Day 31: Cambodia

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Sorry for being late with this but other stuff has gotten in the way

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia



An ancient kingdom, once one of the most powerful states in South East Asian history and the builder of the great Angkor Wat, it had collapsed obscurity when it decided to submit to French authority in 1863 after centuries of waning Khmer influence over the region against the more powerful Vietnamese and Thais. Today it is a relatively small (pop: 15.5 million) country dwarfed by its neighbours. It is one of the most Buddhist countries in the world and is about 90% Khmer ethnically. As elsewhere in South East Asia (apart from Bali and the Cham) Hinduism has effectively disappeared, with no real modern legacy to Angkor or the medieval Khmer Empire except the name. Its recent history and society is known in the west for three things: 1) child sex tourism, 2) being a theatre in the Vietnam War in which the Americans bombed and napalmed large parts of the country for no discernible reason and 3) the murderous dictatorship of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge which ran, if that is the right word, the country between 1975 and 1979. The KR tried to turn Kampuchea (the country's Khmer name) into a sort of communal agricultural utopia while knowing nothing about agriculture, economics or anything that could be described as knowledge (and if someone did, they had them executed). The KR also tried to kill off the Vietnamese minority and cut off all communication with the world. The result was the mass murder of people running into the millions before being chased out of the country by invading Vietnamese forces. What followed is little known in the west perhaps because it is so inglorious. Pol Pot and his forces retreated into the interior where they got support from China, the United States, Thailand and the United Kingdom who wanted him to fight the bigger menace: Vietnam. China invaded Vietnam in 1979 in a war that nobody in this part of the world ever talks about partly as a response (and got defeated in doing so). Pol Pot continued the fight into the countryside (and became a convert to free market economics in the process) until his death in 1998, by which Cambodia had turned into the ultra corrupt third world autocracy it is today. Its Prime Minister, since 1998, Hun Sen is a former Khmer Rouge Commander turned turncoat to Vietnam (and was also PM in the 80s) turned turncoat into pseudo-Democrat turned coup leader turned again into a pseudo-democrat. The situation is as stable as it sounds. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia.

Below is a map of the Khmer Empire near its supposed peak in 900AD:



The States in Yellow and Light Green were those belonging to groups now stateless and in one case, the former, a diminishing people, the Champa and the Mon respectively.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Wow, I actually had no idea that Pol Pot survived past 1979 and continued waging a civil war until 1998. That makes Cambodia's recent history even more disheartening (and the West's actions even more despicable).

[Hash]

Prince/King/Prime Minister/Head of State Sihanouk is probably one of the more fascinating political figures in that region.

Cambodia's history is also very interesting but also horribly tragic.

[Simfan34]

Hun Sen has actually ruled more or less continously since 1985, meaning he's gone from Communist leader to leader of His Majesty's Government.

Speaking of His Majesty, Sihanouk was a truly unusual character-- politically speaking, at least. He took the throne, abdicated to become PM, became King again but called himself "Head of State", all while promoting an ideology of so-called "Buddhist Socialism". Indeed there even existed a group called the "Royal Socialist Youth". Unsurprisingly he was firmly in the Eastern Bloc, which eventually led to his downfall-- although apparently the coup leader, Lon Nol, had to be coerced into staging the coup at gun point by Sisowath Monivong (a prince who supposedly harbored ambitions to the throne himself).

At this point Sihanouk lent his support to... the Khmer Rouge, who exploited his endorsement to gain currency with the largely royalist peasantry. If this was not enough, when they first took power, the Khmer Rouge actually restored him as head of state, even if he was quickly sidelined. Sihanouk, dividing his time between Beijing and... Pyongyang, would continue to ally with the Khmer Rouge well into the 1980s.

He was, of course, restored in a strictly ceremonial capacity and eventually abdicated in favor of the least controversial of his children, who curiously enough, being a former ballet instructor who as per his father "loves women as his sisters", is perhaps as openly gay as a monarch in that part of the world could be. His other children were politicians, one of whom, Ranariddh, was the Prime Minister ousted by Hun Sen in 1998.

The French really make a right mess of things wherever they go, don't they?

[Zioneer]

Fascinating, I never knew most of the details on Cambodia. What a bunch of twists and turns they've had.

[The Last Northerner]

The Cambodian People's Party is fairly pro-Viet Nam and played an instrumental rule during the liberation from the Khmer Rouge. It's one of those authoritarian post-Communist parties that is more corrupt than red and labels everyone who opposes it fronts or apologists for the Khmer Rouge. They claim their tactions are to educate the populace and prevent the rise of another Khmer Rouge... basically 'vote for us or else Pol Pot comes back'. It works well for Cambodians to lived through the era but less so on the younger people who didn't.

Funny enough, their main opposition (The Cambodian National Rescue Party) has quite a few Khmer Rouge apologists/deniers and mixes in anti-Vietnamese slogans with their criticism of the government. Please ignore their English wikipedia article as it is woefully incomplete and doesn't show how horrible these guys are.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I just wonder what Comrade Snowstalker (RIP) thinks about Pol Pot these days.

[Simfan34]

I also see you are putting Burma under M. For shame!

The Cambodian People's Party is fairly pro-Viet Nam and played an instrumental rule during the liberation from the Khmer Rouge. It's one of those authoritarian post-Communist parties that is more corrupt than red and labels everyone who opposes it fronts or apologists for the Khmer Rouge. They claim their tactions are to educate the populace and prevent the rise of another Khmer Rouge... basically 'vote for us or else Pol Pot comes back'. It works well for Cambodians to lived through the era but less so on the younger people who didn't.

Funny enough, their main opposition (The Cambodian National Rescue Party) has quite a few Khmer Rouge apologists/deniers and mixes in anti-Vietnamese slogans with their criticism of the government. Please ignore their English wikipedia article as it is woefully incomplete and doesn't show how horrible these guys are.

You are tarring the opposition by association, and overly so. Opposition to Vietnamese influence does not equal apologism for the Khmer Rouge, despite what Hun Sen might want you to think.