Another One More...
$14
Another One More is the 4th book in the Scene series. The first section of the book covers topics and observations gleaned from various travels throughout Cambodia. The chapters deal with the geography, bloody civil war, Buddhism, my own personal Khmer wedding, and other tasty tidbits surrounding the low-lying nation. The second section of the book contains stories from Vietnam and Thailand, along with several from the States. As always, the stories seek to educate and entertain the reader with heavy doses of history and humor.
194 pages/Published in 2008
Down on the Farm…
Cambodia, 2007
Why is there such a voyeuristic fascination with evil in our world? Or is this simply something that only I perceive to be true? We say we abhor violence and murder yet we can’t quite get enough of the two through video games, movies, books, and collectibles. In other words…We live secret macabre lives of denial. I’m no different.
I distinctly remember going to a gun show a few years back where merchants were hawking Nazi memorabilia. I can still recall looking at various insignias and pins with an ambivalent state of mind. On the one hand, it was incredible to hold history in my hands, and on the other, it was utterly evil and bizarre. The same is true with ivory, which can be carved into something beautiful while simultaneously representing a hideously unnecessary tragedy. Dichotomies like these exist everywhere in the world and Cambodia is no stranger to the concept. We all understand the carnage and heartache caused by landmines, yet there’s something strangely intriguing about visiting a land mine museum. I know because I visited one. Perhaps it’s the dark side of our human nature bubbling to the surface?
I stumbled once more into this murky, double-standardized realm of thinking while walking through Siem Reap’s Old Market district. I like to think that I’m a historian. And sometimes historians revel in the macabre. In this case, the actual artifacts weren’t macabre, but rather the meaning behind them. I somehow got it into my head that I needed to locate and purchase Khmer Rouge money. I don’t even remember what actually planted the seed in my head, but I soon was on a quest. I just had to have a few samples. I had previously come across examples here and there in various markets throughout Cambodia, but had never actually thought about purchasing any bills. Hawkers were constantly trying to peddle “old” Khmer dollars, but the Khmer Rouge dollars, used exclusively between 1975 and 1979 are rather rare. And also very taboo. Much like going to Israel and inquiring as to where a person might find authentic SS uniforms. Not the most tasteful thing to do.
In the end, the historical collector in me won out and I began to search for these rare pieces of colored paper…Of course today, the bills have zero monetary spending value. The bills value exists only in a historical context.
After talking with dozens of shopkeepers peddling the “old” Khmer money, I finally located a shop which carried Khmer Rouge notes. The bills were relatively expensive, but the novelty of the chase overcame me and I purchased a few bills. In fact the fever ran so strong; I decided to purchase several more bills the following day.
I wish I could say the mission ended there…But it didn’t. When I returned to the capital of Phnom Penh I managed to locate a full set on the down low at the Central Market for much less than what I had paid in Siem Reap. After returning to my hotel that afternoon with the bounty, I felt a familiar tug of remorse…That ambivalent sense of right and wrong. Triumph and guilt. I felt that I had worked very earnestly and had truly succeeded from a collector’s standpoint, but at the same time, felt I was somehow glorifying evil. It might have been different had I been ignorant to what went on in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge reign…But I’m not. The horror and murder was rampant and I was collecting souvenirs from that bloody era…Oh well, we all have to live with our guilt…Some of us a little more than others…The Khmer Rouge regime (a French tagline for Communist Cambodia) perpetrated a series of heinous acts upon its own people in the 1970s under the guise of agrarian reform. The resulting losses trimmed the population by at least a quarter and possibly a third, making the genocide one of the worst of the 20th century. Sadly, and this gives you some sort of an understanding to the consequences, a full 75% of the population today are too young to remember the atrocities committed during the 1970s.
I’ll try my best to succinctly paint a picture of the horrifying events that ravaged the Cambodian countryside under the leadership of Pol Pot. On a side note, I highly recommend the flick The Killing Fields, starring Sam Waterston and Haing S. Ngor.
Last chapter, I alluded to the fact that the Khmer Rouge had been methodically chewing up territory and enticing recruits. The movement began in the hinterlands. In the “countryside” as they like to say in Cambodia. Eventually the Khmer Rouge gained momentum and marched on the capital of Phnom Penh. Although there are certainly arguments on both sides of the issue, many believe that the United States inadvertently lit the fuse on what was already a simmering powder keg by unleashing a punishing secret carpet bombing campaign on Cambodia. Although Nixon admonished the bombing missions, the carnage as witnessed by Cambodians living along the Mekong River begs to differ. Thousands of innocent civilians lost their lives and many towns were leveled. Communism was alive and well in many parts of the world and one didn’t have to go far to find examples close by. Vietnam. China. North Korea. Russia.
At first the Khmer Rouge patterned its movement after Vietnam…But later on wanted nothing to do with Vietnam, distancing themselves completely from that model. They wanted to put their own spin on the movement so to speak.
Let’s begin by discussing some of the stars of this tragic play…The leading man associated with the movement was Pol Pot, otherwise known as ‘Brother Number One‘. Pol Pot, born in Kampong Thom Province (northeast of Phnom Penh) by the name of Saloth Sar in 1928, had risen up through the ranks to a leadership capacity in the communist party by the 1960s. Like Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot attended schools in Paris prior to returning home to his native country to undertake a revolutionary movement. Paris was very influential on Pol Pot. He had the opportunity to mingle with various communist scholars and was also introduced to Marxism there. He also met up with several other like-thinking Khmers in Paris. These students, known by historians as the Paris Student Group, would later alter the course of Cambodian history.
