Government by the People

Cambodia's young Premier Norodom Sihanouk, who used to be his country's King, has a strange notion of democracy. It is the people, not Parliament. Thus he calls his people to congresses (BIG NATIONAL POPULAR MEETING AT THE ROYAL

PALACE. ADMISSION FREE) at which the policies of his one-party government are submitted for general approbation. Last week in the capital of Pnompenh, 8,000 "congressmen"--shopkeepers, farmers, tricycle drivers, artisans and housewives--assembled in a huge scarlet tent, set up among the peach-pink and ochre-tinted pagodas, to hear their princely Premier outline his new foreign policy.

Cambodia (pop. over 4,000,000) is a country of Buddhists lying directly in the path of Communist expansion in Southeast Asia. During the Indo-China war, three battalions of Vietminh Communist troops entered Cambodia, and Red China claimed that a "resistance" government was in being. But after last year's general election in which Norodom, stepping down from the throne to lead his own political party, won all 91 seats of the National Assembly, the Communists reversed their tactic. With soft words, Communist Leader Ho Chi Minh suggested a diplomatic exchange with Norodom. Nothing doing, replied Norodom. "Your radio is insulting us and encouraging subversion on our soil." And when Red China's Chou En-Lai sent a formal invitation to visit Peking, Norodom shrugged: "I have enough worry on my hands now."

Orangeade and Opium. The first subject Norodom took up with his people last week was foreign policy. Cambodia, he said, would join Nehru's neutralist bloc, and at the same time it would accept U.S. military aid to equip an army of 40,000. If this seemed a little contradictory, Norodom added without batting an eyelid: "With this aid we will maintain a strong army even if America and Russia shake hands tomorrow." His public murmured assent at their Premier's wisdom.

Sipping orangeade (supplied by Norodom at 30-c- a glass), the congressmen next took part in a discussion of domestic policy, about which they had firmer ideas. The burning issues (raised by the country's 30,000 Buddhist monks) : prohibition of opium smoking, alcohol, prostitution, the slaughtering of cattle, working on Buddhist holidays. The spokesman for opium-den owners (frequented mainly by Chinese) was shouted down, and Norodom promised a ban on opium. But the use of alcohol was held to be legal because of the danger that "our peasants will ruin their health brewing their own."

The issue of prostitution brought a vociferous division between respectable citizens and those who gain from Pnompenh's attractions as a wide-open city (Madame Choum intends to enlarge the city's finest brothel, now that Saigon has been shut down as a sin capital). The distinguished wife of a provincial governor snatched the microphone from Norodom's hands and told the congress: "Let's face the truth. We know it's impossible to suppress effectively prostitution in our country, so why try to ban it?"

Swimming Success. A full moon was rising over the Royal Palace when Cambodia's congressmen drifted homeward, savoring the experience, rare in the Orient, of personal democratic participation. After issuing a sheaf of party and government directives, Norodom announced to an as semblage of his own party officials: "I feel out of strength and need a good three months' swimming and sunbathing vacation on the French Riviera." Everybody agreed that he had earned it, and off he went.

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