AKP Phnom Penh, August 22, 2025 --

Cambodian Senate President Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen said he does not feel proud of holding any diplomas from Thai institutions, stressing that he discarded them long ago as they carry no value worth keeping.

His remarks came in response to another Thai institution’s recent announcement of revoking a diploma previously conferred on him.

“Let me respond clearly: I discarded all three diplomas from Thai institutions that were once awarded to me a long time ago. They are utterly worthless to me and not worth preserving at all,” he wrote in a Facebook post this evening. 

The first diploma was received in 2001, the second in 2006, and the third in 2019, he recalled, underlining that he holds no pride whatsoever in those institutions' single piece of paper.

“My intellect and knowledge were not born from your diplomas or Thai schools. It was the Cambodian people and Cambodian schools who educated me,” he emphasised. “Let me make it clear: if you examine the timing of when you offered me those diplomas (which I never requested from you), and compare that with the timeline of my national service, it is clear that your diplomas contributed nothing to my achievements.”

Samdech Techo Hun Sen added that those diplomas were granted only after he had already achieved the following milestones:

“In 1979, at 27, I was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1981, at 29, I became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1985, at the age of 32, I became Prime Minister,” he said.

“I believe you should feel ashamed if you revisit the evaluations you made of my qualifications when you asked me to accept your diplomas. I will instruct my office to publicise your assessments of my merits, as a reminder, so that you do not forget. You cannot change the past. And let me remind you: 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,” he concluded.

By C. Nika