Cambodian lawmakers have been acting odd of late. In the past month, they voted to outlaw adultery, which is a strange decision in a country where keeping a mistress or making regular visits to a prostitute is a popular and accepted pastime. It is almost as fashionable as brokering political appointments for family and friends.
But now Cambodia's cheating spouses can be jailed for up to a year. The law, not surprisingly, has divided Cambodia: women have applauded it, men are outraged.
'It's a good law by Prime Minister Hun Sen,' said waitress Poeng Srey Nang. 'Men should not have a wife and a girlfriend. Wives will use it to keep their husbands at home.'
The law has attracted its share of ridicule. Cambodia's former monarch King Norodom Sihanouk was involved in a 12-minute film with two of his royal offspring that pokes fun at the adultery law, and poses a question for this tiny Southeast Asian country: 'Who doesn't have a mistress?' Certainly, King Sihanouk and his playboy forefathers were known for their surfeit of women.
But while Cambodians wonder what it is that has caused their politicians to suddenly become so chaste and interfere in private matters, there is another, more worrying law that threatens the country's fragile democracy.
Lawmakers have also voted to give up their parliamentary immunity, which has drawn gasps of surprise inside and outside the country. It is an act akin to political self-castration. The lawmakers can now be prosecuted for any comments they make in parliament that may criticise the government or be perceived as damaging to the state. If they are found guilty then a fine or jail sentence is inevitable.