Dow

nloa

ded

By:

[Kin

g's

Col

lege

Lon

don]

At:

01:2

1 11

Jun

e 20

08

INDEX ON CENSORSHIP 1 /84

Cambodia

Lek Hor Tan

The Khmer Rouge: beyond 1984?Lek Hor Tan is a Cambodian-born British citizen. He was actively involved with the National UnitedFront between 1970-75; this was a coalition of Sïhanoukist, Socialist and Khmer Rouge forces fightingagainst the American-backed Lon Nol regime. Unlike hundreds of Cambodian exiles who returned toCambodia after the victory of the United Front, and who were later murdered by the Khmer Rouge, heremained in the West. He has an intimate knowledge of the people involved in the Cambodianrevolution and their thinking behind it. He has been with Index since 1977. For other articles on theKhmer Rouge see Lek Hor Tan, 'Total Revolution in Cambodia' (Index 1/1979), and Soth Polin, 'PolPot's diabolical sweetness' (Index 5/1980).

When the Khmer Rouge came to power inCambodia in 1975, they embarked on arevolutionary experiment which wentfurther than any other revolution had dared,approaching and perhaps surpassing thenightmarish world depicted in 1984. As oneKhmer Rouge political commissar put it, thebasket with the fruit was overturned, andonly the articles that satisfied the revolutionwere chosen and put back in.

The remark was made with reference tothe Vietnamese, revolution in the Southwhich started at about the time when theKhmer Rouge saw that their Vietnameseallies and comrades-in-arms (until 1977 atleast) were not going fast enough. TheVietnamese revolutionaries did not tip overthe basket, the Khmer Rouge cadreremarked, they only picked out the rottenfruit. The Khmer Rouge, on the other hand,

believed in the 'great leap forward'.jumpingthe stages of revolutionary process, becausethe 'objective conditions were right andready'.

Thus in a very short time, literally as soonas their forces "captured the capital cityPhnom Penh (the last stronghold of theKhmer Republicans), its entire population,including the sick and the dying in hospitals,were forced out at gunpoint to thecountryside. The same pattern took place inother provincial cities and towns. The wholecountry was turned upside down, accordingto carefully worked out plans.

As observers noted at the time, nothinghappened haphazard, nothing was impro-vised and nothing was overlooked.

The political and ideological justificationbehind this policy was the Khmer Rougedetermination to transform Cambodian

One of several prison-execution grounds, atKhum Pra Phnom, Kampot Province,Kampuchea. Many such exhibits areofficially displayed by the present govern-ment as a reminder of the atrocitiescommitted under the former Khmer Rougeauthorities.

society into a 'truly revolutionary one', andin the shortest time possible. The KhmerRouge had a vision of a 'completelyegalitarian society' in which exploiting andexploited classes were to be eradicated, andwhere private property and ownership andall private means of production would betotally destroyed. City dwellers, the KhmerRouge argued, were unproductive people,parasites of society, belonging to the rulingand exploiting class, and only serving theelite. Furthermore, the Khmer Rouge

3

Dow

nloa

ded

By:

[Kin

g's

Col

lege

Lon

don]

At:

01:2

1 11

Jun

e 20

08

INDEX ON CENSORSHIP 1/84

Cambodia Beyond 1984

believed they were 'traitors and puppets ofAmerican imperialists', in a 'semi-feudaland semi-colonial society'.

Then there was a security consideration aswell; the Khmer Rouge were fully consciousof their relatively small forces which had tobe able to have absolute control anddomination over three quarters of thepopulation, who were potentially hostile totheir policies. By emptying the cities of theirpopulation, any organised resistance andacts of sabotage would be easily neutralisedand crushed.

In addition, the evacuation policy wouldfacilitate the task of discarding the 'rottenfruit'. This included military and policeofficers and personnel serving under theprevious regimes, their civil servants,bourgeois elements, such as people in theprofessional class, merchants, shopkeepersand foreigners (mostly Chinese andVietnamese).

According to some estimates, during thefirst phase of purification, tens of thousandsof 'traitors' and 'class enemies' were arrestedand executed. Those who managed toescape the net were later hunted down andliquidated.

According to Khmer Rouge documents,their revolutionary vision of man assertsthat when a man has been spoiled by acorrupt regime, he cannot be reformed. Hemust be physically eliminated from thebrotherhood of man. The vision of a newsocialist society and a new socialist mancould also be seen in their political slogans atthe time. For instance, 'The former regimemust be destroyed, the enemy must becrushed to bits'; 'What is infected must becut out', 'what is rotten must be removed', 'itisn't enough to cut down a bad plant, it mustbe uprooted'. And so on.

One refugee interviewed in Thailand in1976 talked about a woman she knew whowas weeping over her husband's death andwas told off by a Khmer Rouge cadre: 'Whyare you crying about the execution of anenemy? That shows you don't love theRevolution'. Other refugees reported aboutmany other senseless killings, but the KhmerRouge had answers for those as well. 'It isbetter to kill an innocent person than toleave an enemy alive' or 'To keepit,noprofit;to destroy it, no loss', or 'It's better to makean error early on, than to make it too late'.

Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader andPrime Minister of'Democratic Kampuchea',in a radio broadcast in September 1977 saidthat one or two per cent of the population (7million) had been classified as class enemiesand must be neutralised and eradicated. Thepurges and purification of 'class enemies','traitors' and 'counter-revolutionaries'continued unabated till the end of 1978,when the Vietnamese invaded the country.(They later installed in power the Khmer

Rouge elements which had their backing.)After the first phase of purification the

evacuated city dwellers were classified as'new people', as distinct from, the 'oldpeople', ie those who had been under thecontrol and domination of the KhmerRouge in the 'liberated areas' during the civilwar of 1970-75. The 'new people' were sentto live and work in farming co-operatives ofup to 10,000 people or in mobile workbrigades, a system which converted thewhole country into a gigantic forced labourcamp. They had to work through a 10-daycycle, with one day off for politicaleducation, in addition to endless sessions ofpolitical meetings in the evenings. The 'newpeople' were only allowed basic necessities,such as their sleeping mats and blackpyjamas, given to them once a year. Theylived in family huts that they had builtthemselves. Single men and women lived inseparate quarters and were not allowed anysocial contact. Children were looked afterand educated by various revolutionarycommittees of the co-operatives and werereturned to their parents only at night. TheKhmer Rouge publicly proclaimed that thefuture belonged to the children because oftheir 'purity'; they could be easily taught tobecome 'pure and tough revolutionaries'.Many of them were also taught to spy ontheir parents and denounce them.

Normal family life was not allowed as thiswould encourage 'privacy', 'individualism'and the traditional way of life. The attemptto destroy family life included the banning ofprivate cooking facilities. Every member ofthe co-operative had to get his food in thecommunal kitchen. Every adult member ofthe co-operative was assigned to a specifictask, like being a member of a productionbrigade, etc. >

The power responsible for carrying outthis 'total revolution' was first enigmaticallyknown as Angka Loeu or 'Organisation onHigh'. At first, few people knew whatAngka Loeu was or the names of itsmembers. It appeared to be a faceless,shadowy body, but soon the 'new people'discovered that it exercised omnipotenceover all Khmer Rouge cadres and soldiers.Like the Cambodian kings during theAngkor period (802-1432 AD), who weredivinities incarnate, Angka Loeu was a newdivinity to which the Khmer Rouge devotedthemselves body and soul.

Later, the 'new people' began to learnabout the true identity of Angka Loeu. By1976, Angka Loeu was known as theCambodian Communist i Party, a revolu-tionary party committed to Marxist-Leninist ideology, a vanguard partydetermined to lead the revolution in order toachieve the ideal Communist state. The

4

Dow

nloa

ded

By:

[Kin

g's

Col

lege

Lon

don]

At:

01:2

1 11

Jun

e 20

08

INDEX ON CENSORSHIP 1/84

Beyond 1984 Cambodia

Le/f Pol Pot. /Move The youth militia('Yothear') of the Angka Loeu

names of some of the leaders were alsorevealed, but in general, Angka Loeuremained secretive and mysterious and thiswas its strength.

Like the Big Brother in Orwell's 1984,Angka Loeu was everywhere. Every hamlethad its revolutionary committee, backed upby the People's Revolutionary Army andmilitia, exercising absolute authority overallaspects of individual and collective life.Angka Loeu knew everything, the KhmerRouge liked to boast, and the 'new people'were constantly reminded that this was so. Itwas a crime to hide any secret from AngkaLoeu, and the punishment was summaryexecution. As the Khmer Rouge themselves 'put it, 'Angka Loeu has eyes like apineapple, it can see everything'. It would bepointless to hide from it.

As part of its application of a system ofabsolute control and total domination, the'new people', when they first arrived in theco-operatives, were asked to write their ownbiographies. Those who were foolishenough to tell the truth, especially thosefrom a 'class enemies' background, weretaken away and executed.

Those who managed to hide their trueidentities had to go through endless sessions

of confession and self-criticism duringpolitical meetings. They were expected tolearn and become 'true revolutionaries', likemost 'old people' who had already been'reformed' and 're-educated'.

Those who were later discovered to havelied to Angka Loeu or disobeyed its orders,were taken away and executed like other'traitors' and 'class enemies'. The mostcommon form of execution was a bayonetstabbed at the stomach or a bash on the backof the neck with a club, 'in order to saveammunition'.

The Khmer Rouge also invented theirown newspeak. People who were takenaway to be executed were simply told by therevolutionary committee that 'we aresending you to Angka Loeu' or 'AngkaLoeu wants to see you'.

During the phase of purification and re-education of the 'new people' the KhmerRouge were also dealing with the materialthings left in the cities as most of themrepresented the old society, especiallyforeign imported consumer goods. Soprivate cars, television sets and refrigerators .were systematically destroyed. So wereBuddhist temples, Christian churches andMuslim mosques as they represented the'superstition' and 'opium of the people'.Most of these religious buildings were razedto the ground; some that they kept were used

as storehouses.Then it was the turn of books and

documents. The National Library in PhnomPenh was emptied of its priceless collectionof books, archives and records. As theKhmer Rouge argued, all these documentswere written by French colonialists andreactionary Cambodians, therefore theymust be destroyed. The National Librarywas later transformed into a pigsty.

Like the citizens of Oceania in 1984, the'new people' had to be totally cut off fromthe past or any contacts with the outsideworld. The past was to be obliterated so thatthe purity of the future could be absolute —the ideal of complete oblivion. This includedthe changing of people's names, so that thenew man could forget everything, thecountry's past history, dead ancestors, thenames of places, traditional and nationalcustoms. Like Orwell's Big Brother, AngkaLoeu wanted to nationalise the personal andcollective memory of its people so that theywould become perfectly malleable andcontrollable.

Once the 'new people' had been deprivedof their identities, like the 'old people', theywould have become helpless and incapableof questioning anything, except obeyingAngka Loeu's orders. They would notrevolt, think or create. They might even behappy and learn to love Angka Loeu. •

5