Wang Gang (R), member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, meets with Keo Puth Rasmey, chairman of Cambodia's Funcinpec Party and deputy prime minister of Cambodia, in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)Saturday, February 23, 2008
By Ratanak
Sralanh Khmer newspaper
Translated from Khmer by Anonymous
The fourth-mandate election is only over five months away, but the Norodom Ranariddh Party [NRP] chairman, Samdech Krom Preah [Norodom Ranariddh], is still staying abroad, unable to return home. Anyway, King Father Norodom Sihanouk has not cared about his prominent son by permitting 11 former resistance generals and dignitaries of the FUNCINPEC [National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia] Party to see him in Beijing.
A FUNCINPEC official disclosed that the party would receive best wishes from the king father, the party founder, for the success in the fourth-mandate national election. The 11 FUNCINPEC generals and dignitaries would leave Cambodia on 24 February to meet the king father.
The official also disclosed that the king father would also arrange a meeting between the 11 FUNCINPEC dignitaries and the Chinese Prime Minister. The official added the audience the king father had graciously granted to the 11 FUNCINPEC dignitaries was testimony he had firm faith that the FUNCINPEC Party led by Kev Put Reaksmei, Nhiek Bun Chhay, and Lu Lay-sreng was able to preserve the party's original principles and high convictions.
Most of the 11 dignitaries are former Sihanoukist ANKI [National Army of Independent Cambodia] commanders, who had followed the king father since the FUNCINPEC Party's inception in the 1980s.
A FUNCINPEC Party elder, too, said that maybe the king father had reckoned that Samdech Krom Preah would not be able to return to the country and that even he could enter, he would lose the people's trust, because he had already betrayed their wish many times. Therefore, there was only the FUNCINPEC Party, which could protect the monarchy in line with his wish.
The elder added that not only did the citizens and NRP members lose faith in Samdech Krom Preah, but some royal family members, having followed him so far, distrusted him too. It was because he refused to listen to party elders and good officials but [NRP spokesman] Mut Chantha, [NRP Secretary General] You Hokkri, and [NRP senior official] Sau Rani.
Princess Ang Duong Nim Sophine recently told Sralanh Khmer that the NRP did not have national principles. It knew only cursing the FUNCINPEC Party and other people. She also indicated that people did not want to hear the curses, but only to know what the party would do for the nation and people if it won the election. Along with Prince Ranariddh's inability to return to the country, the NRP inner circle, too, was currently in serious disagreement due to his willingness to listen only to deception of a handful of people. Princess Nim Sophine also said that if Samdech Krom Preah did not take action in time, the NRP would lose all of its supporters.
FUNCINPEC official said they did care about Samdech Krom Preah and his three-four supporters cursing on the Royalist Voice program aired on Beehive Radio FM 105, because the prince was being in deep water before the NRP breathed its last. They also said that the king father's permission for the 11 FUNCINPEC dignitaries to see him in Beijing now was best wishes bestowed on the FUNCINPEC Party ahead of the July 2008 election.
Samdech Krom Preah told his handful of supporters a few days ago that he had no hope to enter the country to contest the fourth-mandate national election. Meanwhile, leaders of a number of nongovernmental organizations voiced their views regarding a request for the king to pardon Prince Ranariddh. However, some jurists were cynical about those organizations' drive.
On 20 February, the Committee Strict Law Enforcement for Human Rights in Cambodia (CSLHRC), formed by a group of eight local human rights organizations, sent a letter to King Preah Boromneath Norodom Sihamoni, requesting an audience with him in order to ask for pardon for Samdech Krom Preah. Nevertheless, Thon Sarai, chairman of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, ADHOC, asserted that it was not yet time to do so, unless Samdech Krom Preah had already been sentenced by the [First Instance, Appeal, and Supreme] courts in the three stages.
While Samdech Krom Preah has no possibility of returning to the country, the Beijing audience that the king father graciously granted to the 11 FUNCINPEC high dignitaries amounts to his best wishes to the FUNCINPEC Party on the eve of the fourth-mandate national election.
A FUNCINPEC official disclosed that the party would receive best wishes from the king father, the party founder, for the success in the fourth-mandate national election. The 11 FUNCINPEC generals and dignitaries would leave Cambodia on 24 February to meet the king father.
The official also disclosed that the king father would also arrange a meeting between the 11 FUNCINPEC dignitaries and the Chinese Prime Minister. The official added the audience the king father had graciously granted to the 11 FUNCINPEC dignitaries was testimony he had firm faith that the FUNCINPEC Party led by Kev Put Reaksmei, Nhiek Bun Chhay, and Lu Lay-sreng was able to preserve the party's original principles and high convictions.
Most of the 11 dignitaries are former Sihanoukist ANKI [National Army of Independent Cambodia] commanders, who had followed the king father since the FUNCINPEC Party's inception in the 1980s.
A FUNCINPEC Party elder, too, said that maybe the king father had reckoned that Samdech Krom Preah would not be able to return to the country and that even he could enter, he would lose the people's trust, because he had already betrayed their wish many times. Therefore, there was only the FUNCINPEC Party, which could protect the monarchy in line with his wish.
The elder added that not only did the citizens and NRP members lose faith in Samdech Krom Preah, but some royal family members, having followed him so far, distrusted him too. It was because he refused to listen to party elders and good officials but [NRP spokesman] Mut Chantha, [NRP Secretary General] You Hokkri, and [NRP senior official] Sau Rani.
Princess Ang Duong Nim Sophine recently told Sralanh Khmer that the NRP did not have national principles. It knew only cursing the FUNCINPEC Party and other people. She also indicated that people did not want to hear the curses, but only to know what the party would do for the nation and people if it won the election. Along with Prince Ranariddh's inability to return to the country, the NRP inner circle, too, was currently in serious disagreement due to his willingness to listen only to deception of a handful of people. Princess Nim Sophine also said that if Samdech Krom Preah did not take action in time, the NRP would lose all of its supporters.
FUNCINPEC official said they did care about Samdech Krom Preah and his three-four supporters cursing on the Royalist Voice program aired on Beehive Radio FM 105, because the prince was being in deep water before the NRP breathed its last. They also said that the king father's permission for the 11 FUNCINPEC dignitaries to see him in Beijing now was best wishes bestowed on the FUNCINPEC Party ahead of the July 2008 election.
Samdech Krom Preah told his handful of supporters a few days ago that he had no hope to enter the country to contest the fourth-mandate national election. Meanwhile, leaders of a number of nongovernmental organizations voiced their views regarding a request for the king to pardon Prince Ranariddh. However, some jurists were cynical about those organizations' drive.
On 20 February, the Committee Strict Law Enforcement for Human Rights in Cambodia (CSLHRC), formed by a group of eight local human rights organizations, sent a letter to King Preah Boromneath Norodom Sihamoni, requesting an audience with him in order to ask for pardon for Samdech Krom Preah. Nevertheless, Thon Sarai, chairman of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, ADHOC, asserted that it was not yet time to do so, unless Samdech Krom Preah had already been sentenced by the [First Instance, Appeal, and Supreme] courts in the three stages.
While Samdech Krom Preah has no possibility of returning to the country, the Beijing audience that the king father graciously granted to the 11 FUNCINPEC high dignitaries amounts to his best wishes to the FUNCINPEC Party on the eve of the fourth-mandate national election.
