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Unofficial Translation
Selected Comments at the 54th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Royal School of Administration and
Diploma Presenting for Senior and Mid-level Government officials
03 June 2010
In addition to the prepared text, Samdech
Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen made comments on various topics that are
being selected and translated as follows.
I am so happy to be able to participate in
three events in one – firstly, the 54th anniversary of the
establishment of the Royal School of Administration (1956-2010), secondly, the
presentation of diploma for graduates of the Preah Vihear temple promotion,
attestation of 2009 training for senior and mid-level officials, and
certification of 2009 training for officials of the Senate, and thirdly, the
opening of the school year for the sixth generation of administrative officials
and training of senior and mid-level officials for 2010.
I am so glad that the organizer has made it
a meaningful event by gathering not only those graduated today and those who are
going to take up studies in the forthcoming term, but also those who studied in
the Royal School of Administration in the past. That Deputy Prime Minister Sok
An, one of those studied in this school, took the initiative to set up an
association of alumni of RSA, as is said by HE Ly Kim Sok, director of the RSA,
is a good thing that will help sustain and guarantee solidarity among those
educated here.
The RSA was established in 1956, when
Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk was the Prime Minister of Cambodia after Samdech
abdicated the throne in favor for his father, Samdech Preah Norodom Suramarit.
In 1960 his father passed away. The country was being left without a king, which
had prompted an insertion in the Constitution a creation of a new function “Head
of State” which is life position. What I wanted to infer here is the RSA was in
fact established at the time when Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk was Prime
Minister and then Head of State and the School has in fact contributed to
training of human resources for state management in the post independence-gained
era.
HE Ly Kim Sok has affirmed that the
establishment of the RSA was taking place when the French colony withdrew and
there was a need for officials in field of state management. Some officials had
been sent off for further education in France and in fact the French did
continue to help the School ever since, except only in the period of the
genocide. After the fall of the genocide, we reopened the School under the
supervision of the Ministry of Interior, which by 1991, was separated into two –
the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Security. After there was this
provisional Government, the two – Ministries of Interior and Security – have
become one again.
Aside from that, according to the Paris
Peace Agreement, the United Nations Transitional Authority for Cambodia (UNTAC)
was authorized to oversee five ministries – National Defense, Interior, Economy
and Finance, Information and Justice. We then created the Ministry of Security
that the late HE Sin Song was placed as leader. Later on we decided to place RSA
under the Council of Ministers and I have involved in the establishment of the
school from the beginning too. In 1992, with the French assistance, RSA was put
into operation and training of government human resources has started. It is in
fact my 14th time to be present for the School graduation ceremony.
My first presence to the School was as an
honorary lecturer but I could not do that anymore now. I think that is the stage
of development because I am getting busier and there have been a great number of
capable lecturers already. However, I could maintain my presence here on a
casual basis like today that some of the strategy and tactics could be
selectively presented and explained. I sometimes had been moved with tears
because of strategy and tactics.
As a leader it is difficult to get it
delivered. Strategy and tactics are not to be made known to everyone and in
every detail. However, hiding it or keeping part of it to yourself risks
creating a confused matter for those under your leadership. There is nothing
that you can do about it but to shed tears and wait till the time has come. Only
time will prove if what has been set out is a failure or success. I may say that
there seems to be no room for mistake as far as my strategy has been put out but
it has been tough and painful for the initial part.
Take for instance, the win-win policy
development and implementation. It was a fact that it was not in everyone’s
agreement. There have three core issues in the win-win policy that, despite its
simplicities, significantly influences national reconciliation process. Firstly,
to guarantee personal security for everyone who break away from the Khmer Rouge
and returns to the national fold. Secondly, to guarantee that they could hold on
to their functions and businesses – which means they could go on to be what they
are, soldier, police, district head, etc., whereas uniform and rule of the Khmer
Rouge must be replaced with those of the Government’s, and thirdly, to guarantee
recognition of ownership rights on movable and immovable properties. The three
are the main elements that make the win-win policy a story of success.
Again as I said not everyone is of
conformity to the policy or strategy that has been put out. Let me raise an
example about this. My mother and my aunt disagreed with what I was doing at the
time not at the strategy level but at least at the fact that I had to go into
the Khmer Rouge stronghold. I have narrated many times about my mother and my
aunt coming to see me in my room and saying me “Are you not afraid of being
killed when you are going into the Khmer Rouge’s stronghold?” My answer to them
was: “if death were to happen, I and a few of people in my entourage would have
to take it, but if I happen to gain, the whole country will survive.”
