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| Benny Widyono (L) |
By Benny Widyono
Asia Times Online
Cambodia's former monarch, Norodom Sihanouk, was cremated on Monday in a
custom-built crematorium at the Meru field next to the royal palace in
the capital Phnom Penh. Millions of Cambodians, most of whom have not
known life without the charismatic monarch, are believed to have
witnessed the elaborate cremation in an outpouring of national mourning.
First crowned king by French colonialists in 1941, Sihanouk dominated
the country’s politics for over seven decades, variously as monarch,
prince, head of state, prime minister, head of the Khmer Rouge
government, chairman of the post-civil war coalition government, head of
the Supreme National Council, and again as constitutional monarch from
1993 until he abdicated for health reasons in 2004.
I first met the flamboyant and versatile prince in New York in the
1980s. I was fortunate to be invited to Sihanouk’s much coveted annual
song and dance parties held at the Helmsley Hotel near the United
Nations’ headquarters. While the king’s parties were colorful and
lively, with the monarch crooning renditions of Tea for Two and That's
What Friends Are For, a note of gloom hung over the occasions while his
country was still torn by civil war.
After Vietnam invaded Cambodia, ousted the murderous Khmer Rouge regime,
and installed its own People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) government
in 1979, the United Nations instead recognized the Coalition Government
of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK). The coalition operated from refugee
camps in neighboring Thailand and included elements of the Khmer Rouge
and Sihanouk's royalist Funcinpec movement.
With the Cold War in full swing, the Soviet Union and its communist
allies predictably recognized the pro-Vietnam PRK government. This
stalemate of two governments continued until the Paris Peace Accords
were signed in October 1991, establishing the United Nations
Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). UNTAC was tasked with
holding elections and paving the way for national reconciliation.
Sihanouk's annual soirees in New York were held while he campaigned for
the CGDK against the PRK at the UN's General Assembly. That included a
diplomatic and often revealing relationship with UNTAC administrators,
this writer included.
"I wish to thank you, Excellency Mr Yasushi Akashi, for sending another
prince from Java to help bring peace to Cambodia," Sihanouk quipped in
August 1992 to UNTAC's then senior most administrator in reference to
myself.
The occasion for the quip was the inauguration of UNTAC's provincial
headquarters, where I served as a shadow governor. Akashi was the head
of UNTAC while Sihanouk served as head of the Supreme National Council, a
symbolic authority that represented Cambodian sovereignty during the
UNTAC-led transitional period.
While not a prince, I did indeed hail from Java, Indonesia. Sihanouk's
learned joke baptizing me as the second prince of Java had its origins
in the year 802, when Prince Jayavarman II was proclaimed a universal
monarch, or Deva Raja, (God King). To this day, the peasants who make up
the bulk of Cambodia worship Sihanouk as the last Deva Raja of
Cambodia.
During my UNTAC tenure, I got to know Sihanouk intimately. At one point,
I was asked by my UNTAC superiors to accompany Sihanouk by helicopter
to the headquarters of the Khmer Rouge to see how they were preparing
for the upcoming elections. Because he was using UNTAC helicopters,
Sihanouk requested that a senior UNTAC person accompany him.
Although he was put under house arrest during most of the Khmer Rouge's
1975-79 rule - during which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodian's
perished - Sihanouk had earlier made common cause with the group after
the pro-American general Lon Nol overthrew his neutral government in a
1970 coup. He was thus seen by the UN as an important interlocutor to
the Khmer Rouge, which had fought an effective guerilla campaign after
being toppled by Vietnamese forces in 1979.
We boarded a small six-seater French military helicopter in Siem Reap
and landed at Pailin, the lugubrious Khmer Rouge headquarters, which was
off limits to UNTAC. The pro-Khmer Rouge population who were trucked in
from surrounding villages gave Sihanouk a thunderous welcome. They were
attired in colorful new dresses imported from neighboring Thailand and
looked relatively prosperous compared with the poverty-stricken people
in nearby PKR-controlled areas.
At lunchtime, I was invited to join a banquet of Khmer Rouge top brass
in honor of the royal couple. Khmer Rouge leaders, including Khieu
Samphan, Ieng Sary, and Son Sen, and I flanked the prince and princess.
Pol Pot, the radical group's leader, was apparently lurking in a nearby
room watching. Ieng Sary's daughter, who had studied in London, prepared
a sumptuous Khmer nouvelle cuisine lunch served with Mouton Cadet,
Sihanouk's favorite French wine.
From my vantage point at the end of the table, I was able to observe
firsthand the bizarre relationship between Sihanouk and the Khmer
Rouge's leadership. Their strange conversation that day centered on the
concept of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and Friday the
13th as a Western superstition.
