Wednesday, August 16, 2006

From "no swimsuit" in the contest to "no contest" - a bizarre prudish behavior in Hun Sen's Cambodia

Wednesday August 16, 2006
Miss Cambodia contest axed over culture fears

(Kyodo) - The Cambodian government has cancelled a planned Miss Cambodia beauty pageant over fears it runs counter to the country's cultural values, a senior official said Wednesday.

Sim Sarak, director general of the Culture and Fine Arts Ministry, told Kyodo News that the government last week informed Planet Communication, an events management company that was to hold the first Miss Cambodia competition in more than a decade, of the cancellation.

He said the government feared the contest would not be held "adhering to the good cultural behavior of our country."

Kem Tola, marketing manager for Planet Communication, confirmed the cancellation, but said his company would seek permission again next year.

He said the competition was slated to kick off Tuesday, with the winner to be announced in October.

There were Miss Cambodia competitions in 1993 and 1995, but no contest has been held since due to budget shortages.

Last month, Sim Sarak said permission had been granted for the contest this year on the condition that it had to "maintain Cambodia's good tradition" by not having a swimsuit parade.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hun Sen can cancel all like;
-Foot ball trainning.
-MIss Cambodia
-Karaoke,
-World watch of trees cutting,
But he cannot cancel all crimes in Cambodia, all corruptions in Cambodia and all tax evasions in Cambodia.
What a crook!!!!

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Hun Sen on this one. As much as I criticize him, the decision to cancell Miss Cambodia beauty pageant is acceptable. Cambodia is currently in a stage of social and cultural confusion. The clash of old Khmer tradition and the westernization of self liberation and self expression are commonly seen in Cambodia. After a several decades of absent from the world exposure, Cambodia social thinking is that of the 60's and the 70's. The valued of those days are still being practice to today. Today, Cambodia is being bombarded with so many western influences, it's being force to conform to the influences. Miss Cambodia peagent is one such example. Bopa Angkor(flower of Angkor or Khmer women) have certain expectations. If parading themselves in a clothing that exposes skin or cleavages to earn points to win the tittle(prize money), then Bopa Angkor would be true Bopa Angkor. Call me presumtious, but I would hate to see Cambodia known as one of the main hot spot for sex industry, after all, that how Cambodia's neighbor to the west got started.

Anonymous said...

I want to applaud Prime Minister Hun Sen for his awesome observation and leadership to preserving good parts of Khmer culture.

Anonymous said...

okay there has to be more to this than just cancelling the pageant for the sake of preserving traditional Khmer values. What is it Mr. Hun Sen? Is this to make you look like you really care about Cambodian values or is it because there were no fundings towards your pocket?

Anonymous said...

He is terribly afraid of his communist bosses!

We know there is no freedom of anything in Communist Country. Therefore no to this! and no that! is making him a better partner and more suitable to the North.

Cambodia has millions of visitors from The West. Does it mean anything to us having those people pouring cash into our country? or trying to help us lifting our head up? How rude! and ignorance!

Anonymous said...

There is no doubt that the west such as Europe and America have assisted Cambodia in reconstruction and have seen much results. As gratful as Cambodian are for the helps, it would be naive and ignorance of them to assume that everything from the west will suit their taste quite well and in return should opening the floodgate of western ideas, values, and cultures.

Cambodian must learn be Khmer. Being Khmer means preserving the language, art, culture, tradition, etc. Those values have been part of Khmer for many generations. To respect and honor those value does not mean being old fashion, being extreme conservatism, or suppressing anyones rights such as women right for self expression for that matter. It is mainly for the preservation of Khmer itself. Is self expression worth more than respect and dignity?

After living and raised in America for about 27 years, there is no place like home, that is the home of being Khmer. As American as I am (whatever that means), I am very much Khmer and without the realization that being who I am is better than being someone else, I would be lost and confused. Another word, why concern about being somone else by adopting someone else culture, such as Miss Cambodia, an idea from America started in 1950's. Cambodia should spend more time restore itself, as much as Cambodia want to restore Angkor Wat and many other temples. Cambodia has not yet clean up the messy trashes left behind and already want more trashes in its backyard.

Cham of of Long Beach, CA

Anonymous said...

There aren't any good behavior to worry about, you idiots? Khmers were borned to hate and kill one another.

Anonymous said...

You sounded like a Khmer Rouge or a Vietcong, Anonymous 3:14pm, what is your name?

Cham of Long Beach, CA

Anonymous said...

You sounded like a Khmer Rouge or a Vietcong, Anonymous 3:49pm. Please reiterate your opinoin.

Cham of Long Beach, CA

Anonymous said...

I applaud this decision by hs..i dont care if this is a political game he's playing. From a cultural point of view, it was a good judgemtment and leadership call. Now if he goes and close all those casinos in PP, it'll even be much better.

Jeejee said...

Dear Mr. Sam Raingsy,

I've heard a lot from you about solving Cambodian territory with Youn and fighting corruption. Now, let tell us you clear strategy how to solve the territory problem and to cut corruption from Cambodian society. Now corruption is every where for instance to issue a Car license plate, we have to pay 85$, to win the bid contractor have to pay for commission to the high ranking official and so on. In the hospital, we have to pay doctor some money. In order to get approval from government administration, we have to pay money to the official.

I've that you would increase gov official to 150$ a month to solve the corruption problem. Now let me tell you, it wouldn't work even you increase the salary to 1500$ a month as the corruption come from human nature.

Best wishes

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