It was in fact a life and death mission. The
win-win policy has not been an off hand development or care has not been given
for implementing it. I must say that it is a policy I formulated and led the
implementation all by myself. Let me bring up an issue involving the military
force adjustment. At the time when we have integrated regions of Samlaut, Ta
Sanh, Pailin, Kamrieng, Phnom Proek, Sampeo Loun and Mealay, the general staff
came to see me with a request to adjust the military forces and stations. They
based their arguments on the fact that those areas were plagued with the former
forces of the Khmer Rouge, which therefore required a readjustment.
They believed that if ever the war broke out
again we could not control what happened there. They suggested that some of the
former guerilla forces should be brought to Kompong Cham, Kandal, Takeo, Prey
Veng and Svay Rieng provinces. My response to their suggestion was “no.” For
one, it would be a contradiction to my declaration and I upheld my strategy that
the forces must stay where they were. If we were to move them further inside the
country, we would take them away from their properties that are in fact along
the border areas. This would be a contradiction to the third point in the policy
that we have to recognize ownership rights on movable and immovable properties.
Another area of concern is the fact that
where we could find land in Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Kompong Cham and Takeo
provinces for them to settle. In case of war breakout, which I do not agree, if
we leave them where they are, the war would be within the contained and/or in
former war areas, but if we were to bring them further in, if the war breaks
out, it would be spreading throughout the country. However, I have no doubt that
war is not a possibility because our brothers have in fact disengaged themselves
from the Khmer Rouge leadership and have been working with us in the process of
merging their forces into the national armed forces, and also contributing to
national construction. This is a matter of strategy. That is why I said the
difficulty to have a consensus or common understanding of strategy sometimes
moved me into tears. Time remains the only factor to prove the truth.
In the course of national reconciliation,
hundreds of houses have been given to elements of FUNCINPEC and KPNLF. Some of
the Phnom Penh government officials, who worked hard since 1979 through to
1991-92, the time when we had this Paris Peace Agreement, did not have proper
houses to stay in as we set aside houses for officials of the other factions.
Not only that they do not thank us for what we had done for them but blame and
even accuse us of selling state properties. I was so angry and had to respond
that in absence of reciprocation, they better return those that have been given
out.
Because of this situation I was placed under
pressure. Firstly, what can I do to help them settle inside the country? And
secondly, because of the fact that I had to disaggregate those properties from
the collection of the state or the Cambodian People’s Party’s so as to cater to
those newcomers’ needs, I also created a sense of despondency among some people
too. Moreover I had to face with denigration from the ones I have made good for.
In one of my rebukes from Prey Veng province I said they should return houses I
have given them to the state and I would register them as state properties
thereof. No one returned it.
As of now I am so happy to see that our
people come to a park before my house and practice their physical exercises and
not just in Phnom Penh but also former battlefields like Pailin and Anlong Veng
have now had their own recreational areas. All this is possible because of the
win-win policy’s successful implementation. It is still a unique example that no
other country has had it repeated yet. Some people said what has happened today
is because of the Paris Peace Agreement. I accept it and I have in fact been one
of the parties to conduct negotiation from the beginning, started from my
December 2-1987 meeting with Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk at
Fère-en-Tardenois.
I may step out a bit here to prove my
involvement. It was because there had not been an agreement on a term to be used
in the Peace Agreement, Japan invited me for a medical checkup and I since then
had my Japanese-made non-natural eye. I conducted a negotiation from seven in
the evening through to about two in the morning of the next day with former vice
minister for foreign affairs of Japan, HE Hisashi Owada, who is currently a
judge on the International Court of Justice and serves as the President since
2009, on a proposed removal from the Paris Peace Agreement of the term
“prevention of the return of the genocide.” He said in fact Pol Pot is no
different from the case of Saddam Hussein, only Saddam was not yet brought to
justice at that time, and war criminal will have to be brought to justice.
Our position to run a sentence “prevention
of the return of the genocide” in the Peace Agreement was not accepted by other
factions and the alternative at the time was “prevention of the return of the
past deed.” We were the one to propose the original sentence be placed in the
agreement because we had to take utmost precaution. However, UNTAC spent two
billion US dollars for its operation in Cambodia and its departure left Cambodia
a country of two control areas or two areas with two different Governments.
