PEACE-MAKER
Cambodia makes history as it hosts for the first time the 2023 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, which is currently being held in capital Phnom Penh from May 5 to 17. It was supposed to host the games in 1963 but did not push through due to the political situation in the country at the time.
Thailand hosted the inaugural sports event, then called the Southeast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games, in capital Bangkok in 1959.
Our country has hosted the games four times – in 1981, 1991, 2005, and 2019.
The SEA Games was established to help promote understanding and cooperation among the countries in the region. Indeed, sports have the power to bring people together, create a sense of community, and promote understanding between individuals and nations. Sports serves as a tool to foster diplomacy and build bridges between countries.
As we continue to navigate the increasingly interconnected world, sports can be used as an essential tool for promoting peace, understanding, and cooperation in the Asian region and the global community.
The present host, Cambodia, has been enjoying sustained economic development since its liberation in 1979 from the atrocious Khmer Rouge regime, which murdered more than two million Cambodians. Genuine peace and reconciliation have routed and finished the Khmer Rouge, integrating their remnants into the united Cambodian Armed Forces and political mainstream, resulting in an inclusive and pluralistic Cambodian society.
In a sense, hosting the 2023 SEA Games is a tribute to the Cambodian people, whose indomitable spirit surmounted decades of bloody conflicts and the brutalities of the Khmer Rouge regime.
We have many fond memories of Cambodia. We have built close personal ties with many of its political leaders during our modest forays into political party and parliamentary diplomacy as Speaker of the House and as founder of various international organizations.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has been our indefatigable ally in promoting peace, understanding, and cooperation in Asia and the international community. He is credited for bringing about peace, reconciliation, and economic modernization in Cambodia. He helped liberate Cambodia from the genocidal Khmer Rouge rule led by Pol Pot and played a pivotal role in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, which brokered peace in his country.
Then there was the late Prince Ranarridh, son of the late legendary King Norodom Sihanouk and brother of the current King, Norodom Sihamoni. He served as co-prime minister of Cambodia, with incumbent Prime Minister Hun Sen, from 1993 to 1997, and later as president of the National Assembly. He was a good friend of the Philippines, for he worked vigorously in strengthening political, socio-economic, cultural, as well as parliamentary ties between our country and Cambodia.
We are honored to have met a few times the revered King Norodom Sihanouk, who became Cambodia’s reigning monarch in 1941, at the age of 18. In between his rule as King, he served as his country’s prime minister, president, foreign minister, and ambassador to the United Nations.
Under Sihanouk as prime minister and later as president, from 1955 to 1970, Cambodia experienced relative peace and prosperity while many countries in Asia were experiencing political upheavals.
We are also privileged to have been received by the current King, Norodom Sihamoni, and the Queen Mother, half-French Norodom Monineath, at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh some four years ago.
The renowned King Norodom Sihanouk visited Manila in 1969. Some Filipino historians noted that the first king who visited the Philippines was King Sihanouk’s grandfather, King Norodom I, in 1872.