My dear Kacvey,

Reuters reported that on 7 June 2018 in Montréal, Canada, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, said, inter alia, that “No leader is forever.” Although the tweet was made in the context of the G7 meeting, it could reverberate to mean that everything has a time limit, even for president, head of state or elected officials.

As far as post-French colonial Cambodia is concerned, “No leader is forever” is so true: gone were Sihanouk, Lon Nol and Pol Pot. On the international arena, also gone were Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh.

Any Cambodian leader who thinks that he is a leader forever is a fool who fools himself about his ephemeral grandeur and vanity. A leader whose ears do no longer ring with the voices of the people has reached the end of the path to the cliff.

No leader is forever and leader who doesn’t know when to quit will certainly lose the bet against his own sorrow.

Post scriptum
Text of Emmanuel Macron’s tweet:
“Aucun dirigeant n’est éternel. Nous héritons d’engagements qui nous dépassent. Nous les portons. C’est la vie des nations.”

“No leader is eternal. We inherit commitments which are beyond us. We take them on. That is the life of nations.”