A One Thousand Meters Scarf
… Let me inform you about this longest scarf of one thousand meters campaign to break the world record. If you wanted to join in lengthening this scarf, please visit the royal field next to the Royal Palace to add few threads to the weaving to become a strand of strong unity to create the longest scarf in the world. HM the King and HM the Queen Mother opened the program. The weaving is underway. If you can make some of your time available, you may take a chance to weave a few threads each. For anyone to help weave it, you will get a stamped ticket […] there have been some tourists doing it too […] in the celebration of Sangkranta, we already broke the world record on two things already – the Madison dace by largest number of people, and the biggest sticky rice cake. This year we hope to have another Sangkranta at Siemreap again […]
We Meet for Ten Years
… This week we could meet only at this place because on Sunday, as an incumbent members of the National Assembly, I am going to join other electorates in the Senate election. However, next week there will be many meetings. On Wednesday we will meet in the district of Samraong Torng of Kompong SPeu, and later on Saturday and Sunday, there will be more meetings with workers/employees in the province of Preah Sihanouk. I will fulfill what I have promised. I will go around and meet workers/employees not only in the 2018, but no less than ten years more. I have grown addicted to the meeting. In any week that I did not have time to meet workers, I felt that I missed something. I am sure, you also waited for chance to meet with me too. More so for those female workers in pregnancy. It has been a feeling not only between a leader and workers/employees, but also one among family members. I understand that and our mutual acceptance is not something new. You and your parents have known me from a long time and shared a journey together to the present. This has encouraged me to seek to the best of my ability solutions to every problems in the interest of workers/employees […]
Peace – Foundation of Development
Our hard-won peace has served as a basic foundation of development. You should remember that were there be no peace, there would not be development. Our beginning was so difficult and not simple. Backtracking a bit, you can ask your parents and grandparents, or any living souls, who had been going through and survived the past sufferings of war of aggression in between 1970-75, the Pol Pot’s genocide between 1975 and 1979, and the period of war and peace mingling together in between 1979 and 1998. You may remember that UNTAC spent a sum of over two billion USD to implement the Paris Peace Agreement […] they ended their missions leaving Cambodia in two different control areas. On one side, the area controlled by the Royal Government of Cambodia born from the elections organized by UNTAC, and another the area controlled by the Khmer Rouge Government led by Khieu Samphan, who acted as Head of State and Prime Minister. However, the win-win policy provided us with chance for national reconciliation without foreign involvements.
Among Khmer, we came to a reconciliation and created this win-win situation to reconcile the once divided country. In our region, some countries are still having seceded areas controlled by armed forces that are against the Royal Government. Many of them are still in that state. Cambodia no longer has that problem. We have many political parties. In the forthcoming Sunday’s Senate elections, because of the electorates we have, there will be at least four political parties contesting in the elections […]
No One Can Pressure a Sovereign State
Yesterday there was this meeting between networks of the United Nations agencies present in Cambodia with Prime Minister and concerned ministers of the Royal Government. We discussed issues relating to youth and labor, and migration. We also looked into issues relating to interest and wellbeing of our people. Let me open a bracket here […] there have been talks about pressure being put on Cambodia by the United Nations. Let me send you a message that as a sovereign state, an executive body leader, no one can apply pressure on. In this world, the Secretary General of the United Nations or international organizations can not apply pressure on any independent and sovereign state.
We discussed relevant issues in partnership. If they did something wrong, we brought it up. Inputs they give us, we will consider and accept them. I asked them not to start some projects and leave them. Take for instance, this project about bird flu thing, when HE Nuth Sokhom was Minister of Health. The issue took place in Kompong Speu. I knew about it and I asked for the one who would take up financing responsibility. HE Chan Sarun was Minister of Agriculture then. They told me, first the World Health Organization would take the responsibility. I told concerned Cambodian stakeholders not to go for the project. They might pay for the project in a period of one year, and they might leave. We had no way of quantifying how many bird flu there would be in a year and how many chickens would have died. How could we be bound to pay for them? All we should do was to acquire vaccines and medicines to prevent the disease (and not to cover the number of dead birds).
