liaison officer for the cambodian vice minister of education mom chim huy

shah's appointment as liaison officer for the libyan minister reminds me of my own experience as liaison officer for the cambodian vice minister of education at the seameo conference more than ten years ago.

my involvement in this came about because my friends at ccab were in charge of nominating the liaison officers. two officers were assigned to each country. there were two delegates from each country. apart from the vice minister, there was another member, mr roath kim soeun. his appointment was deputy chief of cabinet, chief of external relations, ministry of education.

i was at the airport vip lounge to receive them, together with the then director of schools, mr wee heng tin. i rode with the delegates in the chauffeured driven car to their hotel located along orchard road. after settling them, i made arrangement to take them shopping in the evening. my fellow liaison officer, who was not available earlier, would join us for the shopping trip.

the conference was held at the shangrila hotel. we had to be around all the time in case help or assistance was needed. the cambodian team needed quite a lot of help because of the language used for the presentation. they were more fluent in french than in english. we ended up writing and editing the speech for them.

at the end of the conference, the cambodian team stayed on for one more day. we took them sightseeing and also gave them an insight into the typical abode of a singaporean. i took them to my humble hdb flat.

we were given an allowance for our duty as liaison officers. but we gained more from getting to know our neighbours better and by building a bond with them. i still have the memento which they gave to each of us.