"The building of a critical mass of educated citizens requires a strong, well-educated leader"

 Re:

Singapore, a Model of Orderly Rule, Is Jolted by a Bitter Family Feud

A property battle among children of the city-state’s late founding father Lee Kuan Yew has burst into public view, drawing government attention and allegations of impropriety.

Theary C. Seng

Fascinating. An unfortunate feud so public and within family, yes, but at a refined, high level unimaginable, incomprehensible to Cambodia. This is one feud Cambodians can only desire!

We Cambodians need a critical mass of educated citizens, not someone deemed "educated" only in Cambodia but not anywhere else in the world, but an "educated" Cambodian who can hold a conversation inside and outside Cambodia. 

To build a critical mass of an educated population requires a well-educated Cambodian leader recognized as such domestically and internationally who is not insecure to put educated people around him or her rather than just loyalists and operatives without much substance upstairs.

Among other criticisms, this is a principal one I have of Kem Sokha: he's an intellectual lightweight who cannot absorb intellectuals around him without insecurity and already has a pattern of putting mostly loyalists (of those appointments within his control) around him, including the no-no of family nepotism.

Take as examples the appointments of: Ou Virak whose family had hosted his daughter Mona for schooling in California to replace him at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights; his daughter Mona to multiple CNRP executive positions simultaneously all within a blink of an eye upon party formation; Pol Ham as CNRP 1st vice-president who would be acting should he be outside the country.

I remember Mona mentioning to me how Kem Sokha chose Soksan -- his full name escapes me at the moment even though I know him from hosting the TV program "Youth Leadership Challenge" and thus why his name came up in the conversation -- to lead the CNRP Youth Movement because "he's very loyal to my dad, even though he's stupid." Soksan, as head of CNRP Youth Movement, was a useful loyal instrument in Mona's countless attempts in sidelining and finally dismissing Thy Sovantha from CNRP. I understand that this Soksan has been further promoted as I see him often pictured in Kem Sokha's inner circle on overseas trips since the internal coup that propelled him to CNRP "president".  

A vacuum does not fill a vacuum.

Speaking of education, recently I spoke with a friend whose son is in Khmer elementary school and there's confusion re the sound of the Khmer vowel "srak ah", how some students, either through intentional teacher neglect or teacher's own ignorance or expedience, are also calling this vowel "srak ear" when combined to the heavy-sounding consonant (akosak?). Huh?!?!?! This is literally confusion at the "A, B, C" level! It's not an isolated incident; the problem is sporadic and spreading!

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