Nuon Chea (it should be noted that Cambodian names are reversed with last names being listed first), the Khmer Rouge Prime Minister commonly referred to as ‘Brother Number Two’, was an ideologist and politician. Nuon was one of the few men at the top who had not been present in Paris. He was educated in Bangkok and attained his communistic tendencies there before joining with Pol Pot in the 1960s.
‘Brother Number Three‘, Leng Sary, was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea during the Khmer Rouge reign which lasted from 1975 to 1979. Leng held great sway and power within the party. He met Pol Pot while studying in Paris, where the two constructed an early communist cell and laid plans for the future of Cambodia.
Chhit Chhoeun, who went by the alias Ta Mok, was until very recently, a one-legged, ex-monk known affectionately as the ‘Butcher’. Ta Mok is believed to be the mastermind behind many of the mass purges and murders that took place under his horrifying command in the south-west zone of Cambodia during the 1970s. Ta Mok, which translates to Grandfather Mok, was also known in the Party as ‘Brother Number Four’.
Khieu Samphan, known as ‘Brother Number Five’, was the President of the Khmer Rouge and also a prominent intellectual of the Paris Student Group. Khieu, like many of the other Khmer Rouge leaders, hailed from a middle class Chinese-Khmer background. Khieu returned from Paris with his doctorate in 1959 and obtained a position at the University of Phnom Penh, where he published a leftist French-language rag called L'Observateur. The newspaper was banned by the anti-communist government and Khieu subsequently arrested for his views. Worse yet, he was publicly humiliated by being booked and photographed in his skivvies. This was merely the first of many conflicts between Khieu and the government. Khieu later set up an alliance, dubbed the Government Royal d'Union Nationale du Kampuchéa or (GRUNK), with the exiled king, Sihanouk, after the 1970 coup by Prime Minister Lon Nol.
Khieu eventually succeeded Pol Pot as the head of the Khmer Rouge resistance in the 1990s. Under the GRUNK banner, Khieu inherited many titles and donned many hats. He served as deputy prime minister, minister of defense, and commander-in-chief of GRUNK military forces. Khieu was the key to the alliance with the ousted king and ironically gave the government-in-exile political legitimacy.
Other major players included Son Sen, Yun Yet, Ke Pauk, and Ieng Thirith to name just a few. The leadership of the movement remained relatively in tact and unchanged from the 1960s through the mid-1990s. If you didn’t like the leadership…You were free to die at any time.
As mentioned earlier, communist movements throughout the world were anything but new by the time the Khmer Rouge hit their stride. However, in an attempt at novelty, the Khmer Rouge leadership led by Pol Pot added a few new wrinkles to the communal fabric of their movement. Pol Pot proclaimed that the year 1975 would be thereafter known as “Year Zero”, the first year of a brand new civilization. He had many big plans for his citizens such as collective farming, forced labor projects, and the purging of all intellectuals. Pol Pot envisioned a self-sufficient agricultural society. This feat would be accomplished via the transference of those living in the cities to the country, where they would begin exciting new careers as farmers.
In order to pull the ruse off, Pol Pot needed to isolate the country from the rest of the world. He began by expelling all foreigners from the country. Next, he closed down ‘nonessential’ entities such as schools, temples, and hospitals…Who needs those things anyway? In fact he went a step further than that by outlawing all religious activity and by targeting Buddhist monks for summary execution.
The economic facets of society were also turned inside out. Financial institutions were hereby abolished along with the nation’s currency (Thus the invent of the Khmer Rouge bills I was discussing earlier). All private property was seized and all urban center residents were relocated to collective farms, where they were worked to death in the name of progress. This program of ‘declassification’ was designed to relocate citizens residing in urban areas to new rural digs. The urbanites, dubbed “New People” were forced to join the “Old People”, residing in the outlying areas. Of course many of the people who were relocated from the cities hadn’t a clue about farming. This was of no concern to Pol Pot, who simply informed them to learn to farm or die. And die they did…By the thousands, via exhaustion, disease, malnutrition, or by outright execution. A great deal of city-dwellers lacking the capacity to immediately learn the various nuances involved with agricultural production were deemed “economic saboteurs” by the Khmer Rouge hierarchy and culled from the population.
This was totalitarianism with a capital T. What began as Stalinism quickly became Potism. It was even necessary for families to receive permission by the state to have relationships. The penalty for illegal communication between family members was death. In reality, many families were spread to the four winds anyway, unable to communicate due to the fact that there was no telephone or postal service.
People were encouraged to call each other comrades and expected to produce three times the amount of rice they had been producing prior to the 1975 takeover. Work was back-breaking and long. The populous was reduced to a minion of overworked slaves, toiling away day after day in the fields. The system was doomed from the beginning and eventually famine became rampant. It must also be noted that attempts by starving individuals to gather wild fruits and berries was also strictly forbidden. Survival foraging was viewed as a form of “private enterprise” and was punishable by…You guessed it…Death.
In order to avoid panic within the capital city of Phnom Penh, residents were told they would be temporarily relocated “a short distance outside the city” (several kilometers) for a period of “two or three days“. After this time, they would be allowed to return to their homes. The people were informed that the forced (at gunpoint) evacuation was for their own safety due to plans by the Americans to bomb the city. They were also told not to trouble themselves by locking their doors or organizing possessions, as the Khmer Rouge Army would be taking good care of their things in their absence. Apparently, word had not been spread from other parts of the country, where similar ruses had already been perpetrated for going on six years. It was eerily similar to the plight of Jews in Europe, who gathered their possessions and boarded the trains…
Below is one of the more infamous mottos charmingly chimed by the Khmer Rouge…
"To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss."
It is no surprise that many Cambodians attempted to escape, mainly via the Thai border where they could seek political asylum. Once there, many wasted away in refugee camps while fortunate others were able to relocate to nations such as France, Canada, Australia, and the United States. (Read more, buy the book)