A Change of Guard

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Saturday 11 May 2013

Of Post Doctors and Glorious Geniuses [Cambodia is full of "geniuses", but why Cambodia is still very poor?]

May 9, 2013,
The New York Times
By JULIA WALLACE
PHNOM PENH — Late last month, the prime minister of Cambodia awarded his long-serving finance minister the title “Kitti Setah Banditt,” which roughly translates to “Glorious Economist of Genius” and is the supposed equivalent of a doctoral degree. It was a variation on an obscure “Glorious Genius” honor that seemingly came out of nowhere in 2011, when it was given to two senior leaders of the governing Cambodian People’s Party as well as the prime minister’s wife.[Hun Sen's wife has just been awarded a knighthood of a title of "Samdech Ketti Prithapundit Bun Rany Hun Sen"].
When the powers that be aren’t burnishing their credentials, they invent them out of whole cloth.
A similar title — Glorious Preacher of Genius — was recently conferred on several high-ranking members of the Buddhist monastic order, which is closely aligned with C.P.P.
When the powers that be aren’t burnishing their credentials, they invent them out of whole cloth.
Khmer-language newspapers frequently carry advertisements congratulating officials on their latest academic degrees. Mong Reththy, a C.P.P. senator and businessman, has amassed at least three doctorates. Cheam Yeap, the head of Parliament’s finance committee, has two doctorates, as well as what he calls a “post Ph.D.” from Isles International University, an unaccredited institution and a diploma mill that once operated in Cambodia. In official communications, his name is prefaced by the title “His Excellency Post Doctor.”
In 2010 Nhiek Bun Chhay, leader of the C.P.P.-aligned Funcinpec Party, claimed to have earned, after studying online for seven years, a Ph.D. in dispute resolution from St. Clements University in Switzerland, apparently another degree mill. Chea Sim, the Senate president and C.P.P. leader, has at least three Ph.D.’s — including one in “high leadership in the Senate” — as well as two honorary doctorates, despite never having progressed beyond high school.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, for his part, says he received a doctorate in political science from the National Political Academy in Hanoi in 1991 and at least 10 honorary Ph.D.’s, many from obscure universities. On his Web site, he also boasts of being a member of the bar, a five-star general, a Royal Academician and an Honorable Professor of Diplomatic and International Relations with the Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica.
One likely reason Cambodia’s leaders fetishize doctorates is insecurity: Many received little schooling because of interruptions to their studies caused by civil war and then the Khmer Rouge regime during the 1960s and 1970s. And while they do, Cambodia’s educational system remains abysmal. According to a 2011 World Bank report, Cambodia spends just 2.3 percent of G.D.P. on education — less than other low-income countries — and the share of the budget allocated for teachers’ wages has declined over the past few years, even as the budget for military wages has increased significantly.

Primary-school teachers are so badly paid they often collect bribes from students before class. Only around one-fifth of students progress to high school. At even the best universities in the country, the quality of education is poor by international standards and graduates learn few of the skills sought by the labor market. A few Cambodian universities offer doctoral programs, but with only about 7 percent of university-level teachers holding Ph.D.’s, any student with serious scholarly aspirations must go abroad.
Instead of accumulating phony doctorates, Cambodia’s leaders would do better to improve the quality of the country’s schools and universities so that one day they might produce their own — legitimate — Ph.D.’s.

Julia Wallace is managing editor of The Cambodia Daily.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well analysed..the former Khmer Rouge are as educated as the street animals. Hun Sen himself cannot be educated anymore then an old dog barking on national TV every day accusing the oppositions of staging a civil war with chicken coops and cow poops. Even Mom Sonando an old man in his 70s, is accused by Hun Sen as the mastermind and ring leader of setting up an armed force in the country side.

Anonymous said...


To answer Khmerization's question, I would say that is because these "geniuses" or "doctors" are fake, they earned their qualifications without studying for it. Some of them can't read or write properly like Hun Sen's wife, Chea Sim, Heng Samrin and so on who didn't even finished primary school, who were bandits - cow thieves - when they were young.

Anonymous said...

What next? Are they going to bestow anything that looks like a pig? I think they just did it!!!!

Anonymous said...

These sam_ach and si_cho will next award themselves the "god" title. And these CPP follower clowns will call them "preah" - and continue to beg and slave-serve for a living, skills passing on to their offsprings - such a nation led by a bunch of no-hopers.

Anonymous said...

Hun sen's wife is the most pathetic first lady in the world, a discraze to cambodia because she is the only first lady that add her husband's full name as her last name. What the hell is "bun rany hun sen"?

Anonymous said...

Dear All,

These clowns with honorary PhDs, bogus PhD or PhDs from non accredited institutions of higher learning cheapen the credentials and values of the BONAFIDE
PhDs.
In addition to the sash and the " PhD paper ", there must also be Class Transcripts and three copies of Dissertation.
These are customary academic arsenals a bonafide PhD holder must earn from accredited American universities.


A Khmer Patriot

Anonymous said...

How about Norodom Ranariddh who is more stupid than Hai Phuc , did he get
the real PhD from France ?

Anonymous said...

These clowns were the thieves they should get the honor from HELL because they came to steal to kill and to destroy!....Their satan's degrees were looking good to those whose doesn't know the truth about them,but smelling bad/looking bad to us khmers whose knew where they originally from,they all were poor farmer jointed Yiekcong/YiekMinh because they can't survive on their own they were too poor.

Now they ruled with iron curtain with the helped of their master Yuon Hanoi to destroy Their country and their people,thatwis Hanoi honor them with PhD from HELL and Sdach Ktuoey Komrook also honor them with PhD or title of Som Arch si Joe......Lol...I honor them with the TITLE;KINGS OF THIEVES!...MURDEROUS MIND RUTHLESS KINGS OF THUGS!...NEXT,Sdach Ktuoey will sign the degrees giving King of THUG Hun sen a title:King of Nambodia then Sdach Ktuoey will commit suicide.

Kmenhwatt

Anonymous said...

PhD of Cpp can't even read their own language properly just read a love letter that Hun sen sent to Piseth Pelikah lots of scratches and changes that telling me that Hun sen can't writes that well.This is how fifth grader/pagoda's boy get his multiple PhD from,his Yiekcong wife Bunrany even worst.


Anonymous said...

11:40 pm
To former colonial countries of France, a French degree was valuable, but today in international forums it is almost worthless.

Anonymous said...

Fake degrees belong to fake individuals !

Anonymous said...

These monkeys will not have the forests to live in the near future, because they were destroyed by these monkeys themselves.