Unofficial Translation

Selected Comments durign Visit to the Handicap Development Zone at Koh Sla, Kompot

04 April 2009

… My wife and I are so pleased to come back here once again after our last year visit on April 13, , a few hours before the New Year at the district of Kien Svay of Kandal province. Today, April 04 – my official date of birth - we meet once again. The date has its historical value intrinsically attached with me and every return I have devoted the day for social actions …

Like today, we meet so as to look back together what we have done and how much improvements have you made in your living conditions … By the way, I am sure that your children who are in pursuit of education higher than primary level, and who have yet to move here would have to try to accustom to similar condition and I hope they would find it agreeable too …

I am aware that initially you might have sad feeling as you have to change your living environment from being packed in a centre together to living in a dispersed location which is an open space a bit far from the National Road as well …

Having spent about one year in this condition I now tend to think that you are getting used to the new environment and setup … One critical factor that helps you become accustomed to the condition is the fact that you have engaged actively in social and economic activities as a whole and for own household needs in particular … 

First of all, having seen all this, I would like to express my sincere thanks to efforts made by HE Kun Kim and his team in making all this development possible … HE Kun Kim is actually not present here today because of some border issue development … There was a small clash at the border between two neighboring countries … Thai Prime Minister Abhisit, Minister of National Defense and Chief of General Staff Anupong Paochinda said altogether that it is considered as an incident that might eventually happen because the two troops stay too close to each others …

Still I do not want to see this kind of incident happen again and I have suggested many times that instead of releasing bullets on each other, why not resorting to releasing smoked or seasoned fish from the Cambodian side, while from the Thai side, fruits could be a good exchange … The best way to prevent such incident from happen happening is perhaps both sides stay where they are … Cambodia has defined clearly its borderline, any encroachment upon would result in being fired upon, because if the Cambodian troops were to do the same in return, they would be fired upon as well …

We have considered it as incident and not a war … I would also need to make some correction to what I have seen the running letters on CNN and Channel News Asia about two deaths of Cambodian soldiers … that it was a wrong piece of information as there were no casualties on our side because we were in our positions to defend ourselves … The Cambodian soldiers as well as Thais do not wish to have lost their lives …

However, as I said again and again, I do not wish top see this kind of incident happen at all and we all should try and make sense of what I have suggested that we must not expand conflict from the Preah Vihear area to other areas at all …

Today HE Kun Kim is absent but according to report by the team shows that a vision would be fully and successfully implemented only when it is being steadfastly implemented … We have resolved to do what we want to do here in a serious manner as we have to conduct mine searching and clearance once again in this area because we need to make sure that handicap soldiers would not be left vulnerable to a mine-infested environment … or they and/or their children would stand to be victims …

What we have done here has provided helps not only for about 200 families but also for about 100 households living nearby and those passerby … yesterday I watched TV news program and I saw that taxi driver is pleased that a new road could do a lot of good for his business … To be frank my ambition has been huge as I wish to build asphalted road through here … But remember we have to go at the speed of a toad leap …

My primary recommendations for developing this area is that the committee has to draw out a master plan as to where and what size of land should be reserved for hospitals and schools and I would want the conjunction lines of three provinces – Kompot, Kompong Speu and Preah Sihanouk to have a junior secondary school, which not long later we will build a senior secondary school in same place …

You may ask why I decided to move you here instead of keeping you at Kien Svay in Kandal province. It would not be a problem for you to stay there but my wife and I have noted that only a few have not got children, and it is they that we have to think of their future …

The best we could think of helping them is to find them a place with a house built in their ownerships, only we will not give you the titles at this instance but a concession titles …

The reason is not difficult to understand … I wish to keep this land and house for you and I do not want you to sell it to others … It is in this instance that I do not give you the titles just yet. If you were to have received your titles and after one or two years you sell them out, before long you will get back to previous hardship …

So I have given all of you only the rights to make use of the land but not the titles yet … If you were to sell it out I wanted you sell it for a good price … However it is worth keeping for the sake of your children … It has been a difficult moment when we first started because we had to mobilize a lot of people and engineering soldiers from various units – about 1,534 of them – to get on with building houses and basic infrastructure …

In view of this my wife has come out twice to review the construction and structure – as you know, in previous building plan, bathroom and kitchen are part of the main housing plan, and she made her recommendation to extend the roof of the house further back where bathroom and kitchen are under the extended roof …

As far as infrastructure is concerned I have been reported that health clinic, school, village committee building, water distribution system, water reservoirs, electricity have all been put in place … Taking this opportune moment I would like to thank a Japanese company from Kyoto for its assistance in energy provision … It is indeed a motivating factor to see our people seem to be successful in fish farming which is a source of protein for their households and for local marketing activities …

Having all basic needs in place, I am so happy to notice that in less than a year that you have moved out here, with helps of battalion 31, the bodyguard unit and engineering team of the Ministry of National Defense, our people have achieved a good number long-term plants aside from immediate cropping system …

I would suggest HE Chan Sarun, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, to order a soil experiment and let us know what else can grow well on this type of soil in terms of long-term plants … We already have here a tree nursery station which will be providing more fruit and long-term plants for the people …

I have a strong belief that Cambodia has got its potential to help the people, as long as the objective is clear and correct …

I told HE Chan Sarun to review land concession deals, if the concessions have not been properly implemented, and if we have a proper objective and social demand for it, we may have to convert those land in concession to people in need. The land belongs to people and we give it out to the people, we should not be worried of committing mistake …

I used to be insulted even if I am the Prime Minister … Some people called me the “the blind” because I have only one eye left … We are physically handicapped but we are spiritually strong and capable … and I have effectively proven that …

My presence here today should be considered the inauguration … You will have my assurance that what has started hear will continue to go on and I will spare no efforts to provide further assistance … I will have more projects relating to education as I foresee that your children and those of the people living within the area will need by 2010 to attend junior secondary school …

Having established the secondary school here, it will be possible to move your children, who have to continue their study at Kien Svay, to study here and we may have to think about providing accommodation for teachers who will be dispatched here too … For first group of medical staff and teachers who first came here have been provided both land and motorcycles ./.

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