Giving importance to this youth model contest, as you can see, we have here presences of Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers, Secretary of State, as well as many other leaders, including also that of Ms Di Saveth, a senior actor since when I was a little boy. We also have presences of artists, sportsmen and Oknha of various companies and charitable fellows, and those of the parents of contestants winning in this contest […]
Five Topics for “I Am Cambodian Youth Model” Contest, to Cover Health and Education
I would like to take this opportune moment to welcome you all to this magnificent event to award winners of the contest from number 1 through to number 3 in order. Ms Hang Marani, last time also won top prize, has won it again in this contest. Second prize goes to Chea Vannarith and third prize goes to Khim Sochanvirak. The rest of the ten winners will go on. Let me clarify a bit that there are in all five topics put into contest. Firstly, actions to improve respect of traffic law; secondly, action to help orphans, widows, lonely elderly citizens, and disable persons; thirdly. Actions to assist those victims of accidents – traffics, fire or flood, etc; fourthly, action to help with sanitation and keeping public places clean; and fifthly, action to prevent and eliminate drugs. For these topics, contestants need to take a video footage or write a poem.
This morning, in my Facebook page, a young fellow who addressed me as “grandfather” said he had his video made but it was not in Facebook page for vote. I think the topic he had prepared was on education. Therefore, later, we would expand our topics into education and other sectors. Education is a topic in which many would have chance to express their thoughts. For example, a voluntary teacher who would do his/her job free of charge in areas where there are shortages of teaching staff. We may also cover health sector because there seem to be many more teams of voluntary medical staff involved in treatment and sanitation activities for poor people in remote areas […]
… HE Duong Dara already informed you about how do we go about making a decision as to who would win the contest. The working group will first have its stay in the selection of the five topics. Any works received for contest will have to be in the five topic areas instructed – whether in poem, article or video. If they do not, the works will not go into voting stage in the Prime Minister’s website. The first voting stage in the website would keep only ten best works and the selected works will go into Facebook Page of the Prime Minister for final voting. Voters will decide in the end as who would be the first winner and so on. I would take this chance to express my greetings to winners […]
… I think next time the contest winners awarding event will be more ceremonious and in a bigger place. We will invite all five top ten winners to come. However, this is symbolically a supreme place as it is the office of the Prime Minister. During the ASEAN Plus summit, we allocated this room for President Barack Obama of the United States of America. Rooms opposite to this allocated for leaders of China ad Japan. The Obama’s team divided the room into two for his need. We hosted signing ceremony between heads of states and governments in this room too.
Youth to Make Own Possible Efforts, Voters Also Are Participants of the Program
I am taking this chance to express my sincere thanks to participations of all youth though some have claimed that only those with resource would be able to take the contest. I admit it is true. It is not only in this youth model contest, I think it is true also in the case of sports. Some have talent in football but not all would go into the national team. Hang Meas HD TV also hosted The Voice in their show, followed by Cambodia Idol and last night I say it has extended its coverage to contests of professional artists. In China, they have about 1.3 billion people but they could not find a good team of eleven footballers to get into World Cup. The same is true for India, from their 1.2 billion people they could not find the eleven best footballers to go into World Cup. Some countries may be small in size and with smaller population but they have strong national teams of football […]
The issue here is not how many people could get into how many contests we are launching out to get top ten winners at all. What matters is that we wanted everyone to vote and chose best winners. Ms Hang Marani got 17,712 votes; Chea Vannarith got 16,492 votes and Khim Sochanvirak got 10,092 votes. In the previous contest, Khat Vanna received up to 20,000 votes. As you can see that not only youth model participated in the contest actually are active in the program but your evaluation on their works and performance also cherish merit action for our nation. In our country and in many others that are still poor, it requires art or culture of sharing from those who have to those who do not through common efforts made by every stakeholder in our society […]
Our topic coverage will not stop here. From the first contest, according to the minutes taking of my works, I said that I wish to leave it up to contestants and those voted them to give ideas about the importance of the program and its interaction. This should reflect that we have already foreseen the forthcoming procedure. For instance, we have received an opinion from a grandchild – I do not know if it is a he or a she, with satisfaction about the possibility of extending contesting topics to cover education too. There may be some youths involve in community education works such as fixing a school building’s roof or teaching free of charge – they are models too. We must be open to constructive criticism and opinion […]
Leaders and Officials Must Use Information Technology
Another important aspect here beside urging youth to do merit jobs for society and express them through contests, I wanted people to get to know the importance of information technology. I said on several occasions that e-government would not be sufficient. I want e-people … I am calling on officials, armed forces, especially leaders to learn about information technology, especially what they can do about with their smart phones. In area of communication, they could use any appropriate program from Line, Whatsapp, Telegram, Viber, WeChat … to any other ones they wish. It would be also important to know where to use which program […]
From now on, when working out human resource management, one of the most important questions must be whether so and so is information technology literate? If not they would have to first acquire the knowledge before moving on to a new position. Calling someone on the phone about something is not the only way of working anymore and it could be frustrating too should the one on the other end did not pick it up or the call falls into no service area. With for example telegram or WhatsApp, etc., though from or in a meeting room, one can communicate easily. I am demanding that our staff in senior leading positions must acquire this knowledge and skills primarily.
