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5 Monarchic manipulation in
Cambodia By Geoff Gunn
The survival of the monarchy in Cambodia
is little short of remarkable in the light of that
country's modern history. French manipulation of
the monarchy and attempts to buttress religion and
culture alongside the rise of nationalist youth
and Buddhist radicalism was an important precursor
to postwar events.
No less momentous for
modern Cambodian history was the Vichy French
installation of Norodom Sihanouk as king and the
elevation under Japan of the putative republican
Son Ngoc Thanh. Facing down an armed Issarak-Viet
Minh challenge also joined by a dissident prince,
it is no less significant that the young King
Sihanouk successfully trumped French ambitions by
mounting his
own "royal crusade" for
independence even ahead of the Geneva Settlement
of 1954.
Undoubtedly the passing of
Norodom Sihanouk on October 15, 2012, at the age
of 89 after six decades of close involvement in
Cambodian politics has served to refocus attention
upon the status of the monarchy in that country,
facts not diminished by the actual succession in
October 2004 to his son Norodom Sihamoni (b.
1953).
A phoenix float carries
the casket of Sihanouk
Though much exoticized
and othered as a peaceful realm under the French
protectorate, at least alongside the challenges
imposed by Vietnamese nationalists, dissent always
simmered beneath the surface calm in Cambodia,
whether from the overburdened-over taxed
peasantry, from the major immigrant communities,
from religious radicals within and without the
Buddhist hierarchies, or even from scheming royal
princes.
Given French manipulations of
religion, tradition and even the royal line, a
complex political picture emerges, even prior to
the Japanese occupation. Japan was even more
successful in Cambodia than in the other Indochina
states in installing an anti-French republican
demagogue, an enigmatic figure whose name recurs
in Cambodian history down until the US-backed
military coup in Phnom Penh of March 1970.
Thanks to Anglo-French intervention, and
Sihanouk's personality, the post-war outcome in
Cambodia was a "royal road to independence"
although even that pathway was severely challenged
by the Viet Minh and their sometime Issarak (Free
Khmer) allies. Yet the royal ascendancy around the
Vichy French-anointed monarch, Sihanouk, would
also come back to haunt Cambodia, not only in
striking a neutral course in the maelstrom of the
American war, but also in lending his name to the
China-backed anti-Vietnamese communist movement
that triumphed in Phnom Penh in 1975.
As
this article develops, below the politics of
culture or the tendency of the French to buttress
neo-traditionalist trends wherever they saw them,
emerges a byzantine crossover of royal dynasties,
powerful families and cliques that, in many ways,
continued to define Cambodian politics through the
modern period. It is also true, as Roger Kershaw
(2000; 6; 17; 19-20) unveils in a comparative
study on the "fortunes" of monarchy in Southeast
Asia, that analysis of surviving monarchies (as
with Thailand and Brunei alongside Cambodia),
should at least account for the "synthetic"
alongside the "authentic traditional values" (not
excepting even Britain from this analysis).
And so, with decolonization in Southeast
Asia, legitimacy questions were raised to a new
level as with the charisma of founding fathers of
independence, alongside the role of modern
bureaucracies, militaries and political parties.
Cambodia under Sihanouk was not an exception.
As historian of Cambodia David Chandler
(2008: 167) has written, there are several ways at
looking at the years of French hegemony over
Cambodia. One way is to phase this history as the
extension and decline of French control. Another
way is to examine the period and its ideology and
practice from a French point of view. A third
would be to treat the period as a part of
Cambodian history, connected to the times before
and after French protection.
He finds the
third approach seductive (insofar as it can be
told through Cambodian eyes). Such would be
meritorious, if possible, but without retreating
entirely into a cultural studies-critical
literature approach (Tully 2002; Edwards 2007), we
should not ignore the established literature if we
are to position Cambodia within an international
political understanding.
