Senate president Hun Sen has suggested that the Royal Government and authorities at all levels track down and punish any corrupt officials or smugglers who import Thai goods into the country while the land border is closed. He warned that continued Thai imports could give Thai people the wrong impression, by suggesting Cambodians cannot survive without them.
He believed that this may encourage Thai people to “look down” on Cambodians.
“If I were still prime minister, I wouldn’t need to use this kind of language; I would just issue an order to arrest them or remove them from office right away. But please don’t think that when the cat is away from the cradle, the mice can run wild unchecked,” he said, via a social media post, this evening, October 8.
He also raised the issue of Khmer citizens in border regions, especially Poipet, who have Thai baht and have been exchanging it for riel since October 6.
“It is a good thing that Cambodian people use riel on their own territory to avoid losses and to prevent it from becoming a national weakness when it is used as a political weapon. I understand that some of our Khmer brothers and sisters who work and do business in Thailand cannot withdraw money from banks there,” he said.
He believed that the inability to withdraw Thai baht demonstrates that the Thai baht is already “killing” Khmer people who work and do business in Thailand, and in the future, the baht will “kill” Khmer people on Cambodian soil — specifically those Khmer individuals who continue to spend and hold baht.
“What I want to appeal for is this: Brothers and sisters who exchange money, please exchange at the market rate. Do not seek excessive profits by undervaluing the baht and inflating the riel’s price, this causes losses among people who need to exchange their money,” he warned.
He also suggested to vendors that they should not set prices in baht, but instead in riel or US dollars.
“If you love the nation, you should keep the banknotes featuring our divine protector, Father of the Nation, Mother of the Nation, and our King in your drawer, bag or pocket — rather than keeping the banknotes featuring the divine protector and the king of a country that treats us as enemies, insults us and looks down on us,” he said.
