Vehicles rolled into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on April 17, 1975, to enthralling audiences who hoped the government’s long civil war may end.
However, the 20th century’s worst holocausts came after. Between 1.6 million and 3 million people were executed, forced to eat, and starved during the communist-nationalist ideology of the Khmer Rouge during a terrible four-year law. At the time, it accounted for a third of the nation’s population.
The Khmer Rouge’s reputation has been around for fifty years, and it continues to design Cambodia politically, socially, economically, and physically. Every Cambodian has a story engraved in it, including me.
As a victim, I write this not just as an intellectual or spectator. After being forced to work in a work camp, my father succumbed to diarrhoea and malnutrition under the rule of the Khmer Rouge.
To keep our family, my mother posed as Vietnamese. She escaped Cambodia in 1976 with five kids, crossed through Vietnam, before settling in France in 1978, and then arrived in the United States in 1985. We counted as fortunate.
Cambodia’s physical characteristics are unrecognizable from those of the 1970s ‘ bombed-out areas and deserted places. High-rises and opulent shopping areas adorn Phnom Penh. The earlier endures despite the glitter and occasionally in sarcastic exploitation.
Legacy of power and fear
The Khmer Rouge gained control of the country after a storm of despair, corruption, civil unrest, and remote hostility. The Khmer Rouge rose after decades of American bombing, the 1970 US-backed revolution that overthrew Prince Norodom Sihanouk, and the resulting deeply unhappy U.S.-aligned defense plan.
With its blend of hard-line socialist ideology and severe Cambodian nationalism, the Khmer Rouge was viewed by many Cambodians as a liberator who vowed to restore order and dignity, especially in the countryside.
However, over the course of four years, the Khmer Rouge, led by feared leader Pol Pot, led to widespread famine and brought terror to the country through intellectual purges, forced labor, cultural genocide, and policies that led to widespread famine.
Vietnam’s forces invaded Cambodia in 1979, undermining the Khmer Rouge management, and a fresh, pro-Hanoi government was established. But there are still traces of it. The now-dominant Thai People’s Party, which has been in power for more than four decades, has justified its hold on the nation by the effects of the genocide.
” Peace and stability” have become the guiding principles of opposition.
Every false poll transforms into a vote on whether to go to war or not. The leaders of Cambodia are portrayed as challenges to stability and cohesion in critics. The internet has been muzzled, activists have been imprisoned, and opposition parties have been disbanded.
Despite the obvious use of force, this social culture of fear is directly derived from the Khmer Rouge handbook. People were taught to distrust one another, to keep quiet, and to live by keeping their heads down by the trauma experienced by that program. That desire however influences people behavior.
Justice is also incomplete and delayed.
The Khmer Rouge tribunal, known as the Incredible Halls in the Courts of Cambodia, was supposed to bring order. It has brought some.
However, it took decades to get started, cost more than US$ 300 million, and just three senior Khmer Rouge leaders were found guilty of the genocide in 1975 and 1979. Some low- and middle-level culprits leave without getting away, some still holding federal positions, and some have neighbors who are still with them.
There is still a glaring gap in schooling and public opinion regarding the Khmer Rouge’s atrocities in a country where the majority of the people was born after 1979.
Cambodia’s educational system continues to struggle to effectively teach this time period. The state prefers to frame it carefully because it is something that many young people’s parents don’t speak on.
Uncertain and delicate economic development
Over the past 20 years, Cambodia’s socioeconomic development has been remarkable in fresh figures. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, GDP expansion was on par 7 % annually. Cities have grown, and there has been a flurry of funding, particularly from China.
However, a large portion of this rise is fragile. The market of Cambodia continues to be reliant on exports of clothing, as well as hospitality and construction. This makes it vulnerable to external shocks, such as the Trump administration’s temporary suspension of 49 % tariffs on Thai products.
Cambodia has relied on associations– with China for expense and with the US for markets– but not enough in its own individual capital to build a resilient, diversified market.
That is also, in my opinion, a Khmer Rouge reputation that destroyed the country’s academic and professional elites.
Downer’s pain
The mental repercussions of genocide persist throughout history. The injuries that survive are carried in their bodies and minds.
But so do their children and babies. Post-traumatic stress disorder and despair are prevalent among victims and their descendants, leading to generational trauma in post-genocide Cambodia, according to research.
In the country, there aren’t nearly much mental health services. Trauma is frequently handled in private, more often than through treatments or resilience. The government’s main religion, Buddhism, offers rituals for rebirth, rebirth, and compassion. However, this is not a substitute for a widespread mental health facilities.
Worse, yet the genocide’s memory has been politicized in recent years.
Some officials use it to stifle opposition. Others opt it out of patriotic narratives. There is little room for fair, important reflection. The gap has been filled by some independent efforts, such as intergenerational dialogue initiatives and modern archives, which have received scant support.
This is a subsequent horror, in my opinion. If a nation is unable to openly discuss its past, it may really advance.
April 17 is never a Cambodian national vacation. There are no formal observances. The state doesn’t inspire the remembrance of the day the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh. But it should, in my opinion. To convince Cambodians of the importance of justice, politics, and dignity, rather than to heal their wounds.
Cambodia may return to the time of the Khmer Rouge, but the risk is not that that Cambodia did. The risk is that it turns into a place where history is manipulated, where dictatorship is justified as security, and where growth is permitted to gloss over inequity.
Cambodia must accept this miserable truth as the globe commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge’s ascent: Cambodia may be long gone, but its legacy still permeates its institutions, actions, and fears.
A private evaluation
I think of my father, who I have not met. I think of my family, who put in the most effort to save us. And I think of the thousands of Cambodians who endure thoughts they can’t forget, as well as the young Cambodians who deserve to be fully aware of the truth.
What transpired on April 17, 1975 has shaped my career. However, that narrative is not solely my own. It is still being written, and it belongs to Cambodia.
Sophal Ear is an associate professor at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.
The Conversation has republished this essay under a Creative Commons license. Study the article’s introduction.