Kingdom of Cambodia


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Dennism

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BBC

Cambodian king backs gay marriage

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk has shown that advancing years are no barrier to an open mind and liberal attitude.

After watching television images of gay marriages in San Francisco, the 81-year-old monarch has decided that single sex weddings should be allowed in Cambodia too.

He expressed his views in a hand written message on his website which has proved extremely popular in Cambodia.

The king said that as a "liberal democracy", Cambodia should allow "marriage between man and man... or between woman and woman."

He said he had respect for homosexual and lesbians and said they were as they were because God loved a "wide range of tastes."

Sihanouk, who is currently in Beijing for medical treatment, also said that transvestites should be "accepted and well-treated in our national community."

Such views are not widespread in Cambodia, but the king is hugely revered, although he is a constitutional monarch and has no executive powers.

San Francisco has issued more than 2,800 marriage licences to gay couples in the past week amid a growing debate in the US over whether such unions should be allowed
 
Originally posted by Alisa@Feb 20th, 2004 - 5:44 pm
Good on his behalf :flower:
I am willing to give him a hi5 on his behaf.
Lets se when the next president of USA are going to haf the same opinion ?
And lets hope it is going to be a Democrat this time and NEVER
Bush Jr. :yuk: :yuk: :yuk: :yuk: :doh: :doh: :doh: :yuk: :yuk:
 
Originally posted by Alisa@Feb 20th, 2004 - 5:44 pm
Good on his behalf :flower:
Interesting. If legalized, it will, no doubt, do wonders for Cambodia's tourism industry which is already taking off.

As great as this is, I wish now, however, that he would speak out (more vocually) against some of the more substantive problems facing the country, such as the child sex trade and the tourism industry evolving around that.
 
"And lets hope it is going to be a Democrat this time and NEVER
Bush Jr." H.M. Margrethe

I completely agree with you H.M. Margrethe about Bush. I think that Kerry will be the next president. In the Bible it says that a marriage should be between a man and a women. Most every person I know thinks that and I do not truly like the homosexual way of life, but I do think that gay people should be given the right to be married like every other person though.
Elle
 
Most every person I know thinks that and I do not truly like the homosexual way of life, but I do think that gay people should be given the right to be married like every other person though.

I share those exact views :flower:

It is great that the king has spoken out in support of gay marriage :flower:
 
What's wrong with Bush is that he's bluring the division between Church and State. He's including his own Judeo-Christian beliefs into law when there is supposed to be a separation between them. It is discrimination, in my opinion. He's discriminating against people due to their sexual orientation. He's saying that a man and a woman who don't love and respect each other should marry and their union be given full protection and benefits over a same-sex couple who have what it takes to be together and stick it out till death do they part. Gee, I think Bush flunked that part in college in American Government about all men and women are created equal therefore should be given full rights and protections under the law. That's what disgusts me about this president. It's okay to push his views on other people and manipulate the law to suit his beliefs.

More power to the King of Cambodia! A man of the modern era!
 
The Christian Coalition does not want gay people to be able to marry. The Christian Coalition represents the average middle class family. President Bush needs those votes for this upcoming election. The Christian Coalition thinks that a marriage should be between a man and women because that is what it says in the Bible. The problem I have with the Christian Coalition is that they support war. One of the Ten Commandments states that we should not kill people. Famous preachers pray that the officials in Iraq are caught. Why do they not pray that these people change their actions?
Elle
 
Originally posted by *Elle*@Feb 21st, 2004 - 7:15 pm
The Christian Coalition does not want gay people to be able to marry. The Christian Coalition represents the average middle class family. President Bush needs those votes for this upcoming election. The Christian Coalition thinks that a marriage should be between a man and women because that is what it says in the Bible. The problem I have with the Christian Coalition is that they support war. One of the Ten Commandments states that we should not kill people. Famous preachers pray that the officials in Iraq are caught. Why do they not pray that these people change their actions?
Elle
Yes, there's plenty of hypocrisy in the Christian Coalition. Supporting war is one of them. Also what the religious folk forget is that some denominations use religion to support gay marriages as well. Same texts, different readings, I guess.
 
Same sex marriage is a hot button her in Canada as well. I think people have a hard time in secular society that church issues are or at least should be seperate from the affairs of state.

I personally believe that everyone should have equal rights under the law.
 
:clap: good news! unconventional king! nice, nice.

