“What did the Khmer Rouge ever do for you?”

Anchor Moy · Post by **Anchor Moy** » Sun Jul 22, 2018 1:50 am

Fun question.
Year Zero nostalgia in Cambodia – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the long shadow of the Khmer Rouge
By Irish Times -
July 21, 2018

If, on your travels, you ever ruled out the possibility of asking someone, in earnest, the Pythonesque question: “What did the Khmer Rouge ever do for you?” you might consider the frontier town of Anlong Veng in northern Cambodia. Locals there will answer in echoing tones of Monty Python, and equally in earnest: water, irrigation, roads, bridges, a school, a hospital...
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/year ... -1.3571618

Johno35 · Post by **Johno35** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 12:32 am

Anchor Moy wrote: ↑Sun Jul 22, 2018 1:50 am Fun question.
Year Zero nostalgia in Cambodia – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the long shadow of the Khmer Rouge
By Irish Times -
July 21, 2018

If, on your travels, you ever ruled out the possibility of asking someone, in earnest, the Pythonesque question: “What did the Khmer Rouge ever do for you?” you might consider the frontier town of Anlong Veng in northern Cambodia. Locals there will answer in echoing tones of Monty Python, and equally in earnest: water, irrigation, roads, bridges, a school, a hospital...
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/year ... -1.3571618

A friend of mine grew up in Anlong Veng. His mother still cuts her hair in the Socialist style. I asked what people think of the past. He says his mothers friends still come around and like to talk about it. He says his mother friends still cut their hair like his mom. They say they wish they could go back to Ta Mok’s time.

After making an offering at Pol Pots grave my friend told me: “During Ta Mok’s time everyone says it was sooooo beautiful. Everyone was equal, no one oppressed each other. Everyone had food. Everyone farmed. You could only keep no more than 10,000 riel in your house. If you got caught with more you’d be executed. Hahaha. Also you had to farm or you’d be punished. No one was allowed to be lazy. Do you know who wants to go back to Ta Mok’s time the most? The women! Because back then there was no KTV. If there was an affair you’d be executed. So the women liked it because the men couldn’t use their money to sleep with young beautiful women. And also you just think about your daily life, no thinking about buying Lexus RX 300 or RX350. Just live equally.”

At Ta Mok’s house all the guards new him by name. I said he must bring a lot of tourists here if they know him by name. He said no he used to come there as a child with his father. I asked what Ta Mik was like. He said Ta Mok was a very nice man and the people loved him. He commented that he was very tall for a Cambodian and added that Ta Mok did a lot for the people in Anlong Veng and that’s why people loved him.”

SternAAlbifrons · Post by **SternAAlbifrons** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 4:06 am

Yep, this report is all very true for a number of former KR strongholds.

To play the Devil's advocate... (a challenging task)
Something had to bring about change - Sihanouk was never going to really bring Cambodia back to Planet Earth, 20 century.
He just wanted an fashionably modern gloss on top of the same old pie.
So the revolution's effect of bringing about this change could be said to be good for Cambodia from a long term point of view.
???

Incidentally, in my provincial town - the sizable ex KR area on the edge is the nice, quiet, law abiding part of town. It is a good place to go looking for "steady, reliable" people if you want a worker or tradesperson.
(just like the Muslim area but without the droning call to prayer)

PPS, Ta Mok came thru Koh Kong province like like the whirlwind from hell. He is the reason that almost everybody who lives in the province today is a new-comer since those times. Virtually all of the population was killed or fled never to return. The Terror.
Ta Mok carried on with his murderous purges all over the country, sector by sector, in pursuit of the the revolutions most extreme ideals.
He was extremely charismatic and was the master, more than any other, of tapping into that millenium of deep-seated resentment of the masses towards the ruling class and turning into the murderous rage that those black clad killing machines were powered by.
But he was personally a very likeable chap - the ultimate Top Bloke.

SternAAlbifrons · Post by **SternAAlbifrons** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:01 am

Sorry to go on again about this pox.

Remember that part in The Killing Fields (movie)...
Dith Pran found himself settled on a reasonably good commune (as some were in the early days)
and he was being quietly shepherded by one of the good KR local leaders (and there were many many)

Then suddenly the whirlwind arrives everything is swept away in an instant by black clad killing machines on the trot.
That was Ta Mok.

Johno35 · Post by **Johno35** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:46 am

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 4:06 am Yep, this report is all very true for a number of former KR strongholds.

