The government announced on Monday that a new 15,000 riel bank-note will be introduced to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the coronation of King Norodom Sihamoni on October 29.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said the new note bears the portrait of the King, with an image of the Win-Win Monument in Phnom Penh on the reverse.
Hun Sen said on Monday that the 15,000 riel ($3.75) note was intended to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the King’s coronation at the end of this month.
“The anniversary of the King’s coronation will be widely celebrated across the country through the October 29 holiday, the 15,000 riel banknote and a commemorative coin,” Hun Sen told 443 Grade-A students at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on Monday.
The National Bank of Cambodia announced the features of the new note on Monday.
The front bears a portrait of the King in the centre, with an image of a statue of a seven-headed naga at Angkor Wat to the left. The note uses braille so the blind can tell its denomination.
On the reverse of the note left of centre is an image of the King, Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk and the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk during a ceremony as part of his coronation in 2004.
Right of the centre is an image of the Win-Win Monument, and far right is a depiction of a three-headed elephant carrying a garuda bearing a swan. The far left carries the message “Congratulations on the 15th anniversary of the coronation of the King”.
However, some Facebook users criticised the note bearing an image of the Win-Win Monument, considering it a copy of a memorial in Vietnam.
General Nem Sowath at the Ministry of National Defence, the head of the monument’s construction committee, on Friday dismissed such critics as unimportant.
They are not interested in and are ungrateful for the achievements of the government, he said.
The Win-Win Monument embodies the peace of the nation after the government successfully implemented the strategy to unify the nation after years of war, he said.
Kin Phea, the director of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said there was nothing wrong with using the Win-Win Monument on a banknote.
He said the Win-Win Monument represented Cambodia enjoying full peace due the implementation of the government’s Win-win Policy.
Hun Sen’s “Win-Win Policy” of 1998 allowed Khmer Rouge holdouts to keep their military positions in exchange for defecting to government forces, ending years of civil war.
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