Divided into five
sections, a first section looks at French
manipulation of the monarchy. A second turns to
the French attempt to buttress religion and
culture, alongside the rise of nationalist youth
and Buddhist radicalism. A third section examines
the vicissitudes of Cambodia under Vichy,
including the installation of Norodom Sihanouk as
king, climaxing with the rise of the
Japanese-backed republican Son Ngoc Thanh. A final
section examines the broad international context
in which Sihanouk's mounted his "royal crusade for
independence."
Manipulation of the
monarchy As with the case of Annam, French
colonial power did not and could not ignore
traditional notions of kingship, but in Cambodia
they went further in indulging the institution of
the monarchy even while manipulating succession
and vetting candidates upon succession. This was
made easier owing to the fact that, in Cambodia,
the monarchy was not strictly hereditary. Rather
it is elective and chosen by a crown council
(Dauphin-Meunier 1965: 10). The French also had to
face down monarchs deemed ineffectual, wasteful,
stubborn, or just addicted to opium.
We
detour to offer a genealogy of the kings of
Cambodia. To French advantage, two branches of the
royal family contended in the late 19th-early 20th
century, that of the Norodoms, and that of the
Sisowaths, Monarchs serving under the protectorate
were Norodom (r.1860-1904); his younger brother
Norodom Sisowath (r.1904-27), Sisowath Monivong
(r.1927-41); and Norodom Sihanouk (r.1941-55;
1993-2004).
But in strengthening the
institution of the monarchy, the French also
looked to boost their own prestige alongside
collaborators from among the royal family. The
most obvious and enduring French contribution to
this project was rebuilding the palace. Commencing
in 1912, and over a decade in the making, the
initial reconstruction-renovation project was
budgeted at 1 million piasters.
This
involved the commissioning of a new reception
room, salle de dances, throne room, royal
chambers, lodging for palace staff, palace
hospital, earth works, drains, water works, and so
on (AOM Indo NF/48/585 Resident Superieur au
Cambodge Gouverneur General de l'Indochine, Phnom
Penh, Nov. 16, 1915). Notwithstanding war and
revolution, alongside refurbishments, it survives.
King Norodom (1859-1904) and royal
succession Writing on the state of affairs
in Cambodia in 1886, the Resident Superior of
Cambodia informed Paris that the general situation
was "excellent, but delicate"." Reflecting upon
King Norodom (r.1859-1904), he remarked. "It
remains to believe that the death of the King will
permit us to modify at our will the direction of
our policies... " As he warned, "The Prince
favored by the King may not be the Prince of our
choice. It would have as consequence the
re-establishment of the appanage of the king. The
state of health of the king is delicate. The
smallest mistake on our part could compromise the
return of taxes which in recent years are returned
in increasing favorable conditions thanks to [...]
reforms."
In a further word of caution, he
remarked, "For a long time the population has been
defensive over abuses. Excesses by the mandarins
bring benefits almost exclusively to a parasitic
class whose title owes to the king but who lack
well-determined roles except to exploit this class
of worker with impunity" (AOM Indo/NF/48/583-578,
Resident Superieur Cambodge a Gouverneur General
de l'Indochine, Phnom Penh, 3 Juillet, 1886).
Although initially installed by the
Siamese court in 1863, King Norodom sought the
protection of France from both the Siamese and
Vietnamese after tensions grew between them.
Notably, in 1867, Bangkok entered into a treaty
with France, renouncing suzerainty over Cambodia
in exchange for control over the western provinces
of Battambang and Siem Reap duly becoming part of
Siam, until ceded back to Cambodia in 1906. In a
written protest to the French government, Norodom
expressed his resentment and noted that he
reserved the right and those of his heirs over the
ceded provinces (Osborne 1969: 188-9).
As
summarized in a French memorandum, matters
governing royal succession in Cambodia were not
subject to a written constitution. Rather, they
conformed to religious sources (more accurately
traditional practices also based upon religious
values) and, as explained below, the needs of the
French protectorate.