STOP DISCRIMINATION!
 
Cambodian Royalty

Please share any pictures and current new of the Norodom royal family in Cambodia.
 
i guess no one is interested in the royalty of asia, but only of europe.
 
King of Cambodia has Abbdicated

Those who follow Asian politics and/or royalty know that he often threatens it (for a myriad of reasons that I won't get into now), but it has just been announced in Phnom Penh, Cambodia that the country's king, Norodom Sihanouk, actually abdicated Thursday because of poor health and asked the people of Cambodia to begin a search for a successor (from within the RF). This was announced by Prince Rarindranth, who is the head of the National Assembly.

More to come later (I'm sure).
 
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This is what people felt about the king abdicated:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/default.stm

Cambodia's King Sihanouk has announced he is going to abdicate, after ruling the country, on and off, for more than 60 years. BBC News Online asked residents of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, how they felt about the news.

Sokaa, bar worker, 19
I'm not sure what will happen if he goes, but I would be very worried. He's the father of the nation in Cambodia. When he stays here, the nation is happy and at peace. I want him to be in good health and to come back soon.

Sopaea, 25, restaurant worker
When the French controlled Cambodia, everyone liked the king because he dismissed the French from Cambodia. But some people don't like him because he could not stop the Khmer Rouge.
We need the king to control the law in Cambodia. Sometimes all the parties in Cambodia are in conflict, and if we have a king, he can control the situation.

Kek Galabru, rights activist
The situation is very tense. There are a lot of threats to the opposition parties, so people are very worried, people are scared. They really want the king to come back because they think that then most of the tension will go away. The Cambodian people don't want to see a new king right now. They want to see King Sihanouk, because they love him.

Pana, 34, hotel worker
The king would have liked to have done this many times before. But most Cambodian people will really regret that the king is giving up his power. The Cambodian people and the political leaders cannot solve their problems without the king. Most of Cambodian people over 40 like the king very much because he organised the country very well.

Mom, shop worker, 24
The king is very lovely to the people in Cambodia. He's a good man and the queen is a good lady also. They take care of all the people in Phnom Penh and worry and care about all the people of Cambodia. They're like the father and mother of the people. I don't want him to stop - I think he will continue as the king.

Kevin, 34
It's a bad situation at the moment. You know, in my country, to have no king is not so good.
In 1970 there was no king and there was a war. If he quits, I don't think there will be another king to replace him.
 
I guess time to move to the new generation so the King can relax and retire...
 
Yeah I agree with you about it. He is old now and unfortunately he has a health problem....but as I read from some news that his country & people still really need him to keep the country stabilization as he has big charismatic and he is a respected King for his people. People is just worry if the next king does not have this ability then will rise a destabilized (again) in this young democratic kingdom. Hope Cambodian will find a good future king (who has equal or plus abilities to HM King Norodom Sihanouk) soon.
 
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Here are some more articles on the current situation in Cambodia and the kind of succesion crisis they are having:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3727428.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3732520.stm

Here is a link to the king's website, which has personal information, as well as the personal notes he has become famous for writing (sadly for us English-speakers, in French...):

http://www.norodomsihanouk.info/
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/111165/1/.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3732520.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3727428.stm
 
Thank you all for the information. I hope you don't mind if I post the article that Lyle left the link for above!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3741652.stm



Cambodia chooses new monarch


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Norodom Sihamoni has kept out of politics until now

Norodom Sihamoni has been named as Cambodia's new king, a week after his father Sihanouk's abdication.

A nine-member throne council voted in favour of the former ballet dancer, whose only previous public role was as Cambodia's ambassador to Unesco.

A statement issued by the council said Sihamoni should be referred to as king with immediate effect. He is due to be crowned later this month.

The hunt for a new monarch was sparked by Sihanouk's abdication last week.

There was no legal provision in the event of a monarch's abdication, and laws had to be rushed through Cambodia's parliament to enable a throne council to convene and choose a successor.

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CAMBODIAN SUCCESSION
Nine-member throne council approved nomination
Laws for deciding succession had to be rushed through
King Sihamoni was former king's preferred candidate
Elder half-brother Ranariddh said he did not want the post

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Profile of King Sihamoni
Your views

Prime Minister Hun Sen, acting head of state Chea Sim, two top Buddhist monks and other senior political figures - usually loyal to Hun Sen - made up the nine-member throne council.

