Potemkin Democracy - Hun Sen's Cambodia - page 104

decisive action. On July 13 scores of riot police commanded by Hok Lundy surrounded
Chea Sim's home in Phnom Penh and escorted him under armed guard to the airport,
where he was put on a plane to Bangkok.
The official story was that Chea Sim had left the country for “medical treatment.” Few
believed it. Rainsy and others said Hun Sen had presented him with a choice: sign the
package vote amendment or leave town. 46 The decision was made for him. With Chea
Sim out of the way, Funcinpec's Nhek Bun Chhay—deputy president of the Senate and
next in line as acting head of state—stepped in and signed the controversial amendment.
The National Assembly convened and a new government was formed. SRP lawmakers
boycotted the vote in protest. From his aerie in the North Korean hills, Sihanouk de-
nounced the new government as an “anti-Constitutional, anti-Democratic, anti-Royalty
'Coup d'État.'” 47
Chea Sim's forced departure formed a bizarre coda to a year of stalemate. It was also
a rare public display of the rift within the CPP. If the party had learned anything from
its Vietnamese mentors, it was the importance of maintaining a fierce internal discipline
and presenting an unbreakable front. But in 2004, as during the “coup” attempt of 1994,
divisions briefly broke the surface and emerged into the open. The disagreement, as ever,
was about power. Chea Sim was apparently unhappy with the new coalition deal, which
had left many of his protégés out in the cold. 48 Nine days later, he returned to Cambodia,
and the same armed reception that had seen him off. The humiliating episode capped off
the erosion of his power since the mid-1980s, and cemented Hun Sen at the apex of both
party and government. After suffering a stroke in late 2000, the 71-year-old party presid-
ent no longer had the vim or clout to oppose his energetic younger rival.
Chea Sim wasn't the only one fuming over the new power-sharing pact. Speaking to
Voice of America after the formation of the new government in mid-2004, Sam Rainsy
denounced Ranariddh's shift “from white to black” and accused him of taking bribes from
the CPP to join government. Ranariddh responded that he had joined the coalition in order
“to serve the nation” and save it from paralysis. 49 Whatever his motivation, the deal was
loudly criticized within Funcinpec and more party members resigned in protest. Once a
robust source of opposition, the party had now become little more than an empty shell of
patronage, clinging barnacle-like to Hun Sen's steaming ship of state. Mu Sochua, who
served as Funcinpec's minister of women's affairs before quitting and joining the SRP
in August 2004, said the party no longer had any clear strategy or political platform. “I
didn't see the prince moving further,” she said. “It was so painful how Rainsy had to beg
the prince to put national interests first.” On October 7, 2004, King Sihanouk announced
that he was abdicating the throne. At first it was hard to tell if he meant it. Threaten-
ing to quit had been a signature move since Sihanouk's early years in power, and many
people assumed he was hoping for a national outpouring of support that would “force”