On-going negotiation in Pyongyang of North Korea, between one side those
representing the elected Government in Phnom Penh and on another being Khmer
Rouge’s Khieu Samphan and Son Sen, under the high presidency of Samdech Preah
Norodom Sihanouk and Samdech Supreme Patriarchs, encountered the Khmer Rouge’s
defiance. It must be remembered that it was the win-win policy that brought the
guerrilla war to its complete end.
I have an advice for all of you on “the role
of an individual in a collective”. Some of you who had and have taken up studies
here have now become Deputy Prime Ministers, Senior Ministers, Ministers,
Secretaries of State, Under-Secretaries of State, Provincial Governors and
Deputy Governors, District/Khan Heads or Vice Heads should be reminded that
individual could not survive on its own without interacting with a collective
framework. A person may have his/her initiative and it could be implemented into
reality only when there is action. If it were the family head to initiate ideas,
everyone in the whole family should act in tandem. In an organization, whether
it is a party or Government, initiative could come from a particular person and
would be brought in for discussion after which implementation must be performed
within the organization. Here it means the idea has been accepted and
implemented collectively. The individual has a role in a collective, whereas it
is the collective that brings about successes.
Let me have your attention in refraining
from the mentality of being main actor or star as it may be a dangerous illness.
This concept could be understood when someone feels that if s/he were to be not
in a particular place or time, the country or ministry would fall apart. I must
warn that one should not threaten with resignation as, when it comes to beyond
unacceptable level, you may be allowed to resign as you like. I must warn you
that no matter how capable you are as an individual, but without the collective
support you will not make it anywhere.
That is why I believe in the fight against
corruption. In an institution, it is not fifty or two hundred people are corrupt
altogether. I am sure just a small number of people would do so. I believe that
many people will provide us reports and would go all the way to work together
with us, which is making me positive that we have the capability to fight
against corruption. How many would there be corrupt officials in the army as
well as in a civil institution? I am sure we could mobilize the rest to join us
combating corruption. I am sure with the law in place and institution
established, information will come and investigation could proceed.
I must urge everyone to place oneself as an
individual in the collective and when you are being placed in the main acting
role, you may have to keep lower profile or one may have caught a disease of
being subjectivism, egoism, individualism and nepotism, all of which would not
lead to a long lasting career. In my life I have come across numerous hardships.
In between 1979-80, because I was 27, many called me the Minister with a milky
smell, which means they thought I was too young for the job as other ministers
were forty and above. As you can see it is that Minister with a milky smell that
is standing in front of you today and that has crawled up from Minister to
Deputy Prime Minister and now Prime Minister for 25 years and when the term has
come in 2013, I would be Prime Minister for 28 years. I will run in the next
elections too as the Party has already proposed.
Our experience here has started with just a
few people who formed up an army, together with other movements to set up the
National United Front for Salvation of Kampuchea on December 2, 1978, which
later liberated the country. We have started the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
with only three people but now we have come to better human resource
availability. My individual role has been used among many others for the first
time in the Cambodian People’s Party electoral campaign. In its eleven-point
policy, CPP clearly stated that if it were to be re-elected, Hun Sen would take
up the post of Prime Minister. This means that if people wanted Hun Sen to be
Prime Minister, they had to vote for CPP.
Having said so does not mean the CPP made
electoral success because of Hun Sen as an individual but because of all-out
actions and efforts by the third-term that brought about the forth-term Royal
Government. We are making efforts in the forth-term in order to go for success
in the elections to get to a fifth term. In this instance I would urge our
officials not to go against the people’s interest. To reverse from serving
people to mastering them is a serious danger.
I hope that we will improve the process of
screening officials for further training at the RSA and as we have been able to
organize a special training program for 69 students from the Senate, because
their entry criteria are not in conformity with those required by the RSA, we
may need to organize courses like that for officials from other places too. It
is time for our training to go to a profound level and our administrative system
also needs to be modernized, therefore we must improve our know-how. A point so
important to remember is that we are in the age of regional and world
integration. We need to be well equipped with knowledge and know-how so as to
match our working ability with partners who have come for cooperation with us
inside the country and also when we go out for cooperation abroad.
EndItem.
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