Sovann Khema, 20
National University of Management
“The Information Ministry seizing the book makes me lack general knowledge that relates to Cambodian social issues. They have forbidden the students from knowing this vital information.”
Sal Som, 25
Royal University of Law and Economics
“People have the right to gain knowledge through books or media. The authors have the right to criticise all points about the reality of society, and literature is a mirror of society. If the state has done this, then it seems they have banned the right to know.”
Chheoun Lav, 22Build Bright University
“In a democratic country, the right to get information is very important to every single person, because this information helps people understand what our society is.”
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Kim Yuthana and Cameron Wells
The Phnom Penh Post
OBSERVERS yesterday criticised Education Minister Im Sethy’s move to ban two study books he said featured unsuitable “political” content, describing it as evidence of the government’s unwillingness to permit discussion of sensitive topics.
Meanwhile, several vendors in Phnom Penh said police and officials had recently pulled the books from their shelves or purchased all the copies in stock, and that they had also warned against selling the volumes.
In a letter to Information Minister Khieu Kanharith dated July 5, Im Sethy requested that the two general knowledge textbooks, produced by Cambodian author Pen Puthsphea for exam preparation, be banned because of apparent criticisms of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.
He said the ministry had discovered “unsuitable” passages on pages 146 and 147 of one book and on pages 100 and 101 of the second.
According to photocopies of the offending paragraphs enclosed with the letter, the first textbook asks questions such as, “In the near future, will Cambodia be able to develop? Why?”, and “What do you think of the practice of human rights and freedom in Cambodian society?”
The book’s answer to the first question is: “The government which is currently led by Prime Minister Hun Sen will not be able to lead Cambodia towards progress in the near future because corruption occurs from the top level of the government down to the local level, and law enforcement and the practice of human rights are still below zero.”
Pen Puthsphea said Tuesday that he had intended to highlight “both pro and con ideas” rather than criticise the government.
Ly Neang, owner of a newsstand near the National Institute of Education, said local authorities last week purchased all the copies of the books in her stock, and warned her against selling any more volumes written by Pen Puthsphea. “The authorities told me that they will confiscate the books if I continue to sell them,” she said.
Im Sethy could not be reached for comment yesterday.
But Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday that the banning of the books highlighted an authoritarian streak within the government.
“It is only two books, but it shows the government wants to limit the freedom of the Cambodian people to build democracy,” he said.
“It’s a totally communist country, a totally authoritarian country. Opinion is not tolerated in this society.”
Ouch Leng, a land programme officer for the rights group Adhoc, said students stood to learn a lot from such books.
“I think it is better that governments of all countries recognise their good and bad points that are collected and compiled by authors,” he said.
Moeun Chhean Nariddh, director of the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies, said the passages that make reference to corruption could prevent students from repeating “the same mistakes” in the future.
“The passages referring to corruption are a very important tool to learn, so that students can also contribute to fighting corruption,” he said.
“There are corruption cases involving teachers trying to demand money from students. The students need to learn about corruption. If teachers demand money from the students, how will the students know that this is corruption?”
But Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, questioned whether opinions about the government’s merits and deficiencies should be included in school materials.
“I’m not sure why [corruption] needs to be taught in this way,” he said.
“Students are much better learning about the history, and learning about corruption from that. If I was a student at that age, if someone has an opinion, it can take away from teacher’s teaching.”
Kim Yuthana and Cameron Wells
The Phnom Penh Post
OBSERVERS yesterday criticised Education Minister Im Sethy’s move to ban two study books he said featured unsuitable “political” content, describing it as evidence of the government’s unwillingness to permit discussion of sensitive topics.
Meanwhile, several vendors in Phnom Penh said police and officials had recently pulled the books from their shelves or purchased all the copies in stock, and that they had also warned against selling the volumes.
In a letter to Information Minister Khieu Kanharith dated July 5, Im Sethy requested that the two general knowledge textbooks, produced by Cambodian author Pen Puthsphea for exam preparation, be banned because of apparent criticisms of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.
He said the ministry had discovered “unsuitable” passages on pages 146 and 147 of one book and on pages 100 and 101 of the second.
According to photocopies of the offending paragraphs enclosed with the letter, the first textbook asks questions such as, “In the near future, will Cambodia be able to develop? Why?”, and “What do you think of the practice of human rights and freedom in Cambodian society?”
The book’s answer to the first question is: “The government which is currently led by Prime Minister Hun Sen will not be able to lead Cambodia towards progress in the near future because corruption occurs from the top level of the government down to the local level, and law enforcement and the practice of human rights are still below zero.”
Pen Puthsphea said Tuesday that he had intended to highlight “both pro and con ideas” rather than criticise the government.
Ly Neang, owner of a newsstand near the National Institute of Education, said local authorities last week purchased all the copies of the books in her stock, and warned her against selling any more volumes written by Pen Puthsphea. “The authorities told me that they will confiscate the books if I continue to sell them,” she said.
Im Sethy could not be reached for comment yesterday.
But Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday that the banning of the books highlighted an authoritarian streak within the government.
“It is only two books, but it shows the government wants to limit the freedom of the Cambodian people to build democracy,” he said.
“It’s a totally communist country, a totally authoritarian country. Opinion is not tolerated in this society.”
Ouch Leng, a land programme officer for the rights group Adhoc, said students stood to learn a lot from such books.
“I think it is better that governments of all countries recognise their good and bad points that are collected and compiled by authors,” he said.
Moeun Chhean Nariddh, director of the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies, said the passages that make reference to corruption could prevent students from repeating “the same mistakes” in the future.
