Cambodia’s Hun Sen claimed to have long discarded honorary doctorates granted to him by Thai universities, claiming that they made no contribution to his achievements.
He was responding to Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University’s announcement yesterday that it had unanimously resolved to revoke the honorary doctorate in Local Development Education awarded to him in 2006.
Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat is the latest university to revoke honorary degrees previously granted to Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen, in connection with the fatal border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia.
Hun Sen has been accused of masterminding the attacks on Thailand, while his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, now leads the country.
Earlier this month, Ramkhamhaeng University revoked its honorary doctorate in Political Science, granted to Hun Sen in 2001.
Upon learning of the revocation by Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University, Hun Sen wrote:
“They are utterly meaningless to me and not worth preserving at all. The first diploma was received in 2001, the second in 2006 and the third in 2019. I hold no pride whatsoever in your institutions’ pieces of paper.”
He claimed his intellect and knowledge were not gained from Thai diplomas or Thai schools, but from the Cambodian people and Cambodian institutions that educated him.
“Let me make it clear. If you examine the timing of when you offered me those diplomas (which I never requested), and compare that with the timeline of my national service, it is obvious that your diplomas contributed nothing to my achievements,” he postulated.
Hun Sen listed the milestones he had achieved prior to receiving the honorary degrees:
· In 1979, at 27, he was appointed foreign minister.
· In 1981, at 29, he became deputy prime minister and foreign minister.
· In 1985, at 32, he became prime minister.
He said Thai universities should feel ashamed if they have had to reevaluate their views on his qualifications as they were when they asked him to accept the diplomas.
His office, he added, will be instructed to publicise assessments of his merits as a reminder, so that “you do not forget… You came to offer me those diplomas, along with your formal commendations, not vice versa. Whether to accept them or not was entirely my decision and I was never one to take things blindly.”
When Ramkhamhaeng University withdrew its honorary doctorate earlier this month, Hun Sen remarked that he had “thrown it in the toilet back in 2008.”
He added that there was no sense of pride in the awards, declaring that “Hun Sen’s brain doesn’t come from your schools [sic]. Hun Sen’s mind comes from the teachings of Cambodian schools.”
Krirk University had also awarded Hun Sen an honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Political Communication in 2019, in recognition of, what it described as, his leadership in guiding Cambodia from a war-torn nation to one of peace and stability.
