[Unofficial Translation]
A Source of Encouragement
Allow me to express my appreciation to your presence today and to thank you for you warm hospitality, which has been a source of encouragement to me. It has also confirmed that you have known me very well and have a good understanding of what and how much that your parents and grandparents have come through until you came along. I am so encouraged that you have given me love and considered me as one of your relatives. Today we are meeting again after the celebration of many festivities – Pjum Ben, water festival, and tomorrow, we will celebrate the 9 November National Independence Day. On this occasion, I wish those who are born on November 8 and 9 peaceful life, and progress […]
The day after tomorrow, I will have to leave our country to participate in the ASEAN-APEC dialogue meeting at Da Nang, Vietnam. I would then proceed to the ASEAN Summit and other related meetings in Manila, the Philippines. As of this moment, I have checked only one speech to deliver at Da Nang and I still have more to go through for concerned summits and meetings in Manila. However, I am taking my time to come see all 15,167 of you who are from twenty factories, in which there are 367 female workers in pregnancy.
Grieves over Loss of Lives in Terror in US and by Typhoon Damrey in Vietnam
We are living here in a real Cambodia. This is not a fake Cambodia that papers wrote about political crisis. Millions of people living in the country do not have problem. Only political guerilla, and those involved in drugs and armed robbers are worried (of what they had done) … Taking this time, we are expressing our grief over the deaths of those killed in a terrorist attack in New York and shooting in Texas state … We are sharing this grief with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
We also join the government and people of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for 61 lives lost and 21 persons missing over the course of typhoon Damrey. I was also concerned on the last day of our water festival that typhoon Damrey might cause disturbances. Rain came and some concert bands had had to prolong their shows. These have clearly indicated that no place on earth is problem free, and that would include developed ones too. Some countries faced with man-made disasters like what happened in the US and in Vietnam, it was a natural disaster […]
Four Factors for People to Enjoy Festivities
Our people have been happy with those festivities and in just one month and twenty days, we will celebrate ending of this year and your basic salary will change from 153 USD to 170 USD. While we are waiting for increase of salary, we may think about factors that make our people happy with our annual festivities. Firstly, the country is in full peace that people can travel wherever they wish to. Day or night our people travel free of fear. Since 1998, our country does not have internal frontiers anymore. Prior to that, divided in four control areas, crossing from one to another would sustain firing upon and in each control area there were mines. From 1998 through to the present, our country has peace and unified territory for the first time in hundreds of years. We all are living under one Constitution, King, Royal Government, and the armed forces […]
Secondly, we have infrastructural connectivity in the whole Kingdom. One day before the water festival, on behalf of the Royal Government, I approved purchasing back a nearly two-kilometer long bridge at Koh Kong from the Lyong Phat Company. People can now use the bridge free of charge. We did the same with the National Road 4, Veng Sreng road, and the bridge of Prek Phnov in Phnom Penh … It is in this wish to use resource to invest in infrastructural connectivity that I have prolonged organization of SEA Games till 2023. […] Some misunderstood what I said and confused that Hun Sen would not host 2023 SEA Games. That is not true. We will host SEA Games in 2023 and I hope I will have chance to declare it open […]
Thirdly, our people have their means of transportation. More people have their own cars. In the whole country, we have over half a million cars and over one million motorcycles […] people could go places either because they have their means of transportation or depend on public transportation […]
Fourthly, people have certain income that they could spend for their holidays. Some may still have short resources, majority of our people travelled between the capital city of Phnom Penh and provinces, and/or to visit tourist destinations […] people these days stay in four or five star hotel during their holiday […] more people of Cambodia travelled to neighboring country for tourist and health reasons […] we also have millions of locally traveling tourists. They cannot be overlooked […]
Democracy and Human Rights Are Born Not in War
Democracy and human rights are not born in war. Only in peace that democracy and human rights can happen. Let me take this chance to say it. We continue to make efforts to keep peace and are determined to have continued democracy and liberal pluralism. Certain political parties have already abandoned actions in the last ten or twenty years. They did not report of their actions and faced dissolution, In accordance with the current law, based on factual and legal aspects, those parties will face dissolution. One political party will dissolve for an offense committed against the people of Cambodia. However, while one political party is gone, many parties are still in actions and we are determined to carry through process of democracy, liberal pluralism, in which the Senate elections will happen on 25 February 2018, and National Assembly elections on 29 July 2018.
Do not Murder Democracy and Liberal Pluralism in Cambodia
I may advise those who love “Cambodia more than the Cambodians” to refrain from a reaction to murder democracy and liberal pluralism in Cambodia. Your reaction has been more in a way that you love Cambodia more than we the Cambodians do. While doing so, you should remember that millions of Cambodian died of your intention in the past. I hope that these people will not repeat it. I wish they carefully looked into factual and legal aspects (of concerned cases) in a country that is implementing democracy and rule of law. We allow no democracy the guerilla style. We will continue to have democracy and rule of law together.
Should they overreacted to murder democracy, liberal pluralism, and/or destroy elections in 2018, they would have brought themselves remorse like in the past. I have planned to meet Antonio Guterres, formerly President of Socialist Party of Portugal, and currently Secretary General of the United Nations, in the Philippines. We will talk about funding the trial of the Khmer Rouge. He understands Cambodian situation and knew what sort of punishment this country had to go through. The United Nations then recognized the Khmer Rouge and punished us. Now they support the trial. We just wish to remind some of our friends who usually interfere in other countries’ affairs to reconsider their actions carefully. Democracy in Cambodia will continue. To destroy us is to destroy democracy […]
Chances of Serving People Offered for To-Be Dissolved Party Members
… No matter what one could be doing, we will have to make sure that the laws of the country will uphold, and will not forgive anyone either in ruling party, civil servants, or armed forces for their wrongdoings. I have appealed to those people (members of the to-be dissolved party) to grab a chance of continuing to work of commune heads or assistants, and/or councilors. They assured their members that the party will not be dissolved […] they may bet on whether the party will dissolve or not. Those who bet on dissolution will win … I have kept them chances. However, whether they accept them or not, it would be up to them … once the party dissolved, nothing will remain […]
Law on Land Use in Agriculture – Not Necessary
This morning I saw a piece of news about demand of farmers on draft law about land use by the Ministry of Agriculture … I wish they looked into this issue carefully. If it is not that necessary, leave it. Our major issue now is to arrange for cultivation zoning in accordance with people’s wish. Where people have hard time growing rice because of lack of water, we may suggest growing different drops … We must be reasonable. If there is no real need for it, we shall not waste our time on it … I am sending a message to the Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries to report to me hurriedly … Sometimes, they sit down and think. Foreigners encourage them to do this or that so there would be a need for drafting laws. They would offer to provide assistance. They then spend that money registered as giving to us. I have enough experiences on this issue. They teach us to make law, send in their consultants, and through technical assistance, they take the money back./.