To play the Devil's advocate... (a challenging task)
Something had to bring about change - Sihanouk was never going to really bring Cambodia back to Planet Earth, 20 century.
He just wanted an fashionably modern gloss on top of the same old pie.
So the revolution's effect of bringing about this change could be said to be good for Cambodia from a long term point of view.
???

Incidentally, in my provincial town - the sizable ex KR area on the edge is the nice, quiet, law abiding part of town. It is a good place to go looking for "steady, reliable" people if you want a worker or tradesperson.
(just like the Muslim area but without the droning call to prayer)

PPS, Ta Mok came thru Koh Kong province like like the whirlwind from hell. He is the reason that almost everybody who lives in the province today is a new-comer since those times. Virtually all of the population was killed or fled never to return. The Terror.
Ta Mok carried on with his murderous purges all over the country, sector by sector, in pursuit of the the revolutions most extreme ideals.
He was extremely charismatic and was the master, more than any other, of tapping into that millenium of deep-seated resentment of the masses towards the ruling class and turning into the murderous rage that those black clad killing machines were powered by.
But he was personally a very likeable chap - the ultimate Top Bloke.

I see where you’re coming from. I just don’t know that there’s been much change at all. The monarchy has been neutered. But it seems the excellencies just went back to managing the country the same way Lon Nol did albeit in an even more corrupt and decadent manner.

I second your thoughts on former Khmer Rouge zones. I have Khmer friends who tell me they can park their Moto and leave the key in it in former Khmer Rouge villages. They say the people in those areas are trustworthy and honest.

Johno35 · Post by **Johno35** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:54 am

Johno35 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:46 am
SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 4:06 am Yep, this report is all very true for a number of former KR strongholds.

To play the Devil's advocate... (a challenging task)
Something had to bring about change - Sihanouk was never going to really bring Cambodia back to Planet Earth, 20 century.
He just wanted an fashionably modern gloss on top of the same old pie.
So the revolution's effect of bringing about this change could be said to be good for Cambodia from a long term point of view.
???

Incidentally, in my provincial town - the sizable ex KR area on the edge is the nice, quiet, law abiding part of town. It is a good place to go looking for "steady, reliable" people if you want a worker or tradesperson.
(just like the Muslim area but without the droning call to prayer)

PPS, Ta Mok came thru Koh Kong province like like the whirlwind from hell. He is the reason that almost everybody who lives in the province today is a new-comer since those times. Virtually all of the population was killed or fled never to return. The Terror.
Ta Mok carried on with his murderous purges all over the country, sector by sector, in pursuit of the the revolutions most extreme ideals.
He was extremely charismatic and was the master, more than any other, of tapping into that millenium of deep-seated resentment of the masses towards the ruling class and turning into the murderous rage that those black clad killing machines were powered by.
But he was personally a very likeable chap - the ultimate Top Bloke.
I see where you’re coming from. I just don’t know that there’s been much change at all. The monarchy has been neutered. But it seems the excellencies just went back to managing the country the same way Lon Nol did albeit in an even more corrupt and decadent manner.

The little secret so often missed is that an awe full lot of Cambodians still love and admire Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Especially among the more nationalistic types. We only hear of the people who hate them. Many Cambodians have told me they just wish they had been successful without murdering so many people and destroying the country. It took me years to realize this And only after I got to know people well enough that they knew I wouldn’t judge them. They can’t tell their honest opinion or they are judged to be a mass murderer. One told me, “Hold on a minute, Ho Chi Minh is honored by UNESCO as a man of culture and world hero and Pol Pot is an evil mass murderer.” They want Pol Pot to be honored like Uncle Ho and the Vietnamese revolution. But losers do not write The history.

I second your thoughts on former Khmer Rouge zones. I have Khmer friends who tell me they can park their Moto and leave the key in it in former Khmer Rouge villages. They say the people in those areas are trustworthy and honest.

amatuertrader · Post by **amatuertrader** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:31 am

What may be an interesting side note, I was in northern Thailand around the time the Khmer Rouge was flooding across the border.

It was a dangerous time as there were desperate groups of men attacking and robbing vehicles on the way south to Chiang Mai. They would fell a tree across the road and force everyone to stop and rob them.

When I had to travel, the locals refused to take me at night and even during the day we had a pickup truck filled with paid armed men in the back bed.

