October, 2008

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Posted by: | Posted on: October 7, 2008

Buddhism is the basis of the rule of law

Written by Moeun Chhean Nariddh
Tuesday, 07 October 2008

Dear Editor,

As Cambodian people are returning from P’Chum Ben, they might have fulfilled their traditional obligation to appease the ghosts of their ancestors who have been roaming different pagodas in search of food offered by their living relatives during the two-week-long festival.

However, probably very few people apart from the Buddhist monks and lay people have been able to please the gods by fully following the panca-sila, or the Five Precepts, they have repeatedly chanted during the ceremonies.
The panca-sila, or the Five Precepts in Buddhism, include:

1. Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami (I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures).

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Posted by: | Posted on: October 5, 2008

New world, new leadership

Written by Vicente Salas
Friday, 03 October 2008
COMMENT

BY VICENTE SALAS

New global challenges call for different leadership styles

8-story-1.jpg

VANDY RATTANA

Voters display evidence of casting their ballots.

“Leaders do not have to be heroes, but they must not be afraid to face reality.”

If globalisation means anything, it means that local events have international consequences.
For better or worse, we are compelled to embrace change and accept that the uncertainties of the global political economy are part and parcel of living in such an interdependent world.

What happens at home doesn’t stay at home. East Asian economies prospered miraculously in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, before disaster struck with the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997.

No one could have predicted that such a crisis could hit at the epicentre of a major emerging economic bloc.
The result was widespread political instability and a downgrading of human security.
The crisis taught us to be conscious of global uncertainties.

And then came SARS and bird flu-another aspect of globalisation that demonstrated our global vulnerability to disease. Global migration moves much faster today and remains beyond the control of nation-state institutionalism.
Natural disasters have global impacts: the Southeast Asian tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in the US in 2005, Cyclone Nargis in Burma in May 2008 and the Sichuan earthquake in China 10 days later.

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Posted by: | Posted on: October 5, 2008

Cambodia’s higher education dreams confront reality

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — She has two years to go until graduation, but already Cambodian student Chhum Savorn is filled with a sense of dread.

The 21-year-old decided to major in finance, hoping she would acquire skills to help develop her country, which is one of the poorest in the world.

Instead, she thinks her education is nearly worthless — classes are mostly packed with indifferent, cheating students and led by under-qualified professors.

“The low quality of my studies means that I can’t help the country, and I’ll even have a hard time getting a job that pays enough to help my family,” she says.

A growing number of eager young Cambodians are finding themselves duped into a higher education system that suffers from weak management and teaching because it is geared more toward profit than learning.

Posted by: | Posted on: October 1, 2008

Govt must address the real issues of concern


Written by Sophan Seng

Wednesday, 01 October 2008

Dear Editor

I refer to your article “New CPP-dominated Assembly sworn in” [Phnom Penh Post, September 25.] The recent swearing-in is a historical moment for Hun Sen’s political leadership – his way to premiership was smooth and democratically legitimised. Previously, his path to premiership had experienced some hardships. For instance, in 1993 he was the second prime minister with Prince Norodom Rannaridh as first prime minister; in 1998 there was the coup that allowed him to consolidate his sole premiership; in 2003 parliament was stalled for almost one year before his premiership was given to him again.

I appreciate the fact that this 2008 assembly mandate has been smoothly, legally sworn in, and in particular the participation of the Sam Rainsy Party’s 26 representatives who endorse Hun Sen’s premiership for another five years as mandated. But the successful ascent to premiership through parliament does not warrant the level of centralisation in the executive branch. His government comprises far more high-ranking members than before, especially those from the dominant CPP party.

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