Why educated Cambodians were persecuted during the Pol Pot era [and are being persecuted under the current regime]

One of Vietnam's strategies to colonize Cambodia is to break Khmers apart.

Comment by Bun Thoeun

Pol Pot [Salot Sar] had spent part of his youth within the compounds of the Cambodian Royal Palace by virtue of close family connection to the royal institution and had observed at close range the decadence, sleaze ridden distortions of this upper echelon of Cambodia’s archaic aristocracy. Like so many of his earnest young Khmer contemporaries then and today, this exclusive reality and privileged life style juxtaposed unfavourably in his mind and thought with the other world lying beyond the walls of the Palace, assuming psychological weight and political significance that would in time found their fullest calamitous expressions, fed by the all pervading radical brand of revolutionary Marxism implanted by the North Vietnamese Communists throughout Indochina. While the North Vietnamese themselves saw selective practical benefits in adopting the ideology in furtherance of their own national cause, this brand of revolutionary Marxism found its most zealous adherents and, above all, crudest practitioners in the Khmer-Vietminhs and their break-away Red Khmer faction under the leadership of Pol Pot-Ieng Sary-Nuon Chea et al. What exactly had this young idealist who purposefully adopted for himself the nom de guerre of “Original Khmer” sought to achieve for his declining nation by aligning his followers and political decisions with a radical path that brought nothing but senseless suffering upon his own people; that paved the way further for that decline to persist through deliberate annihilation of his educated compatriots, and through the endless cycles of purges against even his own followers? What is the current regime – so prides itself as the nemesis of this self-destructive movement and as the saviours of the Cambodian people -  hoping to achieve by practising selective purges against unarmed dissidents and few courageous voices left over from that tragic time, as well as emerging activists of today? – School of Vice

“When the brain is dead, any living creature cannot do anything, and that is a well thought idea that Vietnam has applied to Cambodia: kill all educated Khmer people..”

To execute its plan, Vietnam has ordered its puppet Hun Sen to unjustly incarcerate Mam Sonando so that he could not join the CNRP.

Khmer people are so discontent with this puppet government.

If so, why they cannot mount any serious peaceful demonstration against this traitorous government?

Here is one of the reasons:

Vietnam had largely helped the Khmer Rouge to seize the power in April 17th 1975.

The first priority for Vietnam after the Khmer Rouge took the power was to kill all educated Khmer to avoid any revolt against the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam in the future.

Realistically, when people are well educated, they know how to differentiate between the good and the bad. Therefore, when they see Cambodia’s vital interests are threatened, they are not afraid to sacrifice their lives for Cambodia. For example, after March 18th 1970, hundreds of thousands of Khmer were volunteered to help Cambodia and fought bravely against those crazy Vietcong, North Vietnam. The result was obvious: those Vietcong-North Vietnamese could not defeat our Khmer nationalists – educated people.

Only after some Khmer traitors such as Sihanouk and the dumb Khmer Rouge joined with the Vietcong-North Vietnam that made the war turned in the different direction because our well educated Khmer lost interest to fight with other Khmer.

The point that I want to make is that when Khmer people are NOT well educated, they do not understand clearly about the national interest. Like right now, in Cambodia, only a minimal number of Khmer who clearly understand the danger that our country is facing. So if some well educated Khmer people wanted to stage a peaceful demonstration, they could not make it because they don’t have enough participants. Most of educated Khmer people had been executed by Vietnam through the Khmer Vietminh during the Pol Pot era.

The deployment of the K5 project, which killed hundreds of thousands Khmer people, in Cambodia after Vietnam’s invasion in 1979 underscored Vietnam’s determination to obliterate Khmer race and Cambodia.

So the ulterior motive of Vietnam to kill educated Khmer people was to avoid any revolts against Vietnam when it fully put into action the policy of Vietnamization on Cambodia. Since most of educated Khmer were gone, Khmer people who are not well educated think mostly about their “stomach’s” problems – they would vote for the traitorous regime for one “Sarong” or 1 gram of MSG, etc…. In addition, the puppet government committed fraudulent election too.

When the brain is dead, any living creature cannot do anything, and that is a well thought idea that Vietnam has applied to Cambodia: kill all educated Khmer people..

In brief, when people keep asking why our people are so passive against this neo-colonialist Vietnam and its puppet Hun Sen, the above statement should be the precise and right answer: Cambodia has lost almost all of its educated people.

Khmer people must know by now about Vietnam’s plan, which is always a long term plan.

Presently, Vietnam uses another long term plan: take time to make Khmer people to become a minority in Cambodia and when that happens, the end of Cambodia will be imminent. The blind man Hun Sen should properly react to this Vietnam’s catastrophic plan if he spiritually is a human being.

But there are hope, currently our Khmer nationalists mainly the CNRP, the Khmer Post Radio, the World Khmer Radio, the Sambok Khmum Radio, etc…and our heroic individuals have been working tirelessly to spread the truth to Khmer people.

The RFA and the VOA which traditionally disseminate the real news - the truth – have helped Khmer people to pay more attention to Cambodia’s dark future after Vietnam has been pushing its citizens to fill Cambodia land.

 

-Bun Thoeun