May 26, 2006, 13:44 GMT
Phnom Penh - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen Friday declared Cambodia should ban 3G (third-generation) mobile phones for a further decade after receiving a petition signed by his wife branding the technology a danger to marital fidelity.
The petition against allowing the state-of-the-art phones, which allow users to send high quality images as well as video between phones, cited fears the technology would allow young women to send images that may tempt men into nefarious relationships and therefore damage the society and culture, according to signatories.
People who were listed as signing the petition included Hun Sen's wife, Bun Rany, and the wife of his royalist Funcinpec Party coalition partner Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Princess Marie.
'Yesterday I saw a pile of documents on my table, including signatures from my wife, National Assembly and Senate officials demanding I deny these mobile phones with pictures,' Hun Sen told a gathering at a Buddhist ceremony just outside the capital.
'The Philippines and Vietnam are against debauchery through the internet. Singapore is also against it. So yesterday I called (Minister for Telecommunications) So Khun and told him please do not allow these phones,' Hun Sen told an audience of around 1,000 Buddhist monks, nuns and dignitaries in a speech which was also broadcast on national radio.
'(I said) wait another 10 years until we strengthen social morality, otherwise even Buddhist monks might fall down...This is very modern technology.'
He added that he had also requested that mobile phone providers not make the 3G models which allow direct access to the internet available. Instead, he asked Cambodians to stick with phones which allowed only voice communication and text messaging.
Signatories to the petition to ban the new technology said that one of their main fears was that young women could send suggestive images of themselves through the phones, prompting formerly faithful husbands to indulge in activities they would not normally have thought of.
The English-language Cambodia Daily newspaper on Friday quoted Information Minister Khieu Kanharith as saying he was against the move to ban the new wave of mobile phones, a move which it said he had compared to restricting transport.
'Then we should also ban using a car, because they can also use that to transport a girl,' the newspaper quoted the Information Minister as saying.
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