Earlier this week Hun Sen publicly stated his support for King Sihamoni's appointment, as did Sihanouk, so Thursday's announcement has come as no surprise.

But nevertheless this is a remarkably smooth transition in a country better known for its political upheavals.

The first task of the new king will be to come home. He is currently in the Chinese capital, Beijing, with his father, who is receiving medical treatment.

Both men are expected to return to Cambodia next week, and a coronation ceremony has been planned for later this month.



Apolitical successor

When Sihanouk announced his abdication last Wednesday, politicians initially hoped he would change his mind.

Prince Ranariddh - another of Sihanouk's children and head of the National Assembly - even went to China to try to persuade his father to stay on.

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King Sihamoni is due back in Cambodia next week

But once it became obvious that Sihanouk would not reverse his decision, speculation mounted that King Sihamoni would be chosen to succeed him.

Prince Ranarridh - by far the best known of Sihanouk's 14 children - has often said he would rather stay in politics than be crowned king.

Both Ranarridh and Sihanouk publicly stated that King Sihamoni was their preferred choice of successor.

Prime Minister Hun Sen also backed King Sihamoni - a man he hopes will stay out of Cambodia's day-to-day politics, unlike his father who often interfered in political decisions.

While the reigning monarch used to have great authority in Cambodia, the position is now largely symbolic and wields no real power.

But it remains an important position because of the reverence Cambodian people give to the royal family.

For the ailing Sihanouk, King Sihamoni's appointment will bring huge comfort.

The 81-year-old former monarch ruled Cambodia for more than half a century, and had been troubled by the prospect that the Khmer royal line would die with him.

He was also concerned that - even if the monarchy continued - there could well have been a succession battle after his death. Cambodia's monarchy is hereditary, but any descendent of the past three kings can be chosen, and there were dozens of potential candidates to chose from. "My abdication allows me to give our country, our nation and our people a serious opportunity to avoid mortal turmoil the day after my death," Sihanouk wrote recently on his website.

 
U.N. congratulates new Cambodia king
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United Nations, United States, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday congratulated King Norodom Sihamoni for his election as Cambodia's new king and head of state.

The Secretary-General welcomed the Royal Throne Council's unanimous election of King Sihamoni and offered his best wishes to the new monarch, said an associate spokeswoman at U.N. World Headquarters in New York, Denise Cook. "He wishes him every success in this important role."

Annan also paid tribute to King Norodom Sihanouk for the "outstanding public service" rendered to his country the last 50 years. He also praised the former king's indispensable role during the peace process that led to the Cambodia's first democratic elections in 1993.

The 81-year-old, and frail, Sihanouk abdicated, citing poor health.
 
Ballet dancer as the new figure head king! well, well- I am sure prince Ranarridh is so much capable and well-trained as a future king than Shihamoni but because the rivalry between Hun Sen and he would put the country in turmoil again so this smiley, flamboyant bachelor brother with a great taste of art would be more fitting-he probably does not care about politics at all-I guess what is considered good quality in one person is all depended on the situation of the time.
 
he has so may wives...! and he is not muslim, buddist? apparently shihamoni is his 6th wife`s son
 
Cambodian king choice to be unanimous
Thu 14 October, 2004 05:40





PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Prince Norodom Sihamoni will be the unanimous choice to succeed his father to the Cambodian throne today, his half-brother Norodom Ranariddh says.

"All nine members of the Royal Throne Council support Sihamoni as the new king," Ranariddh told reporters on his return from Beijing, where he failed to persuade their father, Norodom Sihanouk, to withdraw his shock abdication.

Sihamoni would accompany Sihanouk back from Beijing on October 20 and be crowned on Oct 29., Ranariddh said.

The council was due to meet later on Thursday to choose a new monarch and Sihamoni, a 51-year-old Prague-educated dance teacher who until recently was Cambodia's ambassador to UNESCO in Paris, appears to be the only candidate.

Ranariddh, deep into politics like most of Sihanouk's other children who survived the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" years of the 1970s, helped persuade the reluctant Sihamoni to take the throne.

Sihanouk said Sihamoni, who has spent much of his life outside Cambodia, would be his ideal successor because he was not involved in politics and Prime Minister Hun Sen, a member of the Royal Throne Council, backed his choice.

Sihanouk, who turns 82 on October 31 and has been having medical treatment in Beijing for months, announced a week ago that he was too old, sick and tired to carry on and rebuffed all attempts to get him to change his mind.