Providing Rice for Local Food Project
Yesterday I told the gathered UN agencies that there must be joint study of projects out there because some of them may need diversion of assistances. Take for instance the UN World Food Program used to provide rice assistance for Cambodia to cater snacks for 250,000 students in schools. However, lately, the UN World Food Program (WFP) was short of funding. It has burden to assist not only Cambodia but also other countries. They proposed to Cambodia to provide rice and some financial assistance to World Food Program to run the project. We provided them with rice. We offered rice to WFP and WFP delivered the rice to help schools in the country. We discussed this matter yesterday and were of the opinion that by 2021, WFP will withdraw its part and Cambodia will offer help that it used to provide to WFP directly to the snack project for schools. Cambodia is no longer a country of food shortage. It is true that our discussion yesterday covered also issues of nutrition, taking for instance iodine salt, and the likes […]
ASEAN Needs Consensus
… Yesterday they even talked about the fact that there will be pressure on Cambodia in the forthcoming ASEAN-Australian Summit in Sydney. Let me convey them a message. Without Hun Sen, there would not be sufficient meaning of ASEAN […] Australian would not be able to put pressure on Cambodia. Cambodia would coin in advance that should there be any improper positions, Cambodia would block any declarations. ASEAN needs to have a consensus (to issue something). Why should Cambodia fly to Australia to be rebuked? In fact, Australia should indeed thank Cambodia. They lobbied Cambodia to support the gathering to commemorate relations between ASEAN and Australia […] let us not be confused […] How could they say that Australia will be rebuked and pressured on the visit to Australia? (This is the) Prime Minister of an independent country, which has equal right and footing, and bears the right to veto (that you are talking about). Without consensus, nothing could come out. Please learn more about ASEAN […]
Will Meet 600 and More Cambodians in Australian Visit
I will also meet with some 600 Cambodians in Australia because of the place we will meet is small. There will be more to come. On my first day in Australia, I will meet some 600 of them. I will take more of my time to meet more. People organize this meeting should program it even at midnight since there will be people flying from New Zealand too […] people now address me as Senior Prime Minister because in ASEAN I headed ASEAN twice – one in 2002 and again in 2012. In four more years, Cambodia will take up rotating chairmanship again. I am in the process of thinking where to organize the forthcoming summit – Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, or Kompong Som (Preah Sihanoulville province). We have to enlarge our airports in Kompong Som because (if we are to launch the summit there airport needs to be able to accommodate planes of) big countries including the United States of America will have to come join it. I am sending this message to people who cheat and to warn (Cambodian) opposition in Australia who threaten to throw demonstration. I also have my supporters in Australia. It is a normal issue […]
Australia lobbied us. If Cambodia were to disagree, I would only tell them that in 2018 I would not be able to travel abroad because the country will have elections to carry through. That would mean Australia could not call on the summit because there were no consensus. There would be no declaration of ASEAN and Australia too, should there be any actions or orders given in contrary to Cambodia’s independence, sovereignty, and deemed to interfere in Cambodia’s internal affairs. Let me have their attentions now. If you issue one, I will issue my version against it. That would present a sign of division. Let us not go in that direction […]
No ASEAN Pressure on Cambodia
… ASEAN has solidarity. Some said that ASEAN is putting pressure on Cambodia. How could ASEAN do that to Cambodia? Do you know what ASEAN has been doing these days? Some ASEAN members are asking for our supports. Take for instance the Rohingyas issue ion Myanmar […] the United Nations has no reason whatsoever to interfere in internal affairs of a member nation. Those who work in Cambodia must abide by the Cambodian laws. There will be problem if they do not. Let us be clear with each other […] I sincerely hope that you are not that uninformative to get yourselves cheated (by those politicians) […]
No Time to Kill in Foreign Countries
… We will not allow our country to be ruined by anyone. In another clumsy move, they said Germany issues no visas for (officials in) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Samdech Krola Haom had had to make a clarification yesterday. It was unknown as to where The Phnom Penh Post had this news and ran it. Let me give an example, should the Germans really do it, Cambodia will be the one to benefit. They said that Germany will issue no visas for private visits to members of the Royal Government of Cambodia and their members, and that would include also family members of Mr. Hun Sen. What does that mean? It means if you want to go to Germany for tourism purpose, you cannot. You can go only for official matters, like a meeting, etc. On another reason, since when Germany and/or the US had not said it, I never go there. I have no time to kill there. I need times to meet with my nieces and nephews. I find it more enjoyable to be with them than to kill time in those other countries […]
Monitor and Resolve Abandoned Factories Problems
