Prime Minister Hun Sen calls on members of the royal family Monday, to submit a legal binding bill into law banning themselves from politics.
Prime Minister Hun Sen's latest comment followed by retired King Norodom Sihanouk's announcement last week, for royalists to not incite conflict with Prime Minister Hun Sen along with top government officials, such as CPP president Chea Sim and National Assembly president Heng Samrin. Furthermore, the former Cambodian king suggested that royals should remove themselves from politics altogether.
At Chatamouk Hall in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian prime minister tells reporters that he does not want to bar the royalists from politics, because the decisions should come from them. However, he says that should they agree to it, the bill of proposal should be submitted before the country's 2008 election.
Prince Sisowath Thomico, leader of Sangkum Jatiniyum Front Party (SJFP) says that if royal members were not involved in politics, then Cambodia would not have been given its independence in 1953 from France and from Vietnam in 1991.
NGO Licadho's director, Pung Chhiv Kek says that the only way to ban royal family members from doing politics in the country is to have a national referendum.