Pen Puthsaphea, 27, was the writer of two textbooks- General Knowledge for Examination and Special General Knowledge for Examination - and also a program officer for Candle of Light of Sam Rainsy Party. On July 19, 2010 as he was driving his motorbike on the street at about 12:20 PM, he hung on a call from an unidentified man without number [Private Number] to intimidate him. That man warned, “Don’t be too strong; and be careful; otherwise you’ll be killed.” After finishing these words, he hung up.
Recently, police and Phnom Penh Municipal officials have collected and pulled the books from bookstalls and warned all venders not to display and sell those books; otherwise the authorities would confiscate them.
Prior to that, on July 5, 2010 Education Minister Im Sethy sent a letter to Information Minister Kiev Kanharith to request that the general knowledge textbooks be banned because of their apparent criticism of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. He said the ministry had discovered inappropriate section on pages 146 and 147 of one book and on page 100 and 101 of the other. He weighed against both volumes, authored by local writer Pen Puthsaphea, to political leaflets. The Ministry of Education called for the Ministry of Information to take action to forbid the publishing and selling the books or any document that are not suitable.
According to photocopies of the offending paragraphs enclosed with the letter, the first textbook asks questions such as, “In the near future, will Cambodia be able to develop? Why?”, and “What do you think of the practice of human rights and freedom in Cambodian society?”
The book’s answer to the first question is: “The government which is currently led by Prime Minister Hun Sen will not be able to lead Cambodia towards progress in the near future because corruption occurs from the top level of the government down to the local level, and law enforcement and the practice of human rights are still below zero.”
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