… My wife and I are pleased that we join you all once again in Kompong Thom’s district of Barai. In the past one year I came five times to Kompong Thom and also to many different parts of Cambodia. Today I am at the centre of the country itself. I am so glad to see that there has been new achievement as is stated by the HE Governor Nam Tum’s report.
HE Governor Nam Tum affirmed the progress made from one step to another as I used to say that education in Cambodia started from those who know little help those who know nothing, while those who know much help those who know a little. We started from scratch and achievements have come into existence over the past 28 years and this situation is similar to everywhere in our country. Take for instance in the district of Barai we then had only one High School compared to now we have five of them. HE Governor Nam Tum also wished to build and upgrade this into a Senior High School as well.
We have a junior high school in all communes but we still need more to satisfy our demand. I wish to take this opportune moment to express my sincere thanks and appreciation for generous donations and contributions for the building of the Srah Banteay School … I called it “art of sharing” and as far as I know that a piece of adjacent land has been reserved for further needs as this school serves the interest of those from the district of Barai but also from the district of Chamka Loeu of Kompong Cham province.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks and appreciations to the CPP work team led by the Vice President of the National Assembly HE Nguon Nhel, the National Bank Governor Chea Chanto, HE Thaong Khon, etc, for providing assistance and care to the people in this province as a whole, and the district of Barai in particular. Thanks to the team, the CPP’s President Samdech Chea Sim, Honorary President Heng Samrin and me Hun Sen have been able to keep abreast with what is going on out here and direct our actions right to where and how help is needed.
I have the belief that local residence and work is indeed a school of inexhaustible knowledge not only for officials but also top politicians or else they would not be ready in making their responses. Take for instance we had a mission to save about 100 hectares of rice. An old man came pointing to a rice field far away and said that it was indeed one hundred hectares that need water but irrigation had to be channeled across an area of about 600 hectares because that was the only way to get the water there. It was true that the rice around is ripe but the rice in the middle was in need of water. So the mission had to pump water that runs through all 600 hectares.
This indeed gives us a lesson as to how to manage with water irrigation and the seeds that need to be used in the area. So local residence and work field is indeed a University that provides inexhaustible knowledge. If one does not know local problem one could not resolve our people’s needs while being unable to lead them.
I wish to make clear one thing as the communal election is coming and because this issue is politically and socially relevant. It is about the art of sharing which is a part of the CPP’s policy in bringing about development to the country from 1979 to the present. Are we to see if it is not necessary or we need to stop it? There was an article in the Cambodia Daily that Chief of General Staff HE Ke Kim Yan and other generous contributors and donors are involved in sharing their resources for the construction of a University in the Province of Banteay Mean Chey…
In their reactions to the news, a woman and a man were asked to give his/her comments and I do not have to mention their names. The man said politicians should be clean in education sector and that Government officials should not be allowed to build school privately because it is indeed the task of the Government. The woman said the school will have impact/influence on children. I think this has brought us to a clear political and social line. Sharing resources has been a tradition of CPP since 1979 and it was also done in the time of Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk’s Sangkum Reast Niyum or to be frank since when the earth exists because Cambodia also enjoys donation and assistance from the rich countries as well.
Judging from what they said as soon as CPP loses the elections there will be no more sharing and people could not request helps from leaders of CPP. This would help our people make political choice in the upcoming elections. What do they mean when they said schools that we build will exert the influence on students’ mind while at the same time they say that the majority of young people support them?
Under the CPP leadership, while the national budget is limited we have resorted to the art of sharing in different forms – the Flower Festival (gathering money for a specific purpose), Katina (gathering utensils, money etc. for Buddhist monks in pagodas), etc. According to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the national budget allows the construction of about ten school building, loan from foreign sources allows about 250 school buildings in five years whereas our need has been about 1000 school buildings in one year. How are we going to meet the objective as set out in Dakar of “education for all and all for education?”
Concerning our people here I am glad that when you all have difficult problems you always think of Samdech Chea Sim, Samdech Heng Samrin and Hun Sen. As we already have our pumping machines, I have ordered to station them in Barai district and 5th Region of Development, which could be utilized for the local people’s sake. Te question here is how to finance the supply of fuels. I have seen a proposal for a square kilometer water reservoir that need 70,000 liters of fuel. This again needs the sharing of resources. Those sitting here will contribute and I will cover the rest. The reservoir could hold back water before releasing to Tonle Saap Lake and it could irrigate about 500 hectares of land.
Talking about resource sharing maybe we should ask our people and students here whether they agree with HE Governor Nam Tum’s proposal for upgrading this Junior High School to Senior High School or not! (Agree! people’s applause). Now in response to your need and approval I order the construction of a two floor school building of 12 classrooms and a five room building for sewing and for computing or library.
A song from the old time goes “the bridge is broken, the water is so deep that I cannot go to see my darling.” As of now we have six bridges to build this in concrete and/or Bailey that they would not be broken easily anymore.
On that occasion Samdech Hun Sen offered ten million Riel to the Buddhist pagoda of Srah Banteay, a two-floor school building of 12 classrooms and a building for sewing practice and computing and 15 to 20 solar energized vacuum lighting, a director’s office building and fifty sewing machines to the Junior High School of Kravanh, a school building of six classrooms to the Junior High School of Tuol Andet, a school building of six classrooms to the Primary School of Chan, and the requested amount 70,000 liters of fuel for the construction of the water reservoir.
EndIetm.
