Purification...

"Death is the solution to all problems - no man, no problem."
Joseph Stalin

Today I find myself enjoying the somewhat noisy pleasures of the Bon Cafe in Phnom Penh. The cafe itself is rather pleasant; the staff friendly; the Americano and home-made soda good; the building, French Colonial, interesting. The noise comes from more sources than I care to name, a hodge-podge of kids, drills, motorbikes and aircraft taking off at the nearby airport. Still, despite all this, I admit to being rather fond of the place. It has an old-world charm that was sadly lacking from the Cafe Amazon chain I visited earlier today.
Two days in Cambodia and the abiding impression so far is of a failing economy with little or no infrastructure to speak of. The intention is to fly down to Siem Reap next Saturday where, hopefully, the influx of tourist money will have created a more comfortable lifestyle for the locals. One cannot help but wonder if this country has ever recovered from the Communist revolution of the Khmer Rouge in 1975. As with most Communist revolutions, it led to repression, economic failure and genocide, perhaps it has the distinction though of achieving these in somewhat less time than its rivals for the prize.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, managed to oversee the elimination of some 200,000 people whilst a million more starved due to his economic policies. Reports say that he particularly held a strong dislike for ‘intellectuals’ (again a common problem for Communist systems it seems, could it be that the intelligensia of a country are that big a threat to those in charge of such states?). Weirdly,  Pol Pot even went so far as advocating the killing of people who wore glasses at one stage, this on the rather feeble grounds that it proved they must have read too many books!
Once he established the ‘Democratic Republic of Kampuchea’ Pol Pot decided that history needed to start again and declared year zero before ‘purifying’ society. What this meant in practice is getting rid of anyone he even vaguely disapproved of. This was rather a long list: anyone following a religion, city dwellers, foreigners, the aforementioned ‘intellectuals’, etc.
(Odd how Communist despots seem so fond of  including such words as ‘Democratic’ and ‘Republic’ into the names of their country, usually when democratic is one thing they are not and some after effectively assuming King-like hereditary powers, such as the Kim family in North Korea)

All businesses were closed, schools and universities shut down, the mail and the phone system halted, health care stopped and any foreign economic or medical assistance prohibited. One can imagine the chaos that immediately ensued. Phnom Penh in particular suffered when the entire population was forced to leave for labour camps where they were to be ‘re-educated’ (The Communists do seem to have a particularly chilling knack when it comes to creation of euphemisms, do they not? Purifying and re-education are impressive for their creativity yet chilling for their reality).
Much to China’s ongoing shame in these matters, they were one of the few countries to offer support to Pol Pot. This continued even after they were well aware of what was going on on the ground.
Personally, seeing the state of the streets around me, I cannot help but wonder if this country has ever really recovered from those terrible times four decades ago. As the Soviets and the Communists in China discovered, if you eliminate the talented, the intelligent and the qualified from common affairs you eliminate much of what keeps a country civilised. In all three cases mass starvation and economic chaos followed.
On the positive side (!), one has to admit that a certain degree of the cherished ‘equality’ (another euphemism!) was achieved. The people were equally starving, equally suffering, equally terrified. I think I prefer a little old-fashioned inequality myself.

Friends ask me why, over the last few years, I have made a journey from being broadly left-wing in outlook to being virulently against such system. In a word: travel. Go and see these systems first hand, or at least the results of them. Read up on the realities of the atrocities, the brutality, the smothering of the individuals within these ill-begotten places but, most of all, visit them if you can. Any notion of the righteousness of Communist or left-wing dogma in general will soon be left far behind as the bitter reality is revealed in all its naked horror.
Back in the cafe I find myself alone as the light starts to fade. Sometimes the writing of these things takes a while as one searches for inspiration. Sometimes they write themselves. This has been one of the latter. The boy who served me originally smiles down patiently at me. The people here seem quite remarkably freindly, despite the horrors of their recent past and the suffering of today. One cannot help but like them.