Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Manet has thanked an artist who painted a portrait of him during the ceasefire negotiations between the Cambodian and Thai armies in Malaysia on July 28, 2025.
Speaking on social media, the PM thanked artist En Bunratanak for ‘this beautiful and meaningful painting that represents the Khmer unity spirit in the cause of the nation and the people.’
The PM stated:
“Thank you, brother En Bunratanak, for this beautiful and meaningful painting that represents the spirit of unity among the Khmer people in the cause of the nation and the people.”
In this painting, there are images of soldiers standing in a row with their backs to me, an image of me standing holding documents after negotiating a ceasefire with my back to the soldiers, and images of many Cambodian citizens throughout the painting.
Brother Ratanak told my wife about the meaning of this painting:
The many people depicted in the painting represent the land and the people of Cambodia throughout the country.
The soldiers standing in a row with their backs to me represent the heroes of our national army and police who were fighting on the battlefield in defense of our nation, land, and people.
The image of me standing holding the document after the ceasefire negotiations on July 28, 2025 in Malaysia and turning my back on the army represents the government striving to seek peace and protect the lives of our soldiers and people from further deaths in fighting, as has happened for the past 5 days and 5 nights (July 24-28, 2025).
I believe that our fellow citizens across the country may still remember this feeling, even though the fighting has been over for a month.
I still remember that on July 28, many of our Cambodian brothers and sisters did not go to sleep, waiting to see if the fighting would really stop at midnight? And some of them wondered anxiously why it was necessary to wait until midnight for the fighting to stop.
Why not stop immediately? How long will it take?”
-Khmer Times-