Such practices were
said to involve the caste of Brahmins represented
in that age as Bakour or guardians of the sacred
sword, relic of an ancient cult, performed
exclusively within the royal palace. The royalty
was elective with the choice of the sovereign
determined by a council made up of high
dignitaries of the kingdom (the Council of
Ministers under the protectorate). With the death
of a reigning king, the Council met to chooses a
successor who, necessarily, had to be of the royal
family.
In the case of the royal family
being extinguished, then the successor had to be
chosen from among his descendants, a ceremony
involving the semi-divine presence of the
sovereign. Although free to make its choice, the
council of dignitaries was always taken into
account by the king who made his preference known,
either by designation, or by the election of a
candidate, preferably his son going by the title
of obbareach, second king or, more accurately heir
presumptive to the king. As indicated, Sisowath,
the younger brother of Norodom, succeeded the
latter and not one of Sisowath's sons (AOM Indo
NF/48/585 note).
As Osborne (1969: 4-7),
has elaborated, the king actually shared the
administration of the kingdom with his royal
relatives and senior officials, including royal
figures with territorial responsibility. Moreover,
owing to the widespread practice of royal
polygamy, the Cambodian court counted any number
of aspiring princes, certain ones harboring claims
upon the throne. Still, royalty was not a
permanent hereditary right. But non-royal
officials, notably five great ministers of the
court, in meeting with the leading civil and
religious leaders of the realm, were also
empowered as with the procedure for recommending a
new king.
In a Convention of 1883, the
French broached the question of collecting
revenues from opium. In this unequal exchange it
was agreed that, in return for surrendering this
right to the Protectorate, the Royal treasury
would collect an annual fixed sum. But King
Norodom and his brother Sisowath, both opium
smokers, preferred to receive the payment en
nature. Reaching back to 1884, King Norodom
demanded a payoff from the French of 18.9 kg of
raw opium every two months.
In October
1915, not satisfied with the quality, the newly
installed King Sisowath was presented with "deluxe
Benares". Although a royal ordinance was handed
down in 1907 proscribing the use of opium by court
mandarins, that ruling was only honored in the
breach. Down until 1915, at least, between 2-3,000
members of the court, male and female, royals
included, were addicts (Resident Superieur au
Cambodge, Nov 16, 1915, op cit).
In 1897,
the Resident Superior complained to Paris that the
then ruling king of Cambodia, King Norodom, was no
longer fit to rule and asked for permission to
assume the king's powers to collect taxes, issue
decrees, and even appoint royal officials and
choose the crown prince (AOM Indo NF/48/585). From
that time, Norodom and the future kings of
Cambodia were figureheads and merely patrons of
the Buddhist religion, though they were still
viewed as god-kings by the peasant population.
As with the protectorate in Annam with its
capital at Hue, surviving as a shell of its former
munificence, all other power in Cambodia was in
the hands of the Resident Superior, the military,
and the colonial bureaucracy.
Death of
Norodom and succession of
Sisowath Importantly, with the death of
King Norodom in 1904, the succession was
transferred by the French to his brother Sisowath
rather than passing the throne on to his sons.
More generally, the Sisowath branch of the royal
family was perceived as more submissive to French
rule and less nationalistic than the Norodom
branch. Specifically, Norodom was viewed as
responsible for the constant revolts against
French rule. The succession issue and the division
of the royal family would also be revisited by the
French with the selection of Sihanouk, as
discussed below.
Norodom had wished that
he be succeeded by his favorite son, Prince
Yukanthor (1860-1934). However, on one of his
trips to Europe in August-September 1900,
Yukanthor criticized French rule in Cambodia by
way of petition (See Osborne 1969: 244-5). Having
been exiled from Cambodia for "acts of
disobedience", Yukanthor then based himself in
Siam after having created an opposition movement
in his favor. According to an official French
source, Yukanthor was also involved in secret acts
against the protectorate and the royal government
during World War I. He had no official function,
and was deemed incapable, without personality,
character, or dignity, and devoted to his pursuit
of opium (AOM Indo NF/48/585).
