… I am glad to return to Kompot once again today and according to my schedule, next Saturday I will return to the province again to the pagoda of Angprey in the Kompot district. I am glad to see achievements that are happening here under the initiative of HE Meas Sophea together with various other generous fellows. In fact this area was without people. A piece of land was bought and school buildings were built here. I think in the future it will turn out to be a college so we have colleges closer to our people. The district of Chhouk has been affected by unfavourable weather conditions in the last two years and our people’s livelihood in this area is still undesirable, and more needs to be done to improve the situation. I have to take this chance, however, to thank the local authority at all levels, the CPP work team who have done their best to help our people.
… We all learned about the achievements to be inaugurated today from the report of HE Governor. The amount of money spent so far for the improvement of secular and Buddhist worlds in the district of Chhouk is still small compared to its overall needs. According to its size I have built in the district 21 school buildings with 113 classrooms. I wish to reiterate that poverty would not just fly away but we could do it away with our collaborative efforts. It would not be disappeared only by making promises. Take for instance, Pol Pot promised our people many things but nothing had been done, while our society was getting worse. No one could go to school and would live a day without fear and hardship. It is a true story of blood and tears in the Cambodian history. We have now made our survival gradually developed and Kompot itself used to be in a critical situation till I had to replace HE Saom Chen and Koy Luon by General Chai Saing Yun as the situation has developed abnormally because of the Voar Mountain.
… As of now our people and country have been living in peace already and some countries have been affected by either war or SARS. We still have to work hard with countries in the region to eliminate SARS so that the regional and the world economies would recover, and Cambodian economy would therefore be prosperous with growth. SARS has barred the growth in tourism and tourists to Cambodian continue to fall. We are lucky that SARS could not enter the country because it could not survive light and heat. According to the World Health Organization, SARS dies in three hours if not contaminated in anything. Our country has also been marked by political stability and national reconciliation and I have to instruct our people to continue to safeguard them in action and not just in words.
… Some people said in order to lead a country there has to have a sense of reconciliation, but they themselves could not resolve even among few members. Some people could not even resolve among their blood relatives, how one could talk about reconciliation. National reconciliation is not a simple matter as we could see already that some people nurture their wish of doing away others from this time. Once they get to power, I am afraid they would become Pol Pot number II. I wish our people make a sensible judgement and be careful with the fact that we might risk losing stability and reconciliation for war. So I wish to have a recommendation to those people that they should first keep their home clean before talking ill of others’. Maybe I should recall the three meanings of the win-win policy. First, we have provided physical and life safety to those disassociated themselves from the Khmer Rouge. Second, we guarantee their jobs and employments — if they were soldiers before they continue to be soldiers in the Royal Government. Third, we have provided those people with guarantee on both mobile and immobile properties.
… A few days ago, my wife and I have gone out to help a family of two – a mother and a daughter, at a respective age of 105 and 70 years old. At this age they make their living from collecting tamarind’s leaves. She said if one of them dies the other one would not know what to do. Having learned about this, my wife and I have offered to take care of them until their last days. I am sure we still have more of similar stories to deal with and I think one best way of dealing with it is to raise high the spirit of resource sharing, from those who have more to those who have less. We used to have a saying that goes “older people rely on deaths, bad people rely on weapons, and kids rely on crying.” As of recently I heard a newer version that goes “children of millionaires rely on inheritances, children of the Bourgeoisie rely on scolding and children in the pagoda rely on actions.” I do not know in what sense this version has come out but going through this we could reflect the reality that those children of the rich would not like to work hard because they have properties inherited for them. As for children of the Bourgeoisie they seem to know nothing but lecturing others. As for children raised in pagodas, they seemed to have nothing in life but to depend on food left from the monk and they have to work harder to change their conditions.
Samdech Hun Sen offered Riel 27 million to the pagoda of Baniev, fifteen tons of cement for the pagodas of Noreay, Ang Svay, and Mean Chey, three computers, one printer, and three 14″ colour TVs together with solar energized lighting to the College of Baniev, a sewing training building for fifty sewing machines to the College of Hun Sen-Chhouk, a school building of six classrooms to the Primary School of Dei Kraham, a school building with five classrooms to the College of Bun Rany-Hun Sen_Noreay and 200 tons of rice for work to the people in the commune of Baniev.
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