CAMBODIA: Papa’s Choice

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s retired King and present popular idol, once dreamed of going to Hollywood to be a “Cambodian Charlie Chan.” Last week, in Cambodia’s capital city of Pnompenh (pop. 150,000), the young (32) leader produced, directed and starred in a far more ambitious production, a sort of oriental Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Responding to Sihanouk’s invitation, thousands of sarong-clad Cambodian Smiths and Mrs. Smiths thronged into the city to participate in a national congress to suggest constitutional amendment and nominate a Premier. All an adult citizen needed to do to be a “congressman” was to present a coconut, a grapefruit, or some similar token, to King Norodom Suramarit, Sihanouk’s father. Some 30,000 availed themselves of the opportunity.

Too Much Fruit. At the royal palace, his fingertips pressed together in the customary seraphic greeting, Sihanouk played benign host, introducing the visitors to his royal parents and apologizing for not feeding them all: “You are so many, I would be broke.” From his gilded, red velvet throne, King Suramarit received his gifts with regal gratitude: “Oh, the beautiful fruit.” Concurred his son: “It’s really too much, too much.”

Then, as Sihanouk’s articulate voice blared greetings from loudspeakers on pagoda rooftops, platoons of “congressmen,” their credentials in order, congregated around the palace’s ballet theater. The meeting was more in the nature of a mass rally than a formal legislative conclave, but Sihanouk, whose party had swept the last election (TIME, Sept. 26), thought it the best way to let his countrymen suggest laws and reforms. The crowd approved several constitutional changes proposed by the ex-King. One severed Cambodia’s last legal bond of allegiance to France by striking from the constitution the words “Cambodia is part of the French Union.” “An independent country doesn’t have to mention in her constitution the alliance she is free to enter or quit,” Sihanouk said. Unanimously the multitude agreed and turned to the stickier problem of choosing a Premier.

Too Many Chairs. Rising to his feet, a politician shouted: “We all agree; the Prince runs the government.” But after renouncing the throne, Sihanouk had vowed not to return to high office. “I didn’t walk out of my throne to climb into a Premier’s armchair,” said he, insisting that the “congress” choose someone else.

“On a little piece of paper you write down the name of your candidate,” Sihanouk explained. “You give me the little papers. I give them to the King, my father, and papa makes his choice. Very simple, isn’t it?” The people found it so, and in the end they asked papa to make Sihanouk Premier. Next morning they picked up their straw bedding from the floor of the Silver Pagoda and trudged homeward.

For three days the young Prince resisted the temptation and then, with no other national leaders in sight, gave in. Announced the Royal Palace: “At the people’s request, [Prince] Upayuvareach Norodom Sihanouk agrees to [head] the new government.”