Sihanouk springs no surprises

I REFER to the Analysis piece ''Sihanouk's Very Cambodian Coup Fails'' (South China Morning Post, June 5).

Anybody who is familiar with the events in Cambodia over the past 25 years should not be surprised by the continued ineptitude of Sihanouk.

You only need to look at his track record.

He allowed his country to be dragged into the Vietnam war by permitting the Ho Chi Minh Trail to pass unabated through his country.

He believed the Khmer Rouge when they told him they would make him king again in 1975 and then proceeded to lead them to the slaughter of one-fifth of the Cambodian people.

In the final analysis, his amateurish attempt at playing the superpowers (the US, the former USSR and China) off each other only resulted in each of the superpowers, at one time or another, intruding into and devastating his country and his people.

It is truly a shame that of all the candidates that the Cambodian people had to choose from in the recent election, Sihanouk appeared to be one of the better ones.

L. ALLEN Wan Chai