Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge & the Hun Sen Regime
เขมรแดง: ฆ่าล้างเผ่าพันธุ์ "ปัญญาชน" จนประเทศด้อยพัฒนา
Summary
Under the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, over two million people died.
What distinguishes it from ordinary violence is the systematic elimination of the educated: wearing glasses, speaking a foreign language, or having soft hands was enough to be a target.
More than 75% of teachers were killed, and the damage still shapes the country’s development.
Key points
The target was knowledge, not an opposing faction
Aiming at teachers and the educated destroys national capability deliberately and for the long term.
The selection criteria were crude and lethal
Glasses and uncalloused hands were genuinely used, which tells you the machinery required no evidence.
The damage transmits across generations
A country left without teachers needs decades to rebuild an education system.
This context is necessary to understand Cambodia now
Today’s economic and political conditions connect directly to those four years.