… Please allow me to express my thanks to the venerable Chief Monk of Wat Prek Samraong for kindly extending such an honor to me to preside over the cornerstone laying ceremony today. In fact I am not a Phnom Penhian becase since 1990 I have been registered here with a family book and a citizen card in Takhmao. During Prochum Ben I used to be a parishioner of all the pagodas around here. As the acting Governor of Kandal HE Khim Bo mentioned, this pagoda was used under the Khmer Rouge as a place where making steel, and welding. This identical situation happened in all pagodas over Cambodia.
… Particularly talking about Wat Prek Samraong, it was built since 1922. It is now 80 years old and the oldest Buddhist pagoda in Takhmao district. Within this segment of existence, 13 chief monks have already been taking care of the pagoda. Specially, from between1979 and 1980 up to now, the pagoda has gone through the leadership of three chief monks and each one of them has made various achievements. May I take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the efforts made by all – monks and parishioners alike – with those achievements as we all have seen today.
… According to HE Khim Bo, the ceremony to welcome the achievements in this pagoda has gone five days and nights consecutively. As peace prevails in the country our people celebrate with pleasure various kinds of festivity, such as the harvesting events in Angsnuol, Kondal stoeng, Dangkao districts. These are the achievements that collaboratively we all made. Today I am talking about Buddhism and I used to talk frequently that religion would survive as long as the people believe in. As in the State of Cambodia period, there were remarks that the then authority would destroy the rights of belief. It was a hypocritical remark. HE Samdech Heng Samrin, Samdech Chea Sim and I had found a good response to the remarks that religion would not disappear as long as there are followers. Therefore, no power, no matter how perfidious it may be, could remove the belief that lies in every follower’s heart on Buddhism at all. It is also true for Muslim and Christianity.
… There are 1621 communes all over the country, but there are up to 3,800 Buddhist pagodas. In some communes there are more than one pagoda. Now in some places where there used to have no pagoda – like Anlong Veng, Tropeang Prasath, Samlot, Tasanh and other places – after liberating themselves from the Polpotist rule, the people started to think about building pagodas. May I take this floor to make an appeal to religious persons – in Buddhism, Islam or Christianity – to help educate our people to refrain from violent acts, and not necessarily political violence, but those that are caused by human.
… Aside from the legal system, I think Buddhism could educate our people as well to perform good deed, and to see that negative action is leading to self-destruction. The same is true for those who may be specialized in insulting others, like some politicians. But our people have sufficient wisdom and knowledge in making a judgement of ‘who is who.’ Now that the (communal) election has completed, I wish that the forthcoming election in 2003 would proceed smoothly too.
… In Kandal province I have contributed in all 370 schools with 1,768 classrooms. Particularly in Takhmao there are 43 school buildings of 179 classrooms. This number may respond to the need in this district as it has less number of people comparing to other districts of Kandal. I approved the request to build a fence and rebuilt an entrance, the request of Wat Prek Ruossei to build a 35m x 5m x 7.5m building, and the request by 246 teachers under training for a visit to Angkor Wat. As for the road (between Takhmao and Koh Thom) we could not get financial assistance from outside. So May HE Secretary of State Tram Iv Toeuk and HE Ouk Chan prepare and send the project request to the Ministry of Economy and Finance so that the procedure would be completed in time for the ground breaking ceremony. This road would consist of 08 new bridges, 07 renovated bridges with a total length of 300 meters. Please consult with HE Minister (of Transports and Public Works) Khi Taing Lim to find out if some of the 1000m compact bridges that is imported from China could be used in some places along this road…/.
