Ven. Chap Kheng from Palelei Temple in Philadelphia shared his religious views on peace and development, and urge the audience to work together.  Mr. Sen Iun, CCV president related the failure of UNTAC implementation program, and its consequences on Cambodia.  Mr. Yim Po, Executive Director of the Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children's Rights in Phnom Penh described the plight of young Cambodians for survival and pleaded for help to assist them, as well as to prepare them to support the society as Citizens in the future.

Prof. Naranhkiri Tith, Ph.D., the key note speaker painted a clear picture of the Cambodian economy that was constantly destroyed by wars, along with strategy for self-reliance.  Many structural changes were called for to prepare the country to embark on a growth path to reach neighbors level, and then the levels of the industrialized nations.  Foreign assistance, especially from multilateral organizations were needed while internal training's with effective educational programs geared towards correcting Cambodian shortfalls were especially emphasized.

The convention adopted three (3) resolutions as follows:

1. promote the respect of human rights, and the implementation of basic democratic principles in Cambodia as promised during the 1993 electoral campaigns;
2. develop a comprehensive plan to educate all members (and nonmembers who would like to attend) of their basic citizen rights and obligations, mainly strengthening personal behavior towards each other, and towards the community; and
3. set up a program to assisting needed children in Cambodia in collaboration with the Center for the Protection of Children's Rights to enable them to go to school.

Assessment:

We overcame the obstacles in the first year.  Despite limited successes, enthusiasm was still there!  Again, the goals were aggressive because WCC had not learned from its clear lack of experience yet.  Early commitments were fading.  Some members were looking for quick benefits from the organization, albeit their public statements that they would be in it for the long haul for the country.  Consequently, we lost other members who went to join political parties, or simply did not contribute to the causes of the organization anymore.

WCC could not and did not implement resolutions 2 and 3. Only informal discussions on basic citizen rights and obligations took place amongst members. Attempts were made but they failed to sponsor some 150 young boys and girls the Center for the Protection of Children's Rights identified and sent them over. Due to above circumstances and limited resources, the Board decided to concentrate exclusively on implementing resolution number 1 as much as possible.

Prof. Kiri, a member of the Board since April 1997 but the major contributor to WCC second convention in New York in 1995 eloquently offered detailed aspects of that implementation to the convention yesterday.  There is no need for me to repeat them again here.  However, I would like to point out that he was the strategist, and also the driving force behind it in its implementation.  We did discuss every aspects of it, reviewed all options, and objectively evaluated our strengths and weaknesses to fully understand each and every steps undertaken to arrive at this stage. He did deserved the credit, and I would like to invite all members to offer him a warm applause as expression of our gratitude to him for a job well done.

Going forward, ladies and gentlemen, and before we embark on the next phase to consolidate, and to expand WCC in a structured fashion, please allow me to remind ourselves again that:

1. WCC is a Cambodian product and should remain such;
2. It was created by Cambodians and belongs to all Cambodians;
3. It was set up to serve Cambodia and should continue to prove itself;
4. Self-reliance, principles, transparency and accountability are the norms.