Facebook Users with Virtue and Self-Esteem, and Provide Accurate Information
What I wanted to achieve most before anything else was to promote information technology among our youth. It is true that not every one is with a smart phone. What I am talking about here is that those with ones – either smart phones or computers, but do not join in serving society. If we could have good human resource, for example one with smart phone skill, people could go to him or her for help in making their voice heard to the Facebook Page of Prime Minister.
… Before reaching to Kratie, people in the Orussei market in Kratie posted their comments in my page concerning what happened in the market. I told the governor to comment in my page responding to their calls. They invited me to come by and see with my own eyes. I responded to their calls and solved about 90% of the problem there. Seventeen families would not move out to clear the way for the market construction to begin. As a last option, I had to come have a public forum with them. It was after a rainy day. I used to have various public forums in rice fields but, in those days, there were no social media outlets like Facebook for instance to get it to people’s awareness. Not all of the seventeen families are users of Facebook. Some of them are and could make their voices heard to my page.
This is my objective to make our youth aware and use information technology in an appropriate manner and direction to serve our society instead of scolding and insulting one another. I am calling on all Facebook users to exercise virtue and preserve one owns’ esteem. What good would it make to scold or insult one another in Facebook? Eva Mysliwiec, left Cambodia for Mali, who spoke but not read Khmer, told me in our meeting the other day that people also insulted one another badly on Facebook in Mali. I told here if she could read she would find the same thing here in Cambodia. I had contributed a junior secondary school in Mali through here and Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, HE Hang Chuon Naron went to Mali to inaugurate it on my behalf.
Should we know how to make beneficial use of it, we would be able to advance in a faster pace and there would be more good and accurate information for prompt action and correct decision from Prime Minister. I must assure you that only when you provided me with accurate information that I could ensure appropriate solution to whatever the problem it may be. With inaccurate information, I would not be able to do so and should I do it, I could have made mistakes too. As you can see there have been cases that I had to cancel previous decisions … I am calling on people, youth who have access to internet and own Facebook accounts to use them in good interests, not to slander, insult one another as those would not be a virtue and morale of youth.
Holding on to Diamond Opportunity
Those of you who are born into this time of the history of our country are indeed very lucky. If you do not know how to use this chance for your own advancement, I do not know when in our history would the best time for you. My wish is to see that you benefit from the diamond opportunity that Cambodia acquires presently, if not for national interest, it should be for yours personally. I am making this comparison so that you would see how the previous generation lost their chance and how you this generation acquire it in full […] I was born in time of war and my family had to cope up with so many things, flood of the dragon year included. However, in those days that I had a chance to migrate from my village to Phnom Penh to stay in a Buddhist pagoda to continue my study was indeed a marvellous happening compared to other kids […]
I now have an undeterred commitment to do whatever I can to get our children away from bad luck I had. In my days, community would be responsible to raise fund to build schools building and the government would only provide teachers. There was only one junior college in one district in the province of Kompong Cham. Reaching 13 years old, I migrated to stay with a Buddhist monk the pagoda of Toek La Ak, Phnom Penh. Comparing to young people of 13 years old now, you can see that they have better and more chances. You may learn in detail what had happened in life as a pagoda boy from listening to my song “Life of a Pagoda Boy” […]
At present, implementing the “Santuk Declaration,” there are more than one primary school and at least one junior secondary school in a commune. As of now, every province where there used to be one or two now has numerous senior secondary schools and young people do not have to migrate anywhere just for the matter of following up their studies. It has created a favourable condition for female students to no longer drop off school for having to go to school far from home.