On the side
of Sisowath, there stood 39-year-old Prince
Souphanouvong, Minister of Marine, deemed to have
modest intellectual characteristics. Yongkot (aged
35), the youngest son, was not seen to have
profited from his stay in France, having led a
"dissipated life of pleasure." Phanouvong
Southarat remained a candidate from the Norodom
branch of the royal family, just as Monivong
remained a candidate for the Sirowath branch.
Phanouvong was regarded as perfectly qualified by
the correctness of his attitudes (towards France),
his intellectual qualities, and the dignity of his
private life.
He had served as prime
minister and minister of interior and religion. He
was alert to religious questions, had great
attachment to the country and its traditions, and
was open to progress. His attitude towards the
protectorate was unimpeachable. Although Sutharat
had been designated as successor to the reigning
king in 1915, by that time, it was impossible to
propose the best candidate, because Sathavong was
also well qualified. But because Prince Monivong
suffered a health problem, the preferred choice of
Sisowath prevailed, a fragile quality agreed upon
by the government (AOM Indo NF/48/585).
As
the Governor General advised Paris, due to
Norodom's aggravated condition, it was important
that the French Consul in Singapore ensure
surveillance over Prince Yukanthor. Furthermore,
he counseled, "take all measures in Cambodia to
facilitate a normal transition without a coup de
trone by the obbareach, as mentioned, the
presumptive heir to the throne. It would perhaps
be prudent, he continued, to "send a gunboat to
Phnom Penh along with an auxiliary company" (AOM
Indo/NF/48/583-578 tel, Gouverneur General, Hanoi,
1904).
Needless to say, given French
preparations and precautions, Prince Sisowath
(1904-27) younger brother of Norodom, succeeded
the latter. Whatever the truth, as Sihanouk (1974:
149) wrote in his memoirs, his discovery of
documents in the royal palace in 1941-5 relating
to the Yukanthor case, revealed to him just how
manipulative the French could be when faced with
the ugly truth, such as exposed by the prince and
legitimate heir to the throne in his petition of
1900.
With the death of Norodom on the
evening of April 24, 1904, the Council of
Ministers was immediately convened, bringing
together the Resident Superior, local chiefs, and
the proclaimed obbareach (Sisowath) in a ceremony
where Buddhist rites were conducted.
Having been recognized by all the palace
mandarins, the obbareach pronounced an Oath
declaring recognition of the protection of France
and his desire for progress and a prosperous
Cambodia (AOM Indo/NF/48/583-578. tel, Hanoi a
Colonies, Paris, April 25, 1904). As Osborne
(1969: 258) declaims, "Norodom's was a tragic
life", notably his allegiance to the past and old
models of the state, scarcely prepared him to meet
the challenge of the French in Cambodia.
Nevertheless, the institutions he defended
outlived him. The prestige of the office of king
remained deeply embedded, yet the French purchase
on power over the court and country had also
become entrenched.
King Sisowath
Monivong (1904-27) According to a French
account, the advent of Sisowath on the throne in
1904 marked an end to the discontent and conflicts
which, during the long reign of Norodom, had
hampered the work of government in pursuing
internal reform. In the words of Governor General
Jean Baptiste Paul Beau, over this period,
Sisowath had demonstrated his loyalty to France.
The period from October 1902 to 1907 marked a "new
era" for Cambodia.
"The pacification of
the country is complete, the population is at
peace. Day by day the population make easy contact
with our method without too much repugnance; the
mandarins engage more intelligently our economic
program." To reinforce communal organization, he
continued, the new position of mesrok or
village chief was to be created, and "which will
happily fill in an important administrative
lacunae in the indigenous administration of the
country" (Beau 1908).
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