A newspaper editor who opposes the government is stripped naked and beaten in the street by police in front of the central police station. The head of the police is asked by the national assembly if government opponents have the right to police protection. Indeed they do, he said, and by the way, here is a list of national assembly men we consider opponents. The censure measure is tabled and the ruling Prince later remarks that the national assembly should be nicer to the police. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The stamp today is from the important years of the UN. The UN was especially important in Cambodia. It was in UN conferences in the mid 50s that attempted to set the parameters of post colonial Cambodia. The stamps like this were issued all over the world by newly independent countries. In a way, it is sort of a rival to the British Commonwealth stamp issues. The UN issues are far more political and perhaps as a result have not developed the same number of specialty collectors.
Todays stamp is issue A53. a 5 Reil stamp issued by the Kingdom of Cambodia on December 16th, 1968. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating Prince Sihanouk and the UN national human rights year in 1968. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.
The UN conferences specified the local King as ceremonial head of state of Cambodia and provided for the removal of French and Viet Minh communist foreign soldiers from the country. The machinations of King Sihanouk to consolidate power were interesting. He first abdicated in favor of his elderly father thereby becoming Prince. As Prince, Sihanouk then felt free to engage in politics. He set up the Sangkum as his political party that had the state behind it. The party included both left and right wing figures as a way to coopt both the left and the right. Sihanouk believed that if either the left or the right was allowed to rule, the first thing they would do is remove him as King, er Prince.
His rule was surprisingly socialist with the government taking over most business. This was done allegedly to insure the profits accrued to Cambodians rather than foreign exploiters. The reality was more of a spoils system rather like the Ferdinand Marcos regime in the Philippines. In foreign policy, there was much collaboration with Communists in North Vietnam and China.
Sihanouk was overthrown by a right wing former Prime Minister Lon Nol in 1970 and Sihanouk went into exile in China and later North Korea where Kim Il Sung built him a 40 room palace. When the Khmer Rouge overthrew Lon Nol, Sihanouk returned as head of state but was quickly put allegedly under house arrest in the palace. If this happened, it would seem to absolve him of his government’s genocide. He again was on his throne for a short while in the early 2000s as a ceremonial King.
His rule was not all political maneuverings. He directed over 50 films, some from his North Korean Palace in exile. He started a film festival in Phenom Penh where his films were the only nominees and winners. He also composed music and often traveled Cambodia with a full orchestra and local pop singers. He died in 2012 at age 90 and was given a full state funeral.
Well my drink is empty and so I will open up the conversation in the below comment section. The idea of one political party that coopts left and right to keep in charge an increasingly hereditary oligarchy sounds both ominous and plausible for the future. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.