… What is even more important would be peace. We may have restored chances and put in various infrastructures in place leading to preventing youth and children from dropping off schools now … however, should the country was under the leadership of Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Preah Borom Ratanak Kaod without interruption by the coup in 1970, I believe that Cambodia would have maintained its momentum of development. Some had lost their chance because of the coup on 18 March 1970. You may want to know how much blood had shed and how many had died or maimed. I left home in search for studies but I could return home anytime I wish to see my family. However, when war broke out, everyone lost every chance. You may want to ask your elders to find out what had they lost and endured when the country fell into war.
It is in this understanding that we all must make efforts to defend peace that we have achieved with so much difficulties. A war broke out because of previous generation politicians and everyone became its hostages. There was no a third option … On the Lon Nol side, youth must join the Lon Nol soldiers. On the liberation front side, they had to do the same. Thinking about all this I always doubted myself how come I could survive those harsh times. Youth lost chance but they are the ones with the ability to create chance. They would not stand to live under brutal rule. I became Minister of Foreign Affairs at 27 years of age, Deputy Prime Minister at 29 years old and Prime Minister when I turned 32 years […]
I have hope on the future of our youth and thanks to the chance brought forward by their participation with other people to bring down the regime of Pol Pot. That is one side of the story. On the other side of the story, we could not go on making war endlessly. Seeking for peace for the country was necessary. However, the Paris Peace Agreement implementation under the supervision of UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) spent some two billion USD and left Cambodia in divided state of two rules. I had then had to bet my life to resolve the unfinished issue. I had to visit former Khmer Rouge strongholds to activate integration from a country with four de facto controls into one unified country and leadership […]
What Do Colour Revolutions Give to People in Middle East?
… The fact that we are able to build school is because we are at peace. Let us look at the situation in the Middle East, after foreign interference to create colour revolution, under the pretexts of western democracy and human rights, what had happened in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, especially after they demised Saddam Hussein, for example. Hundreds or thousands of people died everyday. It is results of wrong policy-making … Presidential candidate Donald Trump of the Republican Party admitted it was wrong to kill Saddam Hussein. ISIS occupied various parts of the territory. They launched attack to recapture territory. It has taken months of war and how long would they stand after recapturing it without constant US and allies bombardments? Worse still, Europe also suffers hardships. First, ISIS terrorists brought their fights to France, Germany or Turkey, and other countries in Europe. We do not welcome them. We denounced their acts. Secondly, there is increasing outflow of refugees from Syria, Libya and other countries to Europe. That Great Britain is now exiting European Union it will certainly not accept refugees. As for you now, no one conscribe you into the army or make people lose their chances […]
Ask What You Can Do for Parents and Families
Now we have united Cambodian factions into one with many political parties. Among six or seven million voters, there were 58 political parties. Now that we have approximately ten million eligible voters, there are now 50 political parties. However, the fact that we have many political parties is better that many armies belonged to different factions to make war with each other. I think youth should benefit from this chance of peace, infrastructures of education and other sectors to create chance for themselves and their families, community and nation. Some scholars in other country said “ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” It is a big idea. I would seek your understanding on this idea of “ask what you have done for your parents and family.” Do not put them in tears […]
I have spoken a bit too much. I am happy that I could share with you some of the facts. It is like a lecture of what Cambodia has gone through from one stage to another. I have the understanding that winners are here today not to just benefit from the awards that we will be presenting them. They are here because they believe in doing merit works for society. Your endeavour to help and to do good for society indeed deserves respect. I am grateful for everyone who have made such efforts. I am encouraging other youths to take part and we must think of increasing topic coverage to other sectors. We are all ears to what appropriate proposal and opinion you have to say and encourage more participation./.
