Potemkin Democracy - Hun Sen's Cambodia - page 103

Om Radsady's lunchtime killing was just one of a string of political homicides that
marked the run-up and aftermath of the 2003 election. 42 Two weeks earlier, the monk
Sam Bunthoeun, who had agitated against a voting ban for monks, was gunned down
outside Wat Lanka. In October, with the three main parties locked in coalition talks, mo-
torcycle assassins shot Chuor Chetharith, the news director of Funcinpec's Ta Prohm ra-
dio station, not long after Hun Sen criticized its “insulting” broadcasts. A few days later,
armed thugs wounded karaoke star Touch Srey Nich, who had performed in a song that
was used in Funcinpec's election campaign. The highest profile victim was Chea Vichea,
a popular trade unionist and SRP supporter who was shot in early 2004 while buying a
newspaper outside a wat in Phnom Penh. (The Sam Bunthoeun and Chea Vichea cases
are explored further in Chapter 10.)
It was against this menacing backdrop that Prince Ranariddh again agreed to enter gov-
ernment with the CPP. The arrangement, signed by the two parties in June 2004, was a re-
run of the 1993 and 1998 coalition deals, this time on terms even less favorable to Ranar-
iddh's camp. To keep the royalists happy, more than 160 new positions were added to the
bloated cabinet, which now totaled 7 deputy prime ministers, 15 senior ministers, 28 min-
isters, 135 secretaries of state, and 146 undersecretaries of state scattered across 26 minis-
tries. Hundreds of additional posts were created at the district and provincial levels. 43 To
sweeten the deal for Ranariddh, the CPP also tossed in a brand-new French Aérospatiale
Alouette II helicopter and returned a private jet which had been seized by the authorities
in July 1997. 44 Sam Rainsy, once again, was left at the altar.
Just one obstacle for Hun Sen remained. The CPP-Funcinpec deal required a tricky
legislative workaround known as a “package vote,” which would allow the National
Assembly to approve the new legislative and executive appointments with a single show
of hands. This was contrary to the Constitution (which required two separate votes), and
an amendment would be necessary before the vote could take place. The package vote
was opposed by the SRP and more staunchly by Sihanouk, who had grown frustrated at
being sidelined and ignored during the postelection negotiations. The king's proposal for
a three-party agreement was dismissed, as was his suggestion for a popular referendum
on the package vote. The 81-year-old monarch eventually threw up his hands in disgust.
In early 2004 he branded the deadlock “a ridiculous comedy” and flew to Beijing for
medical treatment. 45 Political leaders refused a further royal summons to North Korea in
May to break the political impasse.
As an embittered Sihanouk retreated to the lakes and vales of Changsuwon, refusing
to return and sign the package vote amendment, he dispatched an open letter calling on
acting head of state Chea Sim to follow his “conscience” in deciding whether to sign the
bill—something that was largely taken for granted. But the Senate president, to wide-
spread surprise, also chose to abstain. Hun Sen, enraged by Chea Sim's defiance, took