I am so happy to be able to spend time talking to voluntary physicians and doctors of TYDA, which has involved in numerous activities. I could recall that I convened my sons and daughters to a meeting at one of my daughters’ house to sort out humanitarian activities that my family has been involved. We started first with the Bayon Foundation, which has offered helps on various fronts – supporting displaced people from Cambodian-Thai border armed clashes, buildings homes and digging wells for the needy, and constructing homes for poor and vulnerable people. There was also this association of voluntary physicians of Samdech Techo in Kompong Cham province. As my children have all grown up and are able to take up responsibilities concerning humanitarian and non-profit activities, we have come to a conclusion that there needs to be some kind of distributions of tasks among us. All in all, our aim is to expedite alleviation of poverty among our people, and mainly targeting those who are in desperate needs […]
Redistribution of Physicians between Urban and Rural Areas
As far as education is concerned, we can apply this term of those who know more teach those who know less, and those who know little can teach those do not know. On the contrary, for physicians, this rule does not apply […] we cannot wait for outside assistances. We do not have sufficient number of doctors/physicians, and more so medical tools and medicines, especially in state hospitals. On top of this, distribution of physicians/doctors has been a topic of discussion in every annual health conference that I attended. I have not had a clue as how much has the figure improved but in between 1995/96, we had a situation that some 70% of our physicians/doctors served some 30% of the Cambodian population residing in the cities, while some 30% of them serving 70% of our population in the countryside. It was in the war time. Military as well as civilian doctors were in those days sent to help attend wounded soldiers and people in the front […]
We had come through these problems of limited human, technical, and medical resources in the area of healthcare because we had higher demand in national defense and security. As of present, we have spent our resources three times more in healthcare and education than we do to defense and security […] in education alone, we spend an amount of nearly one billion USD […] we have been improving this situation to a certain degree, despite the fact that we are still facing new challenges that require more interventions from state hospitals and institutions. We have various groups of voluntary physicians/doctors – those belong to Samdech Chea Sim, Samdech Heng Samrin, Samdech Sar Kheng, etc. Let me take this opportune moment to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to every physicians/doctors for making their efforts in the past to provide medical checkup and treatment for our people. According to the report I have here, treatments have been provided for over 240,000 people, including those with cancer, cardiovascular operations, and sending one to Korea for further treatment […]
Opposition in Cambodia and in Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull Government
Some have referred to our regime a beasty one. I do not wish to repeat what he said. Some living in Australia belong to the opposition party. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (of Australia) has no way of talking to him. The person supports the opposition in Cambodia and the opposition party in Australia too […] he causes trouble for Prime Minister of Australia who is trying to get things ready for hosting the ASEAN-Australia summit. I understand how difficult it is for the Prime Minister because of a group of people in the opposition party […]
Five Recommendations
I am so proud to see the result of your efforts and I wish to share some of my recommendations with you:
Firstly, continue to excel on current jobs based on obtained experiences and with provision of more medical tools. On this point, the president of TYDA already touched it in his report. As we are now focusing on social protection policy relating to workers, we must mobilize out efforts closer to them to give them easier and better access to medical checkup, consultation, and treatment. After this meeting, I will leave Phnom Penh for the province of Preah Sihanoukville for meetings on Saturday and Sunday with some 40,000 workers […]
Secondly, while continuing to make efforts on these matters, we also strengthen capacity and ethical moral of our physicians/doctors through a range of actions – to works in hospitals, take studying visits to hospitals, and provide patients with treatments […] Some has insulted us that among 100 physicians/doctors, only 10 are good. Not only you in this profession cannot take it, even I belong not to this profession also cannot accept such remark. If 90% of our physicians/doctors were not that good, how could our people survive? Some have said it to insult our national institutions politically. It affects not only (HE) Mam Bun Heng, but every physicians/doctors.
We see and accept our shortcomings and are improving professional ethics of physicians/doctors. To respond to such remarks and to dispel them, we all physical doctors must strengthen related professions, keep abreast with modern technology and learn of newly emerging and evolving diseases […] this is the only way to prove that what they had said was wrong […]
Yesterday, I gave my signature on the official establishment of the Cambodian Foundation of Kuntha Bopha, for which my wife and I are taking up the honorary positions of presidency […] There has been a Kuntha Bopha foundation of Dr. Beat Richner in Switzerland. However, we see that there is another Kuntha Bopha foundation of and by Cambodia, through which the state fund will channel along with those from other sources contributing to the development of the Kuntha Bopha hospital. Some countries have opposed to the methods carried out by the Kuntha Bopha hospital and by Dr. Beat Richner […] the medical services provided by the Kuntha Bopha hospital has been of high standard, and Dr. Beat Richner disagreed with the call to lower it. While the government of Switzerland continues to provide its part of assistance, we also must help this hospital […]
Thirdly, please do not divert seeking-help patients to other hospitals, when you do not have the ability to provide them with treatment they may need. We must take him/her to a hospital and continue to provide them treatment. It is true that we have not been equipped to run a cardiovascular operation or deal with cancer while checking up their health in the fields. However, we must take a responsibility giving them consultation, counseling, and providing them with financial accessibility in his/her continuing treatment and care […]
Fourthly, provide checkup or treatment without political discrimination. TYDA must carry this motto […] though to different political tendency patients may belong, TYDA must provide them with checkup, consultation, and treatment without asking about their political affiliations and visions. We must treat them for whatever diseases they may have […] leave political issue aside and take care of our people’s wellbeing and humanitarian tasks irrespective of political affiliation, racial discrimination, and religions […]
Fifthly, continue to cooperate with donor countries and appeal to more to provide assistances. Expand relations with interested countries. Sometimes, those countries have their own medical teams. We may invite them to join with us. They may have come with tools and we can join them […]
Foreign Debts
… There is no country in this world that is debt free, except Brunei Darusalam. In the world, the debt ratio allows a country to borrow up to 40% of one’s GDP. The Cambodian debt ratio has come to this day at 22% of GDP, including old debts to the US and Russia. Some countries in our region owe 100%, 120%, or even 200% considering the debt ratio mentioned. In France, you may ask, a person owe more than 50,000 USD. Opposition (politicians) in Cambodia blamed us about a Cambodian owes over 200 USD to financial creditors. In the US, one person owes more than 40,000 USD […] we have been asking friends for help to expedite a speedy economic growth by building infrastructures, people’s wellbeing, and human resource development […]
Post-Elections Cabinet Will Be in September
… The Asia-Europe Summit this year will take place in Brussel, Belgium. In 2016, it was held in Mongolia. This year, it will be held in Europe. I will surely attend the summit. I am considering an official visit to Turkey too. Perhaps I should leave it to after the creation of the new Royal Government, which will be founding in September, 60 days after the general elections, on 29 July 2018, defined by the Constitution. Should there be no more problems, we would be able to convene the National Assembly on 23-24 September, and we would be able to have a new Royal Government up and running. The Cambodian Royal Government would need no approval from other country or the Secretary General of the United Nations. HM the King would call for the National Assembly first session and approve nominated candidate for the post of Prime Minister from the winning party. The Prime Minister elected will have to come up with a new composition of the Royal Government to seek for approval of the National Asembly, and with the latter’s ratification, seek approval in signature from HM the King. Then, members of the new Royal Government will take their oaths. That will be it […]./.