Latest news with #PolPot
Epoch Times
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
When Pol Pot Read a Book on Marx
Commentary Recent polling reveals a startling development: one in four young people has a One in four is, by chance, around the same percentage of Cambodians who were murdered by the Khmer Rouge government's policies of political torture, arbitrary execution, forced labor, mass resettlement, and brutal, intentional starvation in the 1970s. Between two and three million people were killed in just three years under a 'political experiment' run by young people who were, unbelievable as it may seem, convinced they were remaking the country into a peaceful, egalitarian utopia. When Saloth Sâr, like many idealistic students at Harvard or Yale, saw Western capitalism as a corrosive force. He believed it was stripping Asian peasants of their nobility and moral worth. He and his friends wanted to create a new national identity and trigger a 'Year Zero' event, after which all people would be equal and the needs of the poor and weak would be addressed. This was 1959: world wars and colonialism had torn Asia apart. Saloth believed the Cambodian people deserved better than to be a puppet state of Japan or Vietnam, or a bombing buffer zone for western militaries. He had returned home to work as a teacher, and was emulating his fellow Marxist and Chinese neighbor, Mao Zedong, when he helped formalize the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Related Stories 11/29/2024 5/8/2025 He became convinced that to return people to their natural innocence and equality, his society must be purged of the corrupting influences of banks, factories, hospitals, universities, and other modern influences. Anyone who was highly educated (besides his inner circle, of course) and anyone who chose to live in a city or practice a profession, clearly thought he was too good to be a subsistence farmer. Saloth Sar and his friends saw it as their responsibility to punish and reeducate such people to usher in an agrarian golden age of egalitarianism. Only after returning to Cambodia would he take on the name by which he is now known, though culturally, it is a placeholding non-name, akin to Jane Doe, John Q. Public, or Joe Schmoe: Pol Pot. The Communist Party of Kampuchea (the name for Cambodia in Pol Pot's native Khmer language) would become known to the rest of the world as the Khmer Rouge, a horrifically murderous regime that massacred millions. But it didn't begin that way. The mild-mannered farmer's son fell in love with a political vision of his country and his people, and he believed in that vision so fiercely that he would destroy both trying to perfect it. To label Pol Pot and his close cohort as murderous psychopaths risks, as Calling what happened in Cambodia 'genocide' also risks obscuring the banality of that violence and the twisted idealism of the communist cause. Pol Pot had no interest in ending the genetic legacy of the Khmer people; on the contrary, he saw himself as perfecting his beloved people, purging only those who would undermine the revolution or were insufficiently committed to the future, perfect society. As the communist regime failed (as all communist regimes do), the search for scapegoats and traitors turned more and more people into acceptable sacrifices for the greater good. Christian Vollmert/Shutterstock And Pol Pot could not have done such horrors alone. Thousands of people helped him. Once the vision of a perfect, Communist Kampuchea took hold, many people—even as they who saw their own families murdered, their children kidnapped, their homes burned, their friends exiled, their cities emptied—would continue to believe in the dewy, sepia-tone vision that had begun germinating in intellectual salons in Paris. The intellectuals who survived defended their participation in the communist 'political experiment' that made them literal slaves to the state. Even as the Khmer Rouge abolished the notion of the family and made children into Party property, some believed. When peasants were stripped of clothing and forced into 'To keep you is no benefit,' went the Khmer Rogue slogan, 'to destroy you is no loss.' The very ideas of freedom, individuality, creativity, intellectual self-betterment—they had become anathema to being a good Cambodian. Freiderich Hayek wrote in ' Stephen Barnes/Shutterstock Money was abolished. Mass communications—radio, newspapers, even public gatherings—were eliminated. Private travel was banned, cutting people off from one another completely. Religious practices, including Buddhism, were also banned. The Khmer Rouge controlled all sources of information, and few could resist the ideological narrative of government power being used to reorder humanity for its own benefit. Those who tried to resist were imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, or executed. 