“The passages referring to corruption are a very important tool to learn, so that students can also contribute to fighting corruption,” he said.
“There are corruption cases involving teachers trying to demand money from students. The students need to learn about corruption. If teachers demand money from the students, how will the students know that this is corruption?”
But Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, questioned whether opinions about the government’s merits and deficiencies should be included in school materials.
“I’m not sure why [corruption] needs to be taught in this way,” he said.
“Students are much better learning about the history, and learning about corruption from that. If I was a student at that age, if someone has an opinion, it can take away from teacher’s teaching.”
11 comments:
Welcome to HUN SEN pretended to be a democracy country system!
Like someone had said before, CPP still practice their commie style government.
They said democracy but it is only look good on the book covers but inside the book still preaching Communist style.
Khmer PP,
Hey who said Cambodia is a democratic country???
It is still a Vietnamese colonised country as directed by Vietnamese government. So those information censorship is vital to keeping the truth from known to the Cambodia people.
As such the CPP and Hun Sen are the tools & means of the Vietnamese government in implementing these agendas...
But thanks god for the intenet if you need to find the truth ask google...
People (nation) perish for lack of knowledge. He who bans the people's right to knowledge and do not let people to know, then he is the the anti-social person, a murderer of the nation in which he lives. The society should spit him out.
During The Sangkum Reastr Niyum Cambodian students and People were endoctrinized to recognize and follow only the all-field-father of..
During Poi Pot time people were taught to listen only to Angkar...
In the Cambodia ruled by the CPP, students and people are taught to listen to and follow only the so called AKKA Moha Sena Dek Kdor and the CPP.
How can Cambodia move forward If the leader repeat the same mistake and do not want any change?
Cambodian students! You are the future of the Country, Wake up. Stop bowing, stop kneeling, Stop YES YES.....
To take care the family is just like a political party.No matter what other unknown said " Keep study until the time is right to us your knowledge to serve our people and our Country.
please demanding and struggle for khmer rights. who says freedom was easy. even in the west like america, historically, people have to fight for their country's freedom of expression, vote, rights, etc... god bless cambodia and all our khmer people.
Books are a compilation of personal experiences good and bad, thus in the free world these personal experiences help shape the future so one may prevent such reoccurrences in one's nation or country. Should students become limited with their search for the truth then knowledge itself has been kept away from what will be told. This behavior is not a good way for anyone, not to mention the country. I think the reason why free speech is not allowed in a country such as Cambodia is because of enormous wealth to be discovered and to be made. When people are free to speak and to offer their opinions which translates that the government itself it is not doing an exceptional job thus it will lead to a replacement of the government itself. And when those who are at the top of the food chain seem that the publics have interviened it will become a huge problem for them. When it became a problem to them it means that their personal interests have become inconvenienced. Knowledge also means wealth. The more you know the more you earn the less you know the less you earn. Because of this simple expression the government prefers to keep the publics at a distant path of knowledge, thus it led to a very minimum of personal expressions. Education is the key to solve many problems because it is human that creates all of these problems among themselves. Those who have power want more power while those who have less power also want more power as well. Having said that, I urge the government to really encourage people to speak more based on the actuality of the reality and not based on defamations and accusations. When we learn to criticize anyone we must have everything in our perspective before we begin to judge and vise versa. In addition, I urge the Ministry of Information to focus on what they can do to work with the public working to gether in reshaping Cambodia into a better place and less focus on trivia issues. We are still facing with many great challenges ahead in the coming years, thus the MOI should learn to except that some criticisms might actually do some good for their future growth and not just fear and being intimidated by what is meant to be well thought expression and not just a lousy worrysome over some odd trivial opinions.
Hope to speak again soon.
X-Men
1:11pm, good comments. it seemed throughout different regimes in cambodian history, people in power or gov't liked to discourage people's freedom of expression, freedom of inquisition, freedom of choice, etc..., all due to what you mentioned above. they are afraid of losing their comfort zone or losing their position of power, etc... it think it is time for cambodia as a nation to change that starting with this current administration onward. it is really for the sake and benefits of cambodia as a nation and khmer people as a society,and so forth. everyone needs to encourage all khmer to think freely and not be so afraid of gov't, etc... i think as long as we do in a non-violent, non-confrontational, non-political, and not illegal, etc, we are doing the right thing. please have the courage, be brave, and be intelligent. it is ok to talk back and forth when we have different thoughts, opinions, or when we see something is wrong or unlawful, etc, we should have to the courage to educate other and guide them and encourage them to do the right thing, etc, etc...that's all! god bless.
in a good, civilized society, it is the citizens that communicate back and forth and correct and encourage one another to all do the right thing. yes, everyone can really make a difference. please don't be so selfish when it comes to knowledge and education, etc... if we think we know better than the other person due to our level of education, better opportunity, etc, please help them to become better as well. in general all people are good citizens until they get offended or angried, or personal, or mad, or whatever. so, give everyone the benefit of the doubt until they proved to us otherwise. problems exist everyone and in any sector of society or status, really. it is naive to assume the society is perfect, it's not! it is important to understand this so we're not so uptight or frustrated all the time. and meditation and deep breath helps you to relax and lessen your anger or frustration. yes, do embrace whatever religious belief one have in order to soothe our soul and state of mind and so forth.
Poor people, who tells you that Cambodia is a democratic country ?
Don't talk about justice, that is just a tool of Cambodian government which is used only to punish regular Cambodians.
True calour of the Hun Sen regime, a hybrid-democracy dictator in diesguise. Banning the book for it's open question for free thinking is just ignorent at best and is an embarassment for the world to see.
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