… I have a great pleasure to see our people and monks today as we are celebrating the inauguration of the Proeus Meas pagoda’s temple. I have a great appreciation for the efforts made by head monks and people in the area and this is in fact the 43rd pagodas that I inaugurated. There were some programs that I could not conduct because I had various other engagements and I am grateful to our people who have a good understanding when I sent my representatives to the events. A question might be asked why Hun Sen came to the pagoda of Proeus Meas and not any other pagodas nearby, especially to a pagoda where I have contributed in building a temple completely on my own. My time has been too busy and therefore I had to send HE Hor Nam Hong as my representative to the inauguration. I am glad to see that such a progress has been made in the Proeus Meas pagoda after I have contributed only one million Riel since 1992 and the efforts made by venerable head monk in building infrastructures for use by secular world prior to Buddhist world.
… Venerable head monk of Proeus Meas pagoda has kept in his possession many Buddhist teachings written on palm leaves and I used to borrow him to read at home too. I had borrowed Sobenkomar (A Dreamed Boy) for about a year but I had not much time to finish it all at once… The pagoda of Proeus Meas was badly destroyed under the genocide, and I remembered an interesting idea by Mr. Chak Sarom that January 7 liberated not only human beings in Cambodia but also the beasts in hell. It was amusing but true as in those days no one could practise rituals and they have been able to do so only from January 07, 1979.
… On this occasion I would like to beg for understanding from our teachers and students in the College of Batheay. We already have here a college and in the years of 1994, 1995 and 1996, HE Ma Chhoeun and I had focussed on building a college in Choeung Chhnok. I just had a call from HE Hor Nam Hong telling me that the school in Batheay is in a dilapidated condition. I advised HE Hor Nam Hong to verify the need and initially he informed me that four school buildings were needed. I told him that I offered the four school buildings of 20 classrooms and he had to preside over the groundbreaking ceremony and inauguration on my behalf. Despite what we have done, there are more demands to be met. We have more children to enter schools and colleges and some primary schools will have to be upgraded to colleges. Some of our children who walk to the Batheay College will soon be going to college nearby because we would offer to build one or two more buildings making the primary school physically be upgraded to a junior college. In relation to this effort, we have increased the number of new teacher to 5000 a year…
… I read the Cambodia Daily yesterday and I noted that some people are afraid of those roofs of the school buildings that I have built because of the acronym “HS” or Hun Sen Development Centre printed on the roof. They should not blame this as their kids also go these schools and I would not have a problem if they could build many schools and have their names printed on them. I am sure they blame it because they could not realize them in their own efforts. In fact they should praise us and not blame us. I have lots of people whose needs have to be met. I have roads, bridges, canals and schools to attend to the need of our people and I have no time for that. My instruction and advice to my colleagues is to keep silent and continue with our clear conscience.
… In Khmer language we have this term “Ruom Sok, Ruon Tuk” or sharing both hardship and happiness”. Our people are bright enough to make their observation on who would share their hardships and who would just share their happiness. I would recommend our officials to share more hardships than happiness and I have always been doing so. As a leader one has to be responsible and in Khmer it means “take both right and wrong.” Our people should observe these two phrases.
… According to our prediction, this year we may have a good harvest of early season rice in this area and we also have promising rain in other places as well. I would recommend our people to take care of their rice field dikes as they would keep water in their land making our soil soft enough for ploughing and sowing. We might have a short dry season in midst of rainy season, or by late of July. We should take necessary measures from now. The water level of the Mekong River would also be high, relatively at an average of 10.44 metres in Phnom Penh and this level send an emergency signal to Kratie and Stoeung Treng. We also have to take care of disasters caused by flood along the waterways, while in September and October we would have some harvests in a number of places. With my experience in this area, I have a vision to convert all floating rice into dry season rice. That is why I have instructed the Ministry of Water Resources to build water catchment system so that our people could cultivate flood recession rice and grow maize and beans even if we have short rainfall in the rainy season.
Samdech Hun Sen on that occasion offered US$ 13,556 to the pagoda of Proeus Meas, five million Riel each to the pagodas of Chrey Meas, Tangieng, Tuol Chan, and Anlung Chrey, fifteen tons of cement to the pagodas of Trabek and Chbar Ampeo, two school buildings of ten classrooms and a set of computers and accessories and a seven KVA generator to the Hun Sen-Choeung Chhnok College, a school building of six classrooms to the Primary School of Chealea, 41 tons of rice for labour to the people of Trab community, a bridge of 49 mteres to the people of Tuol commune, ten million Riel to the community of Peam Chhkaok commune to build a religious hangar, and five million Riel to the Primary School of Srah Boeung.
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