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A Tribute to His Excellency Om Radsay
By Bill Neilson
Director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives and Team Leader for Legislative Training for the Cambodia-Canada Legislative Support Project
OM RADSADY
1952-2003
The early morning e-mail message on February 18 carried a jolting and shocking message: "H.E. Om Radsady was shot to death today outside a Phnom Penh restaurant. Rushed to hospital, he died three hours later. His death is a huge loss for all of us, the Cambodian people, for the country. Let us pray for his soul."
Om Radsady personified the heart and soul of a kinder, compassionate and democratic Cambodia. Countless eulogies by those who knew him better refer to him as a "soft spoken gentle soul", "a man without enemies or guile or self-interest" and dedicated to the welfare of all Cambodians, especially the young. He always had time for children. The last time we had dinner, three weeks before his death, he patiently talked to every child who came by the table selling flowers. "They are our future," he would say. His meagre and honestly earned resources were shared daily with the less fortunate.
There is little doubt that Om Radsady was the victim of a political assassination. Why he was singled out is a matter of much speculation. At the time of his death, he was a trusted advisor to HRH. Prince Ranariddh, President of the National Assembly and Leader of the Funcinpec or Royalist Party, the junior government coalition partner with the Cambodian People's Party. He was not a partisan person. He was a respected parliamentarian, who until 1997, served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. He was widely respected in the ASEAN community and around the world. I can only echo the words of a close Cambodian friend who remarked: "Om Radsady was a good man, a decent man, but above all, he was one of a rare breed in Cambodia, a man who understood democracy and practised it." The dark, violent side of Cambodian history has claimed another victim. We are all the poorer for his loss.