The Change of Name, SRP-USA/Canada to SRP-NA

MEMORANDUM

February 21, 2009

To:   All Members and Executive Officers of the Sam Rainsy Party

From:  Office of the Secretariat of SRP-NA

Subject: The Change of Name, SRP-USA/Canada to SRP-NA

Please be informed once again of our recent change made to the name of our organization representing North America.

The motion to change the name from SRP-USA/Canada to SRP-NA was adopted and unanimously approved on February 15, 2009. Therefore, from this day forward the Sam Rainsy Party USA/Canada will be officially known as The Sam Rainsy Party of North America (SRP-NA).

Our new website ( http://www.srpna.org ) is being updated and will be up and running shortly. I urge you to regularly drop in to see any news or events in planning, including any messages from both the offices of the Secretary and/or the President.

Thank you for your cooperation.

My very bests to all,

Truly Yours,

Pretty Ma, Secretary General

Sam Rainsy Party of North America (SRP-NA)

Email Address: pretty.ma@sympatico.ca

Cc: Office of the President of SRP-NA

Greeting & Self Introduction as Secretary General of SRP-NA

February 18, 2009

Dear Colleagues;

It’s with humility, honour and enthusiasm that I take this opportunity to introduce myself as Secretary General of the SRP-NA for the duration of the mandate, 2009-2010. I hope this will provide our members and working colleagues, most of whom, I have not had the opportunity to meet and be acquainted with, some ideas of who I am and what you can expect from me or vise-a-versa as your new Secretary General.

Also, I wish to thank Mr. Kim Ly Chea, our President for the confidence he entrusted in me to carry on this new role. I would like to also extend my thanks and pay respect to all of our compatriots who have served before me and continue to give unwavering supports to the Sam Rainsy Party.

To be brief, I grew up in a relatively decent, well educated¸ loving and caring family. My father was a professor at the Royal University of Fine Arts, and later became a Military Police Officer in Lon Nol`s republic. He left Cambodia for America in 1974 and have long retired from Cambodian politics since.

My early education began in Kampong Chhnang, Takeo and Phnom Penh. When the Khmer Rouge entered the city, I was half way through my 6th grade at College Toul Svay Prey, the now infamous Toul Sleng prison.

When Vietnam invaded Cambodia, my family and I were at Dorng Tung district, just the other side of Touk Meas`s mountain, not too far from the Phosphate’s factory. I was living at Phum Srov Leu, to be exact.

My family and I moved back to Phnom Penh where I took up music at the School of Fine Arts in 1980 and then fled the country in 1981. I spent two years in Khao I Dang and Phanatnikhom Camps, a rather familiar place for many, a place where I picked up most of my English skill from working as an interpreter.

I joined my father in Washington, DC in 1983. I completed my high school curriculum in 1985, and then moved north to continue my higher learning at the Bunker Hill Community College and at the University of Lowell, Massachusetts where I earned a degree in Business Administration, class of 1990. Lowell is the place where and when I began most of my young, yet inexperienced political involvement.

Why politics? perhaps it derived naturally and mostly from my sense of being Cambodian, influenced most by a number of political classes which I took as electives courses during those college years. I found a lot of answers to all the reasons why I was here in the States and not in Cambodia. Politics affect life, ordinary lives at all levels of society. There was just no way of escaping that reality.

Under the charter of the Cambodian Student Association of ULowell, support and funding from our local business community, We started a newspaper known as the Cambodian Student Journal. Our group was actively involved in youth leadership and community development.

On political front, we worked with Dr. Stephen Morris and others to lobbied congressman Chet Aiken, Senator John Kerry on the issue of supporting United Nations Comprehensive Peace Settlement. I could stated with much appreciation of the fact that we were the only group of Cambodian students at the time that ever united in taking leadership stand in many demonstrations in support of UN Peace Initiative between 1989 and 1990.

In late 1990, I moved to join my wife in Montreal in anticipation of our new addition to the family, our daugther. I moved back and forth between Toronto and Montreal for a few years because of the job requirement as well as the need to pay bills. I finally settle down in 1997, as I found a business in a place somewhat distance from the big city and from our community at large. For a long while, we were probably the only Cambodian family living in the city of Saint Jerome, Quebec. Recently I heard there is one or two other Cambodian famillies doing businesses in the area.

Now, you might be wondering why I joined SRP?

On my very first trip back home in 1994-1995, I learnt much about Sam Rainsy from my dear and latest friend, His Honourable Om Radsady, and from listening to Sam Rainsy on a radio on my trip to Pursat during a question period in the National Assembly. I was inspired by the man’s intelectual capacity, vision, his relentless energy and deep desire to move the country to a respectable high among nations in the region and the world. I liked what he was trying to do as Minister of finance. What impressed me most was his rare quality of leadership and his willingness to loose that lucretive position as Minister of Finance. Many have turned against the overall interests of the country, against the people and the very cause they were entrusted to cherish and protect.

I came back to Canada feeling somewhat disillusion about the leadership of Rannaridh and the direction the country was going. Shortly after I left, another right hand man of Funcincep resigned from Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Norodom Sereivuth, a close friend of Sam Rainsy.

As the Khmer Nation’s Party took shape, a few people got together and I was one of the fews in a basement of a friend’s house in Toronto. A political party was formed on that day, and not too long after a letter was received and signed by President Sam Rainsy in recognition of our group. Unfortunately, my job contract has ended and I had to move back to Montreal where I started my own business venture. It took some times for me to find my way back into the political arena for many reasons, but I am glad that finally I could contribute somewhat to this on-going struggle for a better Cambodia, not for the privileges of a few corrupted elites, but the majority of Cambodians.

What You Can Expect From Me and Vise-a-Versa.

Where do we want to go as an organization, our goals and objectives? What can we do to improve our organizational chance of success? We can start by help identifying our strengths and weaknesses, and then work to re-inforce or strengthen where we are lacking most. How we operate and conduct ourselves relative to our tasks is also critical to our future success.

As a business student, I will approach my works the same way I conduct and run my own business. I will try to bring a new refreshing approaches or ideas to help move this organization forward, and I believe wholeheartedly that together with your long services and unwavering commitment to the SRP’s cause we will grow this organization to another level. Leadership roles and responsibilitites, respect of other people’s works, times and efforts will be the new norms. It should and always be the way we move forward together as officers of this organization. We can begin by respecting each other’s time, by responding to each other’s request in a timely manner.

In days and weeks ahead, I will lay-out some administrative procedures and strategies which I think will help improve the way we functioning as a group. I would very much appreciate any inputs or comments from any officers – whatever he/she may find most helpful in moving SRP-NA forward. You can be assured of my full commitment to the works and the cause of our country.

I hope that this will give you as members and officers enough insight into my personal background as the new SG of SRP-NA. There are much works ahead, but together with your coorperation I am sure we can achieve all the things we set out to do. We can make a difference.

I thank you for your precious time, supports and understanding. Let’s get to works.

Respectfully Yours,

Pretty Ma, SG

The Sam Rainsy Party of North America (SRP-NA)