After 10 failed attempts over the past 14 years, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday announced to a crop of new university graduates that he had finally overcome one of his greatest vices.
“For one year, I have struggled,” he told the graduates of Chamroeun University of Poly-Technology at the ceremony on Koh Pich island. “But I have not been struggling with a person or with nature, I have struggled with myself.”
Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks to graduates of Chamroeun University of Poly-Technology at a ceremony on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich on Thursday. (Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily)
“I can announce today that I have been successful. I have stopped smoking cigarettes,” he told the students.
For years, Mr. Hun Sen has opined on his battle with nicotine in public speeches. In March, when he announced his latest campaign to quit, he scolded Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Commander Pol Saroeun for never having his own cigarettes. On Thursday, he took another jab.
“The person who wants to follow me and stop is Pol Saroeun, but he is not able to stop,” Mr. Hun Sen said. “Also, [Phnom Penh Governor] Pa Socheatvong attempted to stop, but he still cannot stop.”
The prime minister told the graduates that he pitied his wife for having to deal with the constant smell of cigarettes and that a critical turning point in his quest to quit came when a sub-decree that would ban smoking in public spaces passed his desk.
He said he sent the sub-decree back to the Health Ministry, unsigned, because he liked to smoke at Council of Ministers meetings.
“If I have to leave the meeting room to smoke a cigarette, would there be someone there to listen to me?” he said.
The sub-decree is still awaiting approval.
While the prime minister was happy to have kicked his destructive habit, he was decidedly less pleased with his bodyguards Thursday.
Upon arriving at Koh Pich Theater, he said, a member of his security detail got in the way of him praying to the monks in attendance.
“Immediately I grabbed him and moved him aside so I could pray to the monks,” he said. “If I did not advise them, they would do it again.”
The Prime Minister’s Bodyguard Unit had also become a burden on the golf course, he said, constantly moving into his line of sight when watching the trajectory of his shot.
He said he had told his private security unit that the only dangers on the golf course were flying balls, and that he had no problem dodging them himself.
“I told them…‘Go away, it is just a golf ball, I can escape from it,’” he said. “In 1998, there was an attempted assassination with four B-40 rockets and I did not die.”
2 comments:
-Drgunzet- (Communist Vietnamese poster living in the U.S.),
You mentioned, "Vietnamese are saviors and protectors for the Khmer." Oh really?
There were hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese secret agents hiding in Khmer Rouges uniforms during and before the Killing Fields (1975-1979) who ended up killing millions of innocent and well-educated Khmer/Cambodian people including small children. Pol Pot had been toppled by secrete Vietnamese agents in Khmer Rouges uniforms who spoke, read and wrote Khmer language really well and fluently. There were several thousands of real Khmer Rouges soldiers (not killers) who were so busy to fight with the Vietnamese armies in Southern and Eastern Cambodia in order to get Khmer Kampuchea Krom/Southern Cambodia (today called Southern Vietnam) back. Your evil secret Vietcong/Vietnamese agents were busy to kill our innocent Khmer/Cambodian people who were very well educated and some of evil secret Vietcong/Vietnamese agents had robbed many things (like gold, valuable stuff, etc) from Phnom Penh to Vietnam/Srok Yuon during the Killing Fields times.
Pol Pot's China aids have been fallen into the secret Vietnamese agents from Hanoi and everything had been taken by those f**king secret Vietnamese agents from Hanoi.
Now, Pol Pot, his inner circles and his Khmer Rouges solders have been accused as the killers of their Khmer people as the scapegoats instead of the real killers who were the secret Vietnamese/Vietcong agents from Hanoi.
The goals of the Vietnamese master-minded killers (Hanoi leaders and Ho Chi Minh) were to terminated all innocent and very well-educated Khmer people before trying to take the entire country of Cambodia, by renaming the Khmer cities, provinces, town, roads, bridges, and so on.
Today or lately, have you heard some Vietnamese/Yuon folks said that Angkor Wat belongs to Yuon/Vietnam during the arguments (movies on YouTube somewhere), -Drgunzet-?
You need to prove that, communist Vietnamese poster -Drgunzet-.
Did you see that Khmer Rouges trial (KRT) has not been successful for over 20 years because of the Hanoi leaders' controls over Hun Sen and CPP government as the Hanoi's puppets?
Tell me anything that there are so many evidences about the dirty and dangerous games that your evil Yuon/Vietnamese leaders and folks like you who claim that you are "saviors and protectors for the Khmer." So far, you have been enjoying insulting unfortunate, voiceless, innocent Khmer victims and people.
You are so happy to see your evil Vietnamese/Yuon folks who succeed so far by being so smart to kill Khmer people, so smart to cheat and play dirty or dangerous games with Khmer leaders and kings, so smart to steal Khmer territory by encroaching, bringing the illegal Yuon/Vietnamese settlers or immigrants into Khmer territory as a human shield (Hanoi leaders did not care to hurt his own people), and beyond.
Vietnamese poster -Drgunzet-, you need to open your eyes bigger and think carefully before you shoot or post your nonsense comments on here.
Khmer Yeurng
យកអ្វើមកដាក់ភ្នាល់ម្ដងនេះ? ក្បាលដូចជាបានដាក់ភ្នាល់ហើយ
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