The local farmers were very afraid of being taken over by communists because they heard frightening stories of being harnessed to a plow and forced to work like a water buffalo all day in the rice paddies for a small ration of rice.

phuketrichard · Post by **phuketrichard** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:32 am

amatuertrader wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:31 am What may be an interesting side note, I was in northern Thailand around the time the Khmer Rouge was flooding across the border.

It was a dangerous time as there were desperate groups of men attacking and robbing vehicles on the way south to Chiang Mai. They would fell a tree across the road and force everyone to stop and rob them.

When I had to travel, the locals refused to take me at night and even during the day we had a pickup truck filled with paid armed men in the back bed.

The local farmers were very afraid of being taken over by communists because they heard frightening stories of being harnessed to a plow and forced to work like a water buffalo all day in the rice paddies for a small ration of rice.

Really?
I never knew that and never saw anything like that when I was there in 82
What groups flooding across the Laos/ Thai border heading to Chiang Mai? Laos people? There were never any refugee camps up there. They were all in the east between Po Pet and Battambang on the Thai side as we all know.
Even when i was living in Boi Rai in 1987/88 the camps were still operational and i could see the KR across the border from my house and often they would come into town on a Saturday night all dress in black with their checkered karmas on.
have some great stories from those days .

78-79
My ex roommate ended up working in one of the camps on the thai border with the peace corps, while i ended up in Zaire.

...The little secret so often missed is that an awe full lot of Cambodians still love and admire Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Especially among the more nationalistic types. We only hear of the people who hate them. Many Cambodians have told me they just wish they had been successful without murdering so many people and destroying the country.

I truly cant believe anyone would welcome a return or sees the kr era as anything but what it was.
a cruel failed experiment

amatuertrader · Post by **amatuertrader** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 8:02 am

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:32 am
amatuertrader wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:31 am What may be an interesting side note, I was in northern Thailand around the time the Khmer Rouge was flooding across the border.

It was a dangerous time as there were desperate groups of men attacking and robbing vehicles on the way south to Chiang Mai. They would fell a tree across the road and force everyone to stop and rob them.

When I had to travel, the locals refused to take me at night and even during the day we had a pickup truck filled with paid armed men in the back bed.

The local farmers were very afraid of being taken over by communists because they heard frightening stories of being harnessed to a plow and forced to work like a water buffalo all day in the rice paddies for a small ration of rice.
Really?
I never knew that and never saw anything like that when I was there in 82
What groups flooding across the Laos/ Thai border heading to Chiang Mai? Laos people? There were never any refugee camps up there. They were all in the east between Po Pet and Battambang on the Thai side as we all know.
Even when i was living in Boi Rai in 1987/88 the camps were still operational and i could see the KR across the border from my house and often they would come into town on a Saturday night all dress in black with their checkered karmas on.
have some great stories from those days .

78-79
My ex roommate ended up working in one of the camps on the thai border with the peace corps, while i ended up in Zaire.

...The little secret so often missed is that an awe full lot of Cambodians still love and admire Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Especially among the more nationalistic types. We only hear of the people who hate them. Many Cambodians have told me they just wish they had been successful without murdering so many people and destroying the country.
I truly cant believe anyone would welcome a return or sees the kr era as anything but what it was.
a cruel failed experiment

Well I didn't mean to imply that the Khmer Rouge was flooding into northern Thailand.
The KR was flooding into border areas but the danger in Northern Thailand at the time was real, whoever they were.

There were outlaws, scoundrels, desperate thieves moving around back then.
The locals were definitely concerned.
If you remember back then the news was not so easy to get, none of us knew what was really going on but the fear was real.

John Bingham · Post by **John Bingham** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 8:20 am

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:32 am

Really?
I never knew that and never saw anything like that when I was there in 82
What groups flooding across the Laos/ Thai border heading to Chiang Mai? Laos people? There were never any refugee camps up there. They were all in the east between Po Pet and Battambang on the Thai side as we all know.
Even when i was living in Boi Rai in 1987/88 the camps were still operational and i could see the KR across the border from my house and often they would come into town on a Saturday night all dress in black with their checkered karmas on.
have some great stories from those days

There were refugee camps all the way from Trat to the Laos border. There were many other camps that straddled the border or were just inside Cambodia too, so they weren't run by the UN and are not on this map. There were also Hmong/ Vietnamese/ Burmese refugee camps much further north.

Also, I may be wrong, but as far as I know KR stopped wearing black uniforms after 1979, they wore green Chinese uniforms after that.

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