Editorials
Monday, August 11, 1997THE odds against reversing the coup that left Hun Sen in control of Cambodia's government are mounting daily. In one of the most telling setbacks for ousted First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh, his father, King Norodom Sihanouk, gave tacit though reluctant approval to Ranariddh's replacement. Even Cambodia’s
king abandons sonSihanouk has been in China undergoing medical treatment. He suffers from cancer, a stroke and cataracts. The acting head of state, Chea Sim, asked Sihanouk to sign a decree recognizing the appointment of Ung Huot, the foreign minister, to replace Ranariddh as co-prime minister. Sihanouk replied, "If you think it should be done, you can sign the decree of appointment."
That comment appeared to indicate the king's resignation to his son's ouster under protest.
Ranariddh is said to be continuing to try to rally international opposition to the coup. But without the full support of his father, who remains for many Cambodians a symbol of national unity, his prospects are bleak. The United States is continuing to withhold economic aid to Cambodia to protest the July 5-6 coup. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations postponed indefinitely Cambodia's scheduled admission to the group.
But Asian governments seem to have backed away from the ousted Ranariddh. Ung Huot predicted that opposition to Cambodia's entry to ASEAN will weaken and Phnom Penh will be admitted by the end of the year.
Meanwhile army units loyal to Hun Sen have been deployed near the Thai border for a new offensive against opposition troops controlling the zone. An estimated 15,000 refugees displaced by the fighting have gathered in the area.
All this comes after the Khmer Rouge rebels put their erstwhile genocidal leader, Pol Pot, on trial in their stronghold, apparently trying to regain a measure of respectability and a role in the government. But no one knows whether to take the trial seriously. The developments are a repudiation of the United Nations efforts to bring peace and democracy to Cambodia, displaced by a reassertion of decades-old rivalries. Unfortunately, it appears that Hun Sen's coup will not be reversed.
WOMEN have got to learn that equality cuts both ways, no matter how painful to the pocketbook. Since a growing number of divorced women across the nation are now paying alimony to their ex-husbands, instead of the traditional reverse, some of them and their advocates are publicly griping. "A man of character wouldn't take it (alimony)," Grace Ainslie of Lincoln, Neb., told the Wall Street Journal. "He'd get a job." And alimony for all
Mrs. Ainslie, sexism is ugly on either side of the gender fence.
AFTER decades of neglect visible to everyone who passes by Ala Moana, the former city pumping station, built in 1900 and designated as an historic structure, is going to be renovated. The station, at Ala Moana and Keawe Street, will become a restaurant/microbrewery and open-air market. Pumping station
The pumping station is a distinctive blue-stone structure with an 80-foot-high tower. It was the city's first waste disposal facility, replaced in 1955. Now after all those years, it will again have a useful life and presumably present passers-by with a more attractive appearance. And one more historic structure will be spared the wrecker's ball.
GOVERNOR Cayetano tentatively favors putting high-voltage power lines underground rather than stringing them on poles on Waahila Ridge. He told a Manoa audience that if the difference in cost is $30 million, all rate payers on Oahu should share the burden over 30 years. Underground lines
That's $1 million a year. We wonder how people in other parts of the island would feel about that?
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
