Constituent Assembly of Cambodia
The Cambodian Constituent Assembly (Khmer: សភារដ្ឋធម្មនុញ្ញកម្ពុជា) was a body elected in 1993 to draft a constitution for Cambodia as provided in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements.
[1] The result of the process was the creation of a constitution for Cambodia that, at least on paper, guarantees free political competition, regular elections, equal rights and representation and universal suffrage.
David P. Chandler, the premier Cambodia historian, explains, "a Cambodian king, like most Chinese emperors, could rule only by extending networks of patronage and mutual obligations outward from his palace, at first through close associates and family members but becoming diffuse--and more dependent on local power-holders--at the edges of the kingdom."
According to Chandler, rural people generally believed the king to have power over the weather, to "dispense true justice" and to be "the only political source of hope among peasants.
It was designed to put an end to the civil war in Cambodia, usher out the occupying Vietnamese army and establish free, fair and peaceful elections.
Parties to that accord, namely Australia, Brunei, Cambodia (People's Republic of Kampuchea and the CGDK), Canada, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Soviet Union, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, created the Agreement on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict, a far ranging document that outlined the reconstruction effort.
The writing of the constitution and the transition to democracy were but a part of the larger disengagement and normalization process outlined at the Paris Peace Accords.
[11] Despite quite widespread threats of election-day violence from the Khmer Rouge and a series of assassinations and acts of intimidation on the part of members of most parties, participation was strong.
[14][15] As per their UNTAC deadline, the Constituent Assembly began meeting to draft the Constitution on June 14 as the flag of the former Kingdom of Cambodia was raised.
[16] During its first session, the Assembly adopted a resolution making Prince Norodom Sihanouk the head of state retroactive until 1970, thereby nullifying the 1970 coup d’état that had deposed him.
The next day King Sihanouk in turn formed a Joint Administration (GNPC) with Prince Ranariddh of FUNCINPEC and Hun Sen of the CPP as co-chairmen.
[20] Prince Norodom Sihanouk had, throughout the drafting process, sent conflicting messages to the Assembly and the Cambodian people regarding his approval of a return to monarchy.
In interviews and letters, he gyrated widely between approving and even demanding a position as the head of state, and on the other hand insisting that the controversy of monarchy was too divisive for demoralized Cambodia.
[21] Prince Sihanouk left for North Korea during the summer of the drafting of the constitution to pursue his favorite past time, filmmaking.
King Norodom Sihanouk bowed and smiled to the audience, dabbing lustral water behind his own ears, which paralleled the bathing rite in a Cambodian coronation.
