Lately, Prime Minister Hun Sen had been very critical towards his junior government partner, the Funcinpec party leadership. It appears that the prime minister is not very good at keeping up with the sermons he preached onto others either. (Photo RFA)
Saturday, 18 March 2006
Civil Society officials want Prime Minister to reduce the number of his 200 personal advisers and the money saved used to increase the salary of civil servants
By Veasna
Voice of Khmer Youth
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media
Rong Chhun, the president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association, who was arrested by the government and sent to jail for more than 3 months, then released after international pressure, said that it is not just the president of the National Assembly (NA), the prime minister also has numerous advisers just like the leaders of the NA and the Senate also.
On Thursday, the prime minister said that the president of the NA had over 100 advisers, he also described his personal case saying that he has over 100 advisers also and each one of them earn about 1.4 million riels ($350) per month.
Prime minister Hun Sen went to give a speech in Staung district, Kampong Thom province to praise himself while putting down others. He said that the former president of the NA had more than 100 advisers and the government had to pay over 188 million riels ($47,000) for them.
However, the prime minister did not dare talk at all about the actual number of his personal advisers who consume a total salary of more than 2 billion riels ($500,000) each month. He only claims that for him as the prime minister, it is normal to have so many advisers.
Rong Chhun, the human right and democracy activists, wants government leaders as well as NA and Senate leaders to cut down the large number of advisers they have in order to save the money to increase the salary of civil servants, teachers, soldiers, and police officers.
The half-hearted admission by the prime minister for the huge number of advisers was justified by the fact that he had a lot work, is in agreement with letters posted by King-Father on this issue.
King-Father Norodom Sihanouk, the former Cambodian monarch, said on the occasion of his abdication in 2004 that during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum era, a Cambodian prime minister was not allowed to have any adviser.
King-Father said that only the head of the government and the king were allowed to have advisers, other than that, the prime minister, the president of the NA, nobody had any advisers.
To stress this fact, King-Father gave as an example the case of Prince Norodom Kantol, the royal family member and prime minister in the government regime before 1970, who did not even have a single adviser.
Political observers said the fact that the prime minister has so many advisers, it is a waste of national budget, and it also shows that the prime minister does not have enough knowledge to fulfill his important position.
Civil society officials said that it is normal for the prime minister to have advisers, but their numbers should only be equal to one expert for each government ministry.
NGO officials said also that the above suggested number of advisers did not take into account the fact that ministers, and vice-prime ministers already have the expertise to help and advise the prime minister.
Furthermore, public opinion criticizes the fact that the prime minister has a number of advisers in excess of 7 to 8 times the number of government experts is an indication that the prime minister does not have the knowledge to fulfill his duty.
In the current second kingdom, it is not only the more than 200 advisers to the prime minister, to the leaders of the national assembly and different institutions, which is unusual, political observers also mentioned that even the “oknha” [honorific title purchased by rich businessmen for $100,000] are numbered by the hundreds. Some source indicated that there are currently over 500 oknha title bearers whereas King-Father said that there were only a handful of rich businessmen [with that title] during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum era.
The strange thing is the fact that with the increasing number of oknha and rich people in Cambodia right now, the country’s natural resources – like forest, mineral, gold, gems, government lands, etc… - had also been depleted.
A greek mathematician said that “numbers lead of the universe,” however, Cambodian leaders including the prime minister should not take the number of advisers as an excuse for political leadership, nor should they use the number of oknha as an excuse for economical leadership either, because these large numbers are a heavy burden on the national budget, and they provide a weak image of the economy of the country controlled by a small clique of people who think more about their personal interest rather than that of the country.
On Thursday, the prime minister said that the president of the NA had over 100 advisers, he also described his personal case saying that he has over 100 advisers also and each one of them earn about 1.4 million riels ($350) per month.
Prime minister Hun Sen went to give a speech in Staung district, Kampong Thom province to praise himself while putting down others. He said that the former president of the NA had more than 100 advisers and the government had to pay over 188 million riels ($47,000) for them.
However, the prime minister did not dare talk at all about the actual number of his personal advisers who consume a total salary of more than 2 billion riels ($500,000) each month. He only claims that for him as the prime minister, it is normal to have so many advisers.
Rong Chhun, the human right and democracy activists, wants government leaders as well as NA and Senate leaders to cut down the large number of advisers they have in order to save the money to increase the salary of civil servants, teachers, soldiers, and police officers.
The half-hearted admission by the prime minister for the huge number of advisers was justified by the fact that he had a lot work, is in agreement with letters posted by King-Father on this issue.
King-Father Norodom Sihanouk, the former Cambodian monarch, said on the occasion of his abdication in 2004 that during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum era, a Cambodian prime minister was not allowed to have any adviser.
King-Father said that only the head of the government and the king were allowed to have advisers, other than that, the prime minister, the president of the NA, nobody had any advisers.
To stress this fact, King-Father gave as an example the case of Prince Norodom Kantol, the royal family member and prime minister in the government regime before 1970, who did not even have a single adviser.
Political observers said the fact that the prime minister has so many advisers, it is a waste of national budget, and it also shows that the prime minister does not have enough knowledge to fulfill his important position.
Civil society officials said that it is normal for the prime minister to have advisers, but their numbers should only be equal to one expert for each government ministry.
NGO officials said also that the above suggested number of advisers did not take into account the fact that ministers, and vice-prime ministers already have the expertise to help and advise the prime minister.
Furthermore, public opinion criticizes the fact that the prime minister has a number of advisers in excess of 7 to 8 times the number of government experts is an indication that the prime minister does not have the knowledge to fulfill his duty.
In the current second kingdom, it is not only the more than 200 advisers to the prime minister, to the leaders of the national assembly and different institutions, which is unusual, political observers also mentioned that even the “oknha” [honorific title purchased by rich businessmen for $100,000] are numbered by the hundreds. Some source indicated that there are currently over 500 oknha title bearers whereas King-Father said that there were only a handful of rich businessmen [with that title] during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum era.
The strange thing is the fact that with the increasing number of oknha and rich people in Cambodia right now, the country’s natural resources – like forest, mineral, gold, gems, government lands, etc… - had also been depleted.
A greek mathematician said that “numbers lead of the universe,” however, Cambodian leaders including the prime minister should not take the number of advisers as an excuse for political leadership, nor should they use the number of oknha as an excuse for economical leadership either, because these large numbers are a heavy burden on the national budget, and they provide a weak image of the economy of the country controlled by a small clique of people who think more about their personal interest rather than that of the country.
Suggestions:
ReplyDelete-reduction in Legislature from 123 to 100 plus salary and eliminate Senate entirely,
-reduction in ministries from current number (too unreasonable and costly) workable number,
-Let go all advisors and select competent ones but few
-Assimilate qualified soldiers into teaching career,or equivalent
-Dummy generrals cut out completely,
Hun Sen got to set example first
Hun Sen only adviser is the vietnamese.
ReplyDeleteHun Sen is ignorantly blaming others, but he cannot look inside himself or when someone criticize his personality, those will face intimidation, jailing or assasinating.
ReplyDeletehe , hun sen dare only to sufering to the poors, he just like the donkey with the tiger skin,,,eeyore!
ReplyDelete