'To keep you is no benefit,' went the Khmer Rogue slogan, 'to destroy you is no loss.' In the intellectual echo-chamber of Marxist universities, a toxic narrative of 'us' versus 'them,' and a 'Our policy was to provide an affluent life for the people,' Pol Pot Thousands more One architect of the Khmer killing fields, Khieu Samphan said, returning to the capital 20 years after the slaughter: 'I would like to say sorry to the people. Please forget the past and please be sorry for me.' Such was the recompense for a terroristic regime, what The Guardian called, 'a four year reign of homicidal terror that, even in a century featuring such butchers as Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, was almost too shocking to believe.' But the world didn't just look away. Many around the world, experimenting with mid-century Marxism, wanted to believe in Pol Pot's vision for Cambodia, too. Western powers, already exhausted by proxy wars in South East Asia, watched with indifference. And western journalists, many of whom were Marxists themselves, reported glowingly of Pol Pot's 'experiments.' 'It remains a mystery to me that we could have been so fooled,' wrote Gunnar Bergström, a Swedish journalist who took a propaganda tour in 1978. He said, in a later apology, 'we were fooled by the smiles, but maybe most of all by our own Mao-glasses.' In ' The Road to Serfdom,' Hayek reassured readers that the intellectuals and central planners of our acquaintance 'would recoil if they became convinced that the realization of their program would mean the destruction of freedom.' But Saloth Sar is one poignant reminder that few leaders can be stopped, or will stop themselves, from imposing their tyrannical will 'for our own good.' And that too many of us will be willing to look away. Radicals and revolutionaries might capture the hearts of young people, but they cannot be allowed to capture centralized power. Only a respect for the individual and a respect for civil liberties can shield us from the 'good intentions' of idealistic social planners with all their devastating, murderous, totalitarian consequences. From the Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
NHK
21-05-2025
- Politics
- NHK
Cambodia marks 50th anniversary of Khmer Rouge genocide
People in Cambodia have marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge regime that claimed the lives of at least 1.7 million people. May 20th is designated Cambodia's "National Day of Remembrance" to mark the beginning of the atrocity in 1975. About 2,000 people took part in a memorial service at the site of one of the so-called "Killing Fields" in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Students from an art university staged a re-enactment of the brutality at the time. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, enforced an extreme form of communism until 1979. Forced labor and the systematic killing of intellectuals resulted in the death of more than a fifth of Cambodia's population. Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen said in a message on social media that peace is fragile for Cambodia and that people should be aware of the risk of a return to its dark past. A 70-year-old genocide survivor who took part in Tuesday's event said she wants the younger generations to take action to prevent such a thing happening again. She added, "Do not destroy peace. They must defend peace instead." Cambodia is now facing the challenge of how to pass on the lessons of the genocide to future generations. More than 70 percent of the population was born after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime.
New Straits Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Cambodian students re-enact bloody Khmer Rouge crimes
PHNOM PENH: Cambodian students wearing all black and wielding bamboo clubs and wooden rifles staged a dramatic re-enactment on Tuesday of a genocide that killed two million people in the 1970s. A quarter of Cambodia's population died of starvation, forced labour or torture or were slaughtered in mass killings under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge atrocities are commemorated at museums and sites including Choeung Ek, a notorious former "Killing Field" in Phnom Penh, where an annual Day of Remembrance event is held. Hundreds gathered at Choeung Ek, where about 15,000 people died between 1975 and 1979, holding prayers in front of a display of victims' skulls. Students brandishing mock weapons then acted out slitting victims' throats, shooting or clubbing them in a re-enactment of Khmer Rouge attacks on civilians. Some attendees cried at the confrontingly vivid re-enactment. "My tears fell when I watched the performance," attendee and survivor Chruok Sam, 70, told AFP. He lost 12 family members under the Khmer Rouge and said the performance showed "exactly the same" as what he had experienced in 1975. He hoped the re-enactment would help young generations learn more about what he called "the most heinous and cruel regime on Earth." Another survivor, 63-year-old Em Ry, said she was still scared and had never been able to forget Pol Pot's time in power. She was forced to work all day and only ate a "spoonful of corn", she said, and lost several family members including her grandmother. Prime Minister Hun Manet, who was at the opening of a new cement plant in central Kampong Speu province, urged people not to forget the past. "We must move on, but we cannot forget our painful past," he said. Cambodia marked the 50th anniversary last month of the Khmer Rouge's bloody march into Phnom Penh. A special tribunal sponsored by the United Nations convicted three key Khmer Rouge figures before ceasing operations in 2022. Other former cadres still live freely. Pol Pot, nicknamed "Brother Number One", died in 1998 before he was brought to trial.