The Khmer Rouge top brass continuously teased Sihanouk that he had
stopped his amorous escapades after marrying Princess Monique, his sixth
official wife. Sihanouk turned to me and confirmed with his inimitable
cackle that Princess Monique kept him in chains and would never again
allow him to look at other women.
Perpetual crisis
After UNTAC left Cambodia, I was appointed as the United Nations
secretary-general's representative to Cambodia. It was then that I truly
got to know Sihanouk. I arrived in April 1994 in time to watch yet
another tumultuous welcome for Sihanouk, who then arrived from Beijing
as king and nominal head of the Royal Government of Cambodia, the
post-election coalition that was recognized by all global countries.
Underscoring unresolved tensions, the government was headed by two prime
ministers, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Sihanouk's son, and Hun Sen, the
PRK's prime minister since 1985. The Khmer Rouge, however, maintained
their arms and continued to challenge the new coalition government's
authority in the territories it controlled.
On May 1, 1994, I was granted an audience with the king. After
exchanging formalities, we were led to a smaller room with a huge map of
Cambodia. Here, Sihanouk went into great detail in outlining the crisis
caused by the Khmer Rouge's then ongoing counter-offensive, which
dominated our conversation that day.
In highly animated fashion, Sihanouk predicted that the Khmer Rouge,
buoyed by its recent military successes, would try to proclaim a
separate state in an outer northern crescent of territory bordering on
Thailand. The prince cackled and told me that behind the room's huge
curtains many spies were lurking with secret microphones linked
variously to the Khmer Rouge, Ranariddh and Hun Sen.
That day, he was thinking aloud about what to do to save Cambodia from
yet another crisis. He complained that the coalition government did not
take him seriously, while expressing a striking lack of confidence in
the co-premiers. It was quite evident from our conversation that
Sihanouk was unhappy with his position as a king who reigned but did not
rule.
"They wanted me to be somewhere up in the sky above Cambodia," he said
at a private dinner where he lamented agreeing to the co-premiers' push
to creation a constitutional monarchy.
In June 1994, Sihanouk unveiled yet another plan to retake the reins of
power. From self-exile in Beijing, where he would spend much of the rest
of his life, he summoned veteran Far Eastern Economic Review journalist
Nate Thayer for a long interview, during which he accused the coalition
government of being incapable of halting the deterioration of the
country's politics.
"How can I avoid intervening in a few months' time or one year's time if
the situation continues to deteriorate?" he asked during the bombshell
interview.
To be sure, Sihanouk was never fully marginalized. He published his
writings regularly in his Bulletin Mensual de Documentation (Monthly
Bulletin), which can now be read online. He often handwrote biting
letters, commentaries and annotations to newspaper and magazine articles
on Cambodia in English and French, lavishly decorated by multiple
exclamation marks and under linings.
The bulletin provided an outlet to criticize the governance of the
co-premiers and wield influence. When the coalition government became
more internally strained, the writings of a man known as Ruom Rith
suddenly appeared in his bulletin.
Ostensibly, Ruom Rith was an old friend of the king; he was his exact
age and supposedly lived somewhere in the French Pyrenees. They shared
identical writing styles, alive with exclamation points and multiple -
up to four or five in a row - question marks. Whereas the king was
restrained in criticizing Hun Sen, Ruom Rith was quite outspoken.
It was commonly believed in Phnom Penh that Ruom Rith was a pen name for
the king himself - although the monarch vigorously denied it. Later,
during tense periods leading up to the bloody 1997 confrontation that
saw Hun Sen oust Ranariddh, other alter egos of the king appeared. In
some instances, they even began to argue with each other in the
bulletin. The king appeared to enjoy this role play, choreographing with
obvious amusement his own private puppet show.
Due to poor health, Sihanouk abdicated the throne for a second time in
2004. He handed down the crown to his unmarried and childless youngest
son Norodom Sihamoni, who presided over today's elaborate cremation
ceremonies. After Sihanouk stepped down, the National Assembly bestowed
the title of "the Great King Hero, Father of Independence, of
Territorial Integrity and National Unity" on the former monarch and
politician.
At today's cremation ceremony, most Cambodians will indeed remember
Sihanouk as the father of Cambodia, the man who gave them independence,
strove for peace and reconciliation, and ultimately saved their small
but distinct country from disappearing off the map.
Benny Widyono is a retired United Nations civil servant from
Indonesia. His last position was the UN secretary-general's
representative in Cambodia, 1994-97. He is the author of Dancing in
Shadows: Sihanouk (Rowman and Littlefield).
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