Thong Thel
Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (16:48): I rise to pay tribute to the late Dr Thong Thel. Dr Thong Thel dedicated more than three decades of service to communities across both Cambodia and Australia in the fields of education, language and cultural support. Born in Cambodia, he arrived in Australia in 1975 on a Colombo Plan scholarship to pursue a masters degree in linguistics while his late wife Long Lay Thong and their young children remained in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge took over in the same year. In 1976 he undertook an interpreting and translating course, which marked the beginning of his longstanding commitment to supporting refugees and migrants in their settlement journeys in Australia. Later he shared his expertise by training future interpreters and translators at RMIT. His wife and children survived the killing fields and reunited with him in Australia in 1980.
In 1992 Dr Thong Thel worked with United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, where he led the school of Khmer language programs and culture and taught Khmer to 650 UN staff who were responsible for monitoring polling stations during Cambodia’s historic 1993 democratic elections. He was one of the founders and former president of the Cambodian Association of Victoria and a pioneer of many interfaith multicultural communities. He continued with roles as a UNESCO and UNICEF representative, overseeing educational policy and curriculum development, and completed a PhD. Vale, Dr Thong Thel.