Word: sisowath
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Bowing to U.S. demands that he broaden the base of his government, Cambodia's ailing, half-paralyzed Lon Nol last week called for the resignation of his Cabinet. He then moved to invite three former allies-onetime Deputy Premier Sisowath Sirik Matak, ex-Interior Minister In Tam and ex-Head of State Cheng Heng-to join a superior council, consisting of eleven high-ranking representatives of the nation's political parties, that would act as an advisory body. In fact, most foreign observers thought that Lon Nol's moves were little more than a cosmetic change...
...result of a 1971 stroke, and his younger brother Lon Non, a vain and ruthless army general. Lon Non is now the regime's strongman, having won a power struggle with a rival whom most U.S. officials still regard as the only effective administrator in Cambodia, Lieut. General Sisowath Sirik Matak...
...real rule of the country falls to a "Premier-Delegate." He is Sisowath Sirik Matak, 57, the shrewd and ambitious administrator who had been virtually running Cambodia anyway as Vice Premier and Lon Nol's closest confidant. Sirik Matak is not only a cousin, but also an old foe of Sihanouk, and he is widely assumed to have been the chief architect of the plot that ousted the prince 15 months...
...from diabetes and high blood pressure. But his short-lived resignation was also designed to deal with a governmental malaise. While the Premier was away, a bitter struggle flared between his two closest advisers: his brother Lieut. Colonel Lon Non, who commands a Cambodian army brigade, and Vice Premier Sisowath Sirik Matak, a shrewd administrator who is said to be "like a copilot...
...since the chaotic days following Sihanouk's ouster and the subsequent American-South Vietnamese invasion. Cambodia is hardly a model of stability and permanence today, and martial law still prevails. But Lon Nol seems to have impressed many of his countrymen with his honesty and courage. Deputy Premier Sisowath Sirik Matak has won respect as a shrewd and sophisticated politician, and the government is no longer seen as a here-today, gone-tonight proposition. Particularly noteworthy is the support it enjoys among Cambodia's embryonic professional and middle classes, and among the country's students...