Thoughts, feelings and emotions that hopefully provoke the purest of minds...Capturing thoughts through written words is like capturing pictures on film or digital camera.
Cambodia has long and lasting relationship with many countries in the world. Yet nothing is more important than the needs to build a stronger relations with the USA, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and the rest of ASEAN nations.
If we look at Cambodia's diplomatic ties during the last 60 years; we have seen repeated manipulation by our friends and foes alike; especially bigger states bullying Cambodia to many points where we have never gained but only suffered losses at the expenses of political, socio-economic stability and development.
Starting with the spread of communism in the 1950's to the end cold wars of 1990's; Cambodia's position in the world stage has been in doubt and in disarray. Cambodia has been sidelined, arm-twisted, used and abused in nothing more than a political chess game of the big boys; such as the USA, China and the Former Soviet Union.
We have gone backward politically, socially and economically through space and time as direct results of wars, political upheavals; and failed diplomatic missions were among those critical ones. Our people have never seen better lights of day, until the last 25 years after the fall of Khmer Rouge and after UN-brokered democratic election in 1992.
As we begin this path of reconstruction to full recovery; it is my hope and vision that Cambodia will have learned past lessons and never again let those wrong lessons get repeated.
As a nation, we may be small yet we must be strong diplomatically; meaning a credible voice in the international scene and in the new world order. We must be able to convey our mights through diplomatic deceptions, military mights, economic prowess, unrivaled leadership and most importantly human resources that are second to none.
Diplomatic mission of all kinds must understand our position in the regional and global stage. We must learn to align ourselves with friends that are mightier than ourselves politically, socially and economically. And we must always embrace the ideals of freedom, democracy and independence.
We must never forget that the success of all diplomatic missions involve the ongoing respect of cultures, languaes and ways of life. These cultural understanding and appreciation can be fostered only by opening up our doors so that our people can travel and learn about other's people cultures, languages, traditions and ways of life.
Discrimination and prejudice of all kinds are rooted in the misunderstanding and not knowing. If people of all nations are encouraged to learn and become exposed; they will learn to appreciate different values other than their owns.
In this era of global trade and international commerce; Cambodia cannot afford to be left behind diplomatically. We must encourage as well as prepare our future generations to take on the responsibility of young ambassadors.
I believe that it is never too early to start children on the course to appreciating the world. Programs such young ambassadors, students exchange, overseas scholarships, cross-cultural and language programs will facilitate people to open up and adapt to things that may be different.
The future diplomacy will have greater chance of success when our children are already exposed and informed about the world other than their owns. They will be proud ambassadors of this great nation called Kingdom of Wonder when they are equipped with cultural and linguistic etiquettes of those that they will have to deal with. These basic skills will help to bolster their confidence in representing this great Kingdom.
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