that the centuries-old Cambodian monarchy will turn into an irrelevance or even come to an end as it has started to die from within for some time and the royals of Cambodia including His majesty have nobody else to blame, but themselves.

Courage is antecedent to long-term vision which decides present action and present action brings about desired future. One has to be willing to die in order to live. Without courage we have started to die a shameful death from within.

King Sihamoni has chosen to have the existence of his monarchy defended not by the citizens of the country whom he claims to love and protect, but by the strongman of Cambodia who has recently professed again to defend it at all cost in front of the dead body of King Father Norodom Sihanouk. 

His Majesty has lost the very powerful and irreplaceable connection to His subjects by refusing to speak up on the behalf of the poor people. They are the true defenders of the monarchy if the monarchy can show itself to be relevant in their lives!

Imagine what it would be like as far as the King's reputation goes, had His Majesty come out in strong protest of the filling in of the Boeung Kak natural lake and defended the rights of the poor by threatening to abdicate the throne if His concern of the environment and justice were not addressed by the government of PM Hun Sen.

Though His monarchy may be abolished by the CPP of Hun Sen as a result of His protest, it will live forever in the heart and mind of many Cambodians and history. He might even

win the respect of the CPP including PM Hun Sen as well. In addition, the CPP would have a lot to lose by allowing the abdication to proceed. The CPP may make a deal! It is too bad His Majesty has made it so easy for PM Hun Sen to reward his cronies at the expense of the majority of poor Cambodians.

Choosing to remain silent has kept the physical being of monarchy alive, but rid its body of its very meaningful soul that represents the purpose of its existence.

Is it too late now to act? It is rather late, but certainly not too late and His Majesty would have to decide for himself how He wants to be remembered. Perhaps He should not listen anymore to his useless royal advisors whose advices are not for His interests but certainly for theirs. After all, the recent Cambodian royals have not achieved or done anything much for the country anyway. They are unnecessary burdens for the country.

--Pissed Off