What is your view on Cambodia’s recent development?
From my point of view, Cambodia’s recent development shows a great deal of improvement, such as in the area of infrastructure: buildings, schools, bridges and roads. The recently held election also went smoothly. Many of the people seem to enjoy their current lifestyle with the big malls and many entertainment places being put up. This development means so much to all the people including myself because we all want to see new things, enjoy a better economic situation and have a more vibrant and sophisticated lifestyle. More importantly, this development also brings many employment opportunities to Cambodians, leading to improved living conditions for senior citizens, children and women alike.
What kind of change/development do you want to see in Cambodia over the next five years?
Generally, I think the Cambodian people are becoming more knowledgeable, particularly with regard to the elimination of discriminatory and violence-related behaviors. However, problems in these areas still occur sometimes, affecting small groups of people. So what I want most is for everyone to be more open-minded, eliminate discrimination and stop all forms of violence, especially toward the LGBTQ community. More importantly, we all should focus our efforts instead on serving society and humanitarian causes, giving value and respect to one another. Therefore, over the next five years, I think Cambodia’s priority is to improve employment opportunities, upgrade the salary scale, have greater freedom of expression and equality of rights between people with power and ordinary citizens, and legalize marriage for homosexual people.