Let me congratulate the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training for implementing the eight recommendations I issued lately. I wish to add one more […] and that was to continue to monitor closely and resolve immediately issues relating to factories that are closed and abandoned by owners […] there was a day when workers were coming to a gathering with me, an owner closed the factories and fled. Let us not allow it to go on and on. Should problem like this arise, take immediate action. Find out where can we get the money to pay our workers first – could be from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and/or other sources […] let us do it in a timely manner so that our workers would not be concerned about their pays. To sell in auction the factories or what would be a matter of secondary urgency. We must not allow workers to protest because there were not certain solutions. In addition to this, we must also try to find jobs for workers whose factories owners abandoned […]
De-Miners to Access Free Healthcare Service in State Hospitals
Yesterday we did not have time to talk about this matter. I think that I should take this opportunity to speak to CMAC staff. There is a report from CMAC to request for free healthcare access like those provided to our workers. I am asking HE Mam Bun Heng to include de-miners – not only in CMAC, but also in every de-mining organizations, into the free healthcare accession system from state hospitals […] while their health are not well, it would be difficult to secure good work results. I am declaring today in my capacity as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia to operators to de-mine and remove UXOs everywhere that they are having access to free healthcare services like those provided to workers and/or sportsmen/women. We do not need to include army and military engineering teams because they already have their own systems […]
Hun Sen’s Presence Necessary for Peace and Development
I wish that the National Elections Committee (NEC) understand that I am not making a campaign. In the period of campaigning, it is forbidden to offer any gifts. I am not launching a campaign for those who run for the Senate. I am here as Prime Minister to visit workers. However, on 29 July 2018, there will be a general elections. I hope that you will join with your grandparents and parents to go to vote for the Cambodian People’s Party so that I will be able to continue my leadership. I really wanted to know that under my continued leadership for nearly four decades, how rapid Cambodian economy would grow. I wish to stay and protect it from those who wish to destroy it. The presence of Hun Sen is necessary for peace and development. It is in this meaning that (the opposition said there is) no need to attack the Cambodian People’s Party but Hun Sen. Why? It is because Hun Sen was the main buttress of the Cambodian People’s Party. Falling down Hun Sen is tantamount to bring down the Cambodian People’s Party […]
Daughter Will not Own Kuntha Bopha Hospital
Let me also send a message to a neurosurgeon in the Kuntha Bopha hospital. Yesterday he said mistakenly that Hun Mana, my daughter, will own the Kuntha Bopha hospital. I warn him to be careful with what he had to say. My daughter is not specialized in medicine. Mr. Seiha heard it and shared your talk to me. You said in in the hospital. I know who you are, your name and where you are. As a neurosurgeon, why could you be this silly? My daughter has no knowledge to own and manage the hospital that huge. The Kuntha Bopha hospital will have to continue to function even Dr. Richner has had to leave for his health. My daughter has nothing to do with it. She contributed one million USD per annum to the hospital. Why did you accuse her? Though it is not yet an open statement, but your discussion had been caught […] I wish to send you message that the Hun family is not for you to insult or eliminate. This family has helped saving millions lives and developing the country. There are bad ones and good ones. Those who are bad like the one who owned cock-fighting arenas in Kandal province was arrested the other day. Whoever commit guilt will have to take legal responsibility […]
Demonstration Is a Right, But No Effigy Burning
I also send a message to those who are preparing to launch demonstrations. It will be an honor of your government. It is your freedom. However, you should know that I also have my supporters too. Everywhere I went those who joined demonstrations were about only ten per cent of those who supported me. A few of them were shouting outside but many sitting and listening to me inside. I am warning though there should not be any effigy burning or actions will be taken to your homes. In 2013, there were demonstrations. Samdech Krola Haom told the American embassy to tell demonstrators that it is Cambodian faith of superstition about effigy burning. Should that happen, there would be problem. I was determined to react should they burn an effigy that resembled me. I will take it to their houses. Let me be clear. Once you burn someone’s effigy, that real person also has rights to fight you. It is a reciprocation. You inflict violence on an effigy thinking it Hun Sen, actions will be taken …
National Rescue Movement – A Terrorist Organization
… As far as this national rescue movement is concerned, where there comes one, let us eliminate one, where there come two, let us deal with two. It is not an infringement upon their rights. They are terrorist organization that will destroy the country and is illegal. I am calling it terrorist organization. If you are strong and mighty, build a party to compete. If you do not come in, it is fine with me. Some said Hun Sen now used derogative terms. Well, I just do in return to what they did to me […] there has been a court order already and there is no pardon yet. I will not seek one for anyone because the person has been intolerable. S/he must serve the sentence. S/he would have to wait until the sentence is over. Some do not dare to challenge imprisonment and ran around […]./.
