Cambodia Proxy Battlefield

M G G Pillai The Cambodian peasant has a long memory with an instinctive distrust of anyone who harmed their King Sihanouk. The recent flight of Prince Chakrapong after a failed coup attempt is irrelevant, but underscores the tenuousness of Cambodia's experiment with democracy PRINCE NORODOM CHAKRAPONG's melodramatic flight to Kuala Lumpur after a failed coup d'etat in Cambodia early this month diverted attention from the quiet, inevitable power struggle now under way. His father, King Norodom Sihanouk, suffers from a terminal, irreversible cancer; his death would unleash a power struggle among the main groups, and their foreign backers. Prince Chakrapong is the first casualty of that. Doubts exist if the next king, almost certainly the co-prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, would be as politically astute, and nimble as his father to maintain the peace, adding to the worries and uncertainties.