HNOM PENH, Cambodia, Oct. 19 - As he prepared for his coronation at the end of the month, Cambodia's new king, Norodom Sihamoni, stepped gingerly into the roiling politics of his country with an apology ("I lack experience") and a promise ("I will not interfere").

The smoothness of his election to the largely ceremonial post last week by a nine-member Throne Council was deceptive. An ambiguous, possibly unconstitutional arrangement, it was the result of a nimble maneuver by his father, Norodom Sihanouk, who suddenly announced his abdication two weeks ago.

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Even though there is no provision in the Constitution for abdication, those who hold real power in Cambodia saw fit for the moment to let the king play out his scenario and nominate his successor.

Even now, that scenario is not quite clear. In a series of enigmatic statements, the outgoing king has raised questions by saying that he had retired rather than abdicated and that he would remain active as "a (very old) retired 'public servant.' "

King Sihamoni, a ballet dancer and choreographer who has been living in France, may have had his father's help in drafting his tactful statement last week and is expected to be his understudy in the monarchy.

In effect, some people are saying, Cambodia will now have two kings, which seems only fitting in a country once ruled by two feuding co-prime ministers and now burdened with what by some calculations is the biggest government per capita in the world.

Regardless of the model Constitution it adopted in 1993 under the guiding hand of the United Nations, this is a nation where force and fancy trump the formal structures of government and the written rules of the game.

As Cambodians say, "The law is in the mouth."

The king is whoever the palace says he is, despite the constitutional provision that "the king shall be the head of state for life." Government decisions, court rulings and national policy are - if he chooses to involve himself - whatever Prime Minister Hun Sen decides.

In July the prime minister succeeded, after much wrangling, in seating a Parliament through an overtly unconstitutional procedure that assured his continued position as prime minister.

"Hun Sen has demonstrated that he can do just about anything he wants," a Western diplomat said. "It's one of the most ridiculous governments in the history of the country."

For nearly a year, after an inconclusive election in July 2003, Cambodia had no government. Mr. Hun Sen's party won but needed a coalition partner to form a majority in Parliament. When he finally worked out a deal with Prince Ranariddh and his royalist party, part of the package was the sale of dozens of cabinet positions.

This nation of 13 million people is now governed by a 186-member cabinet. In addition to the prime minister, it includes 7 deputy prime ministers, 15 senior ministers, 28 ministers and 135 deputy ministers.

Jobs like this are seen as money-makers, and they do not come cheap. The biggest ones carried price tags as high as $100,000 or even $200,000, according to various accounts.

The opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, has asserted that Prince Ranariddh received a payoff of $30 million, a charge the prince denies.

When the government was seated, Mr. Hun Sen said the time had come to tackle serious problems, and he put corruption at the top of the list. But, first things first, many Cambodians expect the new ministers to focus on recouping their investments through bribes and business deals.

"Every position is a graft center," said Craig Etcheson, a political scientist who is writing about contemporary Cambodia. "This place has some of the worst corruption in the world and they've just multiplied the centers of corruption manyfold."

The money has got to come from somewhere, here in one of the poorest countries in Asia, where according to a recent World Bank report, per capita income is $280 and more than a third of the population lives below the poverty line.

One source is the ravaging of the country's forests and the illegal sale of land and other natural resources, according to economic and political analysts. Drug trafficking and human trafficking are major enterprises as well, diplomats say.

Another source is bribes extorted from domestic and foreign businesses and from the population in every arena from schooling to health care. According to the World Bank, "Four-fifths of the private sector sampled acknowledges the necessity of paying bribes, and 71 percent of large firms report that these payments are frequent.''

A third source is the skimming of funds from the international aid that forms a major part of the country's budget. It is a truism here that huge portions of that aid never reach their destinations.

An annual meeting of donor nations, postponed while Cambodia struggled to form a government, is scheduled for December. Each year at donor-meeting time, Mr. Hun Sen makes gestures he evidently has no intention of fulfilling, like pledging to halt illegal logging.

This year, in addition to announcing his crackdown on corruption, Mr. Hun Sen's new government passed a law allowing a trial to proceed for surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, during whose rule 1.7 million people died from 1975 to 1979.

After many years of delays, trial watchers remain skeptical about the prospects. Just this month, after leading the passage of the law in the National Assembly, Prince Ranariddh suggested that the cost of a trial could be better used in helping the poor. The cost is estimated at somewhere over $30 million.