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Left-wing haters cannot accept that Israel is winning
As Israel's sons say goodbye to their families and grind into action in Gaza once more, so depleted is Hamas that there is a chance that the Jewish state might actually win this time. Cue howls of outrage from the Left, which long ago threw in its lot with the jihadis. While the tanks roll into Khan Younis, the Lineker classes and their faceless digital denizens mobilise to do their level best to block an Israeli victory. True, Eurovision was a glimmer in the dark. To see Yuval Raphael, an amateur singer who had survived the Hamas massacre by playing dead under a pile of bodies for eight hours, come second in the competition and first in the public vote, was a moving sign that all may not be lost. Of course, public voters self-selected and could cast up to 20 ballots, favouring motivated campaigners. Nonetheless, this triumph over a frenzy of hatred felt like an uprising against the Israelophobia of the elites. In the scheme of things, however, this was but a blip in a graph of hostility towards the Jewish state that reached unprecedented highs some time ago. In an interview on Sunday, British surgeon Tom Potokar, who is working in Gaza, compared Israel's campaign to the killing fields of Cambodia, when more than a million people were systematically murdered by the Khmer Rouge in the late Seventies. So depraved were those massacres that troops would drink from human gallbladders. These activists have jumped the shark. To compare Pol Pot's genocide to the just campaign in Gaza, where great efforts have been made to protect civilian lives, which have been claimed only unintentionally – as is tragically the case in every war ever fought by a democracy – could only be described as propaganda. Simply the question of numbers speaks volumes. Let us, for a moment, take the jihadis of Hamas at their word when they tell us that 62,000 people have been killed, the majority of whom were, by some sinister Jewish magic, women and children. How does that compare to the million who perished under Pol Pot? The Cambodian communists were analogue génocidaires, carrying out their butchery with hammers, knives and axes. By contrast, if Israel's powerful army really did intend to wipe out two million Gazans, thereby saving its young men the trouble of going to war, it could have done so from the air in a matter of hours. Entirely predictably, Hollywood has joined the latest global effort to block an Israeli victory. The actors Joaquin Pheonix, Pedro Pascal and Riz Ahmed joined director Guillermo del Toro and 370 other fools of showbusiness in signing a letter condemning the film industry's supposed 'silence' about the 'genocide' in Gaza. With all the flair of a GCSE creative writing student, they wrote: 'Let us reject the propaganda that constantly colonises our imaginations and makes us lose our sense of humanity.' It's easy to mock these people, but they have millions of impressionable followers online. Add to this the bot army, which in recent days has been out in force on social media, and Israel is facing a multi-dimensional influence operation. My timeline has become saturated yet again with gratuitous footage of dead children, outrageous claims of 'genocide' and naked antisemitism. I don't know about yours. What these invertebrates really can't stomach is that Benjamin Netanyahu's goal of 'total victory' is near at hand. Last week, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Mohammed Sinwar, perished in a surgical airstrike on the tunnels beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis. In Britain, this barely made the news. After all, the younger Sinwar, who had survived just seven months in office, was following a succession of more famous jihadi leaders to the grave, from the elusive Mohammed Deif and the showboating Ismail Haniyeh to his notorious older brother Yahya. The demise of Sinwar junior, along with the suspected deaths of lieutenants Abu Obeida and Muhammad Shabana, brought the number of recently assassinated Hamas chiefs to 37. This against a total of 54 targets, with eight in Qatar and Turkey. The latest departed leader was reputed to hold an ultra-hard line on hostage negotiations. Now, thankfully, there is marginally more chance of their release. While Israeli forces issue evacuation orders east of Khan Younis ahead of an 'unprecedented attack', Hamas has been back at the negotiating table in Qatar. In short, coupled with the liquidation of Hezbollah's command structure and weapons stockpiles last year, and the destruction of Iran's air defences, Israel is in a stronger position than it has been since 1967. Ironically, the shark-jumping hysteria from the Left is in some ways assisting an Israeli victory, not hindering it. The crescendo of international opprobrium has been at fever pitch literally for years, yet Israel finds itself in a position of almost unprecedented military dominance. The lesson in Jerusalem is clear: They threw everything at us, and this is the result? Bring it on. That, combined with Donald Trump's flickering green light, may just have emboldened Israel to take the steps needed to win the war. By which, of course, I mean the physical war, which in the final analysis is the one that matters. As the legendary Golda Meir once remarked: 'If we have to have a choice between being dead and pitied, and being alive with a bad image, we'd rather be alive and have the bad image.'
