H.E. Tep Ngorn, Second Vice President of the Senate of the Kingdom of Cambodia, has laid stress on the significance of both peace and democracy at the International Leadership Conference (ILC) Cambodia: Peace and Democracy.
In his address to the international conference in Phnom Penh this afternoon, H.E. Tep Ngorn said peace is the precondition for all development, including democracy, good governance and the development. “Peace is like a mother. If we take good care of the mother, the mother will also take good care of the children. Democracy is not just a goal, but a means to maintain peace. Good governance must be at the core of service, while development must balance between materialistic-centric and spiritual-centric development,” he explained.
According to H.E. Tep Ngorn, peace is not only the aim we want for the world, but peace is the way we must also adhere to, as Samdech Techo Hun Sen said, “I do not believe that war can be ended with a war. Only through negotiations and dialogues can the war be ended” and Samdech Techo successfully launched and implemented the political policy of peace to end the long-running civil war in Cambodia through peace talks and win-win policy which fully brought on complete peace. Finding peace can be challenging, but our efforts in finding solutions with goodwill and strong determination are the only way to achieve peace, which is started and achieved by Cambodia and for the real benefits of the Cambodian people, Cambodia will be able to maintain its independence, peace, sovereignty, territorial integrity, political stability, security, and national development as it does today.
In the current context, he said, the political philosophy of peace should be widely adopted and disseminated. Peace is not only a goal but also a means. The peace of a country mainly depends on regional and world peace because in today’s world, each country depends on each other politically, economically, socially and culturally. Therefore, maintaining, strengthening and expanding world peace is nourishing the foundations of our strategic and long-term interests together.
Cambodia has now become a hub of peace for the Mekong region and ASEAN, he stressed, adding that to contribute to maintaining, strengthening and expanding peace in the world, Cambodia has sent Blue Hat troops to support the United Nations peacekeeping missions in nine countries, including Sudan. South Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, Mali and Yemen. Cambodia continues to pursue a foreign policy based on the principle of building good friendships and cooperation with all countries in the world and international organisations.
The strengthening of democracy, respect for human rights, freedom of expression must be balanced with the strengthening of the rule of law and the preservation of national sovereignty, the promotion of virtue, morality, and culture of each country to ensure that democracy does not descend into anarchy, the second senate vice president underlined.
H.E. Tep Ngorn continued that good governance is an important element for the development of the country, which must be the governance that takes the interests of the people as the core, places the people as the ultimate goal of serving to ensure that the people are served well and satisfied with public services as well as trust and support the leadership of the government and the party in a democratic society. Cambodia has implemented and continues to implement deep and comprehensive reforms with a plan that promotes governance at all levels and institutions. The country is also committed to strengthening justice, promoting social equity, creating quality human resources, providing trustworthy public services, promoting sustainable economic growth through digital transformation, creating jobs, providing an inclusive social protection scheme, land and natural resources management, environmental protection and the building of climate change resilience and the constant improvement of people’s lives.
“In order to achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to provide a balance between national economic development, poverty reduction, and civil development in Cambodia. It is important to balance between materialistic-centric and spiritual-centric developments to ensure peace, political stability, security, public order, social harmony, and prosperity so that people can live well both physically and mentally,” he underlined.
The International Leadership Conference is a gathering of member organisations and the ThinkTank2022 Network of Ambassadors for Peace to discuss global principles and spirit to resolve conflicts and reconcile broken families.
Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse