Lucky Lucan wrote:
The article was about events in early 1997, it's not a history of the period.
LL, you continue being disingenuous.
Of course the OP article was not a history. It didn't need to be, because when it was published 20 years ago the expat readers in Cambodia at the time all understood the background and didn't need to be filled in.
But by reviving that article two decades on, you are exploiting current general vagueness about that now far-off period by tacking to it a distorted pro-CPP propaganda commentary then presenting the whole thing as a document of historical significance ... just look at the heading you accorded this thread.
Your post deliberately omitted the context with which readers perused the story 20 years ago:
(abridged from my kindle) The CPP had been placed in power when the Vietnamese seized Cambodia in 1979. Prior to the 1993 vote, the CPP pledged to concede power if they lost that initial election. But upon their heavy defeat they reneged, threatening secession of the Eastern zone and war if they were not granted equal power. To meek UN compliance, Sihanouk brokered agreement to that latter outcome.
But this only legitimized covert continuation of CPP control of Cambodia for they held overwhelming military advantage; the village chiefs who controlled 80 per cent of the population remained in place as CPP loyalists; and the CPP retained effective control of all state organs and ministries, with the FUNCINPEC electoral winners left with nothing but symbolic power. Three years on (when the OP article was penned), aware that they were militarily outmuscled and vulnerable to coup before the next election could be staged, and of the opinion that the CPP had already initiated several aborted attempts to seize sole authority, FUNCINPEC discussed alignment with the remaining Khmer Rouge rebels … and at the exact same time the CPP itself was engaged in trying to bribe or coerce those exact same Khmer Rouge to link with them instead so as to deny FUNCINPEC the means to resist an outright CPP coup (that coup eventuated some months later, and the CPP have manipulated all subsequent elections).
LL, you have replicated that 1997 article two decades down the line when, at a wild guesstimate, 70 per cent of current expats in Cambodia would have no idea who or what FUNCINPEC ever was (let alone the BLDP), with many of the remainder vague at best … and by posting on the internet then potentially anyone anywhere can read it … and with just about everyone needing to rely on your tack-on misinformation for 'clarification'.
I hold that it is calculated, intended deceit.
And you haven't even attempted to justify the 'treacherous' slur you injected into the OP.
(if this gets through then thanks Gavinmac for 'test'. I almost immediately got shutdown on Speakeasy. Hopefully the censor is currently in the toilet.)