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Comedian Jim Davidson claims the 'BBC want to erase me like Pol Pot' as he rails against wokeness in comedy on new podcast
Jim Davidson has claimed the ' BBC want to erase me like Pol Pot' after the broadcaster refused to sell him the rights to shows he'd previously hosted. The controversial comedian was speaking on The Criminal Connection Podcast, which is hosted by true crime actor-producer Terry Stone. The 71-year-old comic also railed against 'wokeness' in the entertainment industry, insisting: 'People are fed up of not being able to do, or watch, or say what they want to.' Speaking about 60's and 70's children's TV staples like The Magic Roundabout, Davidson told the podcast host that he would 'love' to be able to license them, as well as shows he had hosted for the BBC, for his streaming channel. He added: 'I get a lot of resistance when we're buying stuff for UStreme TV. The BBC won't sell me The Generation Game or Big Break or anything I've been on. 'They want to totally erase me. It's like Pol Pot in Cambodia.' The podcast host then added: 'They're rubbing you out Jim.' To which Davidson agreed, saying: 'They're rubbing me out.' Elsewhere in the podcast the septuagenarian stand-up blasted woke culture and claimed that it originated from California. Davidson stood in for previous host Bruce Forsyth on The Generation Game, before taking the gig full time from 1995 to 2002 - earning him the nickname 'Mr Saturday Night' - but says the BBC refuse to sell him the rights to air the show on his streaming channel Davidson said: 'If it makes you laugh, you laugh don't you? People are fed up of not being able to do, or watch, or say what they want to. 'It's all come from political correctness, started in America didn't it. In California, we can't say this or we mustn't say that, oh my god.' The former Up the Elephant and Round the Castle star also mocked young people for identifying He said: 'You can identify as a fox, if you're a young girl, you can identify... 'They're thick as s***, young girls, and young people. Young people are so woked up, they're as thick as f****** shit. You're not a fox, go and dress as a human being. 'I like to identify as Brad Pitt. I identify as a young, self-made billionaire. I don't get it. You're a man or a woman or you're mentally f****** ill. 'I can understand a man wanting to be a woman. That's it, you're a man or a woman. That's it, this woke, this two people, it's mental illness. 'And it's OK to be mentally ill now because everyone's got letters after their names haven't they? 'It's like a badge: "My son he's got ADHD, he's got GBH, he's got CEFC," f*** sake he's just a horrible little s***. I'm DGAF, don't give a f***. 'Me on stage, trying to just ridicule everything. I'm working to my audience. So I look at them and think "right, I'm going to lead this lot."' Davidson was a king of Saturday night television in the nineties, earning a reported £1.5million a year. He stood in for previous host Bruce Forsyth when he was ill in 1994, before taking the gig full time from 1995 to 2002. Davidson's reign was characterised by a more lively and chaotic style, introducing characters like Mr. Blobby and comedy sketches. The 71-year-old also helmed the snooker-themed hit show Big Break from 1991 to 2002, before being dropped by the BBC. In September 2007 Davidson was a contestant in the reality TV programme Hell's Kitchen in which he was accused of homophobic bullying towards TV presenter and openly gay contestant Brian Dowling. Davidson asked Dowling, 'Are you on our side?' Speaking about the incident on The Criminal Connection Podcast, Davidson showed little contrition. He said: 'The next day I thought "f*** this, I'm going home." I phoned the producer who used to be a runner for me ... I said I'm leaving. 'He said "We want to speak to you anyway because what you said to Brian, the conversation you had, would upset viewers, there would be complaints." 'I said "well, edit that be out." If you think it's going to upset the public, surely you have a right to edit that bit out. I said f*** it, I'm off. 'They didn't edit that bit out - they edited it to make it look worse. They threw me under the bus. I didn't actually call him a 'shirt lift'. Come on where does it end. 'I had 18 months on bail and I went straight in and won Big Brother. I don't think there's any room for me in anything like that [I'm A Celeb]. I've got my own TV station now so what do I care.' Davidson called his 2023 tour 'Not Yet Cancelled' but last year Channel 5 made a documentary looking at his career called The Cancellation of Jim Davidson. The podcast also saw Davidson addressing some of the unhappier moments in his career, including his time on the sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle. He said: 'I did a show called Up the Elephant and Round the Castle; they wanted me to leave the comedy and go into a sitcom. 'I had to drink between the bit when you come off stage and go to bed so you can get up in the morning without feeling s***. It just catches up with you. I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.'