He made plain in a message to the Cambodian people on Tuesday that he wanted the succession determined before he died, even though the constitution says the monarch rules for life, because he feared another bloodbath if it was not.

"My abdication allows me to give our country, our nation and our people a serious opportunity to avoid mortal turmoil the day after my death," Sihanouk wrote.

Cambodian politics were so factionalised that an all-out battle for power could erupt if there were no monarch to keep the lid on, he said.

"Cambodian republicans are irredeemably divided into antagonistic, well organised clans, even armies, capable of falling on each other in tragic and bloody fashion," he said.

Cambodia's two houses of parliament rushed through legislation allowing Sihanouk to retire when it became clear he would not change his mind about abdicating, a move he had threatened many times in frustration at political chaos.

Sihamoni has none of the vast experience of his father, who led his country to independence from France, tried to keep it out of the Vietnam War and survived the Khmer Rouge, although more than a dozen of his children and grandchildren did not.

However, diplomats said the polyglot bachelor, who has never held any political office, might not be the pushover many expect.

"He's very much an unknown quantity, but he's certainly no fool," said one Western diplomat who met Sihamoni at UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organisation.
 
Cambodians Are Ready to Crown His Majesty the Ballet Dancer

[SIZE=-1]By SETH MYDANS [/SIZE]Published: October 15, 2004
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Oct. 14 - Prince Norodom Sihamoni, 51, a dancer and choreographer, is to be crowned king this month, carrying out the wishes of his father in the first change in the monarchy most Cambodians have known.

Both men were in Beijing, where the father, 81, has been receiving medical treatment and where he issued a statement of abdication a week ago that took his country by surprise.
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Under the constitution, a special Throne Council had seven days to name his successor, and the former king made it clear that Prince Sihamoni was his choice. Although he is a constitutional monarch with no real power, his words carry moral force here, and the country's political leaders quickly agreed. Low-key and businesslike in the grand, gilded, central hall of the royal palace, the Throne Council made the choice official on Thursday. One by one, the council members - seven of them in white uniforms and two in the orange robes of senior monks - slipped ballots into a large transparent box in a unanimous vote.

As each vote was read out, Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is a member of the council, marked them on a large white board in the televised procedure.

Both the past and future kings are scheduled to return from Beijing next week, and the coronation is to be held on Oct. 29, according to Norodom Ranariddh, another royal son, who is speaker of the National Assembly and a member of the council.

Perhaps because the former king remains alive and because he is expected to remain a reassuring presence here, the reaction to his abdication seemed sad but understated. "I just follow His Majesty's decisions," said Somnol Som Hen, 64, who said her great uncle was a chauffeur for the departing king's father. "I feel a little sad, but everything depends on his decisions. You cannot oppose them or object to them." Chip Born, 43, a tailor, said: "When I heard that the king would not be the king any more, my heart just dropped, right down to the bottom. But you know the saying, you cannot stop the rain."

When he was asked his feelings about the real power in the country, Mr. Hun Sen, he said: "I don't want to comment on our prime minister because I don't know in detail what he has done well and not well, and I don't want to have any comment on that. I am just a tailor."

Just across a park from the palace, on the banks of the Tonle Sap River, strollers seemed to pay no attention to the moment of transition that was taking place behind its high, yellow walls.

"What? I didn't know anything about that," said Nheat Davy, 35, a snack-seller, as she sat over a basket of fried crickets, silk worms and beetles. "Of course we would like the king to be our king forever and bring us peace. But we are his children. We don't decide what to do."
 
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PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Cambodia's abdicated king Norodom Sihanouk and Queen Norodom Monineath Sihanouk wave to the crowd during a welcome ceremony at Phnom Penh airport, 20 October 2004. Thousands of Cambodians were preparing to welcome home their first new monarch in more than 60 years, King Sihamoni Norodom, who was appointed last week while in Bejing with his retired father
 

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PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Cambodia's new king, Norodom Sihamoni greets Cambodian people during a welcome ceremony at Phnom Penh airport, 20 October 2004. Thousands of Cambodians were preparing to welcome home their first new monarch in more than 60 years, King Sihamoni Norodom, who was appointed last week while in Bejing with his retired father
 

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a very good looking man, I must say. Too bad I heard that he is gay. But still a charming man.
 
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