CAMBODIA WANTS TO ESTABLISH GREATER COOPERATION WITH MALAYSIAN MEDIA

From Mohd Hisham Abdul Rafar

PHNOM PENH, Dec 4 (Bernama) -- The Cambodian government, in an effort to
develop its people, especially the Muslim community, hopes for greater
cooperation between the Cambodian and Malaysian media to facilitate
dissemination of information.

Its Deputy Labour and Vocational Training Minister, Othsman Hassan, said
this included magazine and newspaper publication as well as radio
broadcasts.

"We are hoping for assistance from the Malaysian media to teach us how to
produce magazines and newspapers and also to disseminate information through the
radio," he said during a courtesy call by a member of the Yayasan Salam
Malaysia's board of trustees, Ahmad A. Talib, to his office.

"When our media people are well-trained, they will be able to disseminate
information to all levels of the society and also to correct negative
perceptions about Islam," he said, adding that he wanted the Cambodian people,
especially the Muslim community, to have access to information.

Othsman, who is also Minister of Islamic Affairs, said currently, Cambodia
only had one radio channel, which uses the Champa language, specially for the
Muslim community and hoped to have another channel in the Cambodian
language by next year.

"We don't want to close the Champa radio channel because we don't want
the language to disappear, but we want to have another channel in the Cambodian
language because not all of the Champa community understand it," he
added.

Othsman, who is fluent in Malay, said Cambodia had a population of 13
million people, including 5,000 Muslims.

Ahmad spent about an hour with Othsman during which they also discussed
introducing the use of solar system to generate electricity for houses in the
interior areas, which currently use generators.

Meanwhile, Ahmad, in response to Cambodia's request for assistance from the
Malaysia media, said he would relay the matter to the media organisations,
including Bernama.

"It'll be good if we can have a journalist exchange programme between
Malaysia and Cambodia to understand each other's world of journalism. They will
be able to learn fast," he added.

Yayasan Salam Malaysia (Salam), a non governmental organisation, and the
Kedah veteran Malaysian Association of Youth Clubs, comprising about 50
volunteers, are in Cambodia on a humanitarian mission.

Besides providing aid to poverty-stricken Cambodians, they also help in
building schools and mosques.

Salam and Kedah veteran MAYC also brought along various prayer necessities
for the Muslim community as well as used clothing and 60 cows to be slaughtered
for the Aidiladha celebration.

The beef will be distributed to about 3,000 residents in three villages --
Tropengbeang, Tanaksawai and Praksandai -- in the Kratie province.
-- BERNAMA