Hun Sen (left) and Ranariddh (right) whose on-again, off-again political relationships have caused ongoing bitter personal attacks and rivalry among themselves.The Koh Santepheap Daily
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization
Prime Minister Hun Sen declared that “some people said that Hun Sen is a reincarnation of Sdech Korn (King Korn), because since his time until now only Hun Sen alone dares to put a prince in jail.”
Mr Hun Sen made this speech in the morning of 27th April at the Cambodian People’s Party headquarter during the commemoration of the 122nd International Labor Day with the gathering of about 7,000 factory workers, union and party members.
Mr Hun Sen said that someone wanted to kill him but he added that he was not scared of this attempt on his life. He said that he had enough evidence and witnesses, including the interception of Prince Norodom Sirivudh’s phone conversations and they were presented to the then King Sihanouk. He ordered the arrest of the prince and sent him to T3 Prison, but a few hours later the king requested for him to be transferred to the Ministry of Interior‘s detention.
Mr. Hun Sen said: “from 1993 to 1995 there were numerous people who used a female form of the word ‘yes’ (referring to princes who usually use a female form of the word ‘chah’ to answer ‘yes‘) and that anyone was a prince. These people, if I don’t suppress them they will become unruly and they will take anyone’s wife as they wish. I respect the members of the royal family but some princes are not respectable. They need to be pounded because they are insolent and they look down on the people. For me, in a meeting of the Council of Ministers or in the National Assembly, whoever wanted or not wanted to use the honorific title of ‘your royal highness’ I don’t mind, but I will not use it”.
As for a royal form of address of “Toul Bongkum” which is a word that the ordinary people used as the word “I” to address the members of the royal family, Mr Hun Sen said: “the origin of the word ‘toul bongkum’ came from the word ‘toul bongkun’ (to carry a toilet on one’s head). We are the same human being, why should we carry a toilet on our head for them?…. I can use this word for the king, but for the princes, whoever wanted to use it they can, I will not forbid them (but I will not use it).”
In relation to the assassination of Sdech Korn (King Korn in Khmer) Mr Hun Sen criticised the king’s sycophants who wanted to please the king so they predicted that a person who was born in the Year of Dragon wanted to usurp and this prediction led the king to devise a plan to kill Sdech Korn.
Mr Hun Sen said: “It was only an assassination plan and a dream only but it was painful enough (for Sdech Korn to murder the king), that was Sdech Korn, if it was Hun Sen I would have done much worse. Sdech Korn took from 1506-1512 to win, but Hun Sen only need 4 hours at this modern time. It was not in the time when we still use arrows to fight a war. This is a time when we use BM 21 weapons to fight a war to settle the scores, so don’t be so insolent. I don’t want to play with these kinds of games. He doesn’t know how Hun Sen is. When he (Prince Ranariddh) resigned as Chairman of the National Assmebly he wanted to change his mind and asked Hun Sen and Samdech Chea Sim to help him, but it was too late and after I consulted Samdech Chea Sim and Mr. Say Chhum, they signed a decree appointing Samdech Heng Samrin as the Chairman and Mr. Nguon Nhel as First Deputy Chairman and we let Funcinpec Party choose the Second Deputy Chairman. This is what we called ‘ a disappointed person who wanted to resign, but when we let him resign he wanted to come back, but is was too late!’”
Mr. Hun Sen said that he did not believe it as a true story that a minister in the coalition government has to agree to let his wife sleep with the party president in order for him to get appointed as a minister in the coalition government. He sad: “That’s why all the innocent Funcinpec officials have defected to the Cambodian People’s Party, from senior ministers down to ministers, secretaries of state and under-secretaries of state. There is in one ministry, the Ministry of Women Affairs, all Funcinpec appointees have all defected to the CPP, except one person. And in the Ministry of Finance, all have defected.” //
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Note: King Korn, or Sdech Korn in Khmer, who, like Hun Sen, was of a poor background who became a trusted military commander of the king. According to history, he usurped and assassinated the king and declared himself king. Hun Sen often likened himself to Sdech Korn because he came from a peasant background who rose to become the most powerful Cambodian prime minister ever and was the only person who dared to arrest a prince (Prince Sirivudh in 1995) and put him in jail and, since the re-establishment of the monarchy in 1993, he has constantly reminded the royal family that the continued existence of the monarch is at his mercy.
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