Phnom Penh (FN), Nov. 9 – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet responded to David Whitehouse's open letter addressed to him requesting for Samdech Thipadei's PhD Thesis (published in the Diplomat magazine, dated 8 November 2023).

Samdech Thipadei wrote on his social media on 8 November 2023.

"Response to David Whitehouse's open letter to me regarding his request for my PhD Thesis
(Published in the Diplomat magazine, dated 8 November 2023) :

Dear David Whitehouse,

1. I appreciate your interest in obtaining a copy of my PhD thesis, though I am not sure about your motive for seeking this academic work.

2. I am sorry to hear that you have had difficulty in obtaining a copy from the University of Bristol. I do not know what is the rule of the University regarding giving out students' works, such as my thesis. To the best of my memory, I have never requested Bristol University to keep my thesis confidential.

3. There is no reason for me to keep my thesis strictly confidential. It is after all an academic work, which has resulted from many years of research and analysis works, regular consultations with my supervisor, Professor Jonathan Temple; as well as thesis defense in front of a panel of professors to get the final approval.

4. On the contrary, I​, just like any academic researcher, would very much welcome any feedback given to my works especially from qualified persons, including other academics and researchers. In fact, I have given out my thesis to a number of people in the past, including academics and researchers, who requested it.

It would be the same for you, if you had requested directly to me earlier. 

5. I would like to take this opportunity to share my theses, both Master's and PhD's, publicly, so that you and also anyone else who may be interested to read these works, which I wrote 22 years and 15 years ago, respectively, can do so easily.

6. I wish you all the best and Happy Reading."
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