The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 650
“Phnom Penh: The Cambodian Prime Minister, Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen, told a story as a reminder for greedy persons. He told this story while presiding over the graduation ceremony of 1,266 master degree, bachelor degree, or associate degree graduates of the Vanda Institute in the morning of 3 February 2010 at the National Institute of Education [associate degrees are for people who do not have a high school certificates; they cannot earn a bachelor degree, unless they first spend one year to earn an associate degree].
“Samdech Hun Sen told a story about two Buddhist elders who were friends. One was a good person and the other was a bad person who did only evil things. When they died, the good Buddhist elder was born as Indra [the head of angels] and another became a leper. One day, Indra saw his friend, the former evil Buddhist elder, begging. He decided to help him by using his magic powers to make him again a normal person, as requested by his Buddhist elder friend. After he became a normal person, he got angry with a commune chief, for whom he worked, and he asked Indra to make him a commune chief. Then, he got angry with the district governor, and he asked Indra to make him a district governor… until he became a king. One day, Indra invited his friend to visit him at his place. There, he saw that Indra’s place was beautiful, and Indra had many beautiful girls serving him. The former Buddhist elder, who was now already a king, asked Indra to share half of his place with him. Seeing that his friend was greedy, Indra decided to make him again a leper what he had previously been.
“Samdech Hun Sen considered the idea of this story as a symbol of the endless desires of human beings, but he linked it also to those who become officials through the help of their partisans, but not through testing their own ability, and this is a problem about which also the Royal Government must be careful. He added that officials who are endlessly greedy will be demoted to return to their previous positions, or they will even be imprisoned.
“Samdech Hun Sen considered this graduation ceremony as a success of higher education institutions, such as they exist both as state and as private institutions. Such institutions can measure the capacity and the quality of the students’ knowledge and of the institutional education, based on the large number of students who graduated and get jobs in society. This can be considered a success in education, especially for those graduates who can create their own jobs; moreover, they have the ability to create jobs also for other citizens.
“The director of the Vanda Institute, Mr. Heng Vanda, said that besides the graduates here, 8,122 students are earning accounting and audit degrees. By now, there have been 3,845 students who have graduated [from his institute]. He added that by 2010, the institute has already constructed five buildings with 5 stories and 79 rooms on a piece of land of 3,000 square meters, and they plan to build a 7-story building with 77 rooms on another piece of land of 1,200 square meters next to the old main building.” Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.18, #5117, 4.2.2010
This article was first published by The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 650 - Thursday, 4.2.2010
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Norbert Klein is the Editor of The Mirror – The Mirror is a daily comprehensive summary and translation of the major Khmer language press - More about The Mirror