Working in a Country with a History of Genocide
By Priya Parker and Karan Singh
Regardless of the lens through which one views Cambodia (in our case, “financial innovation”), it is impossible to not add at least an additional lens: the history of the Khmer Rouge. On Wednesday, a number of us went to S-21, the former headquarters of Khmer Rouge dictator Pol Pot. It has been turned into a Genocide Museum and consists of the building blocks where they kept prisoners, torture rooms, and a number of rooms filled with photographs, clothes, and the political history of the regime.
History of Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge were in power in Cambodia from 1975-1979. During those four years, Pol Pot and his party evacuated all of the cities and forced migration into the country-side where they ran labor camps, and over four years killed two million Cambodians, a quarter of the population at the time. The first UN-backed Khmer Rouge Trial began in Cambodia in 2009 against S-21 prison head, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch. Pol Pot died in 1998 under house arrest.
The No Poem
In the last room, there is a poem written by a former Cambodian prison guard, Sarith Pou, entitled “The New Regime”. He wrote this poem while attending a poetry workshop at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Stillwater where he is serving two life-sentences.
It is powerful, subtle, and haunting.
THE NEW REGIME
No religious rituals.
No religious symbols.
No fortune teller.
No traditional healers.
No paying respect to elders.
No social status. No titles.
No education. No training.
No school. No learning.
No books. No library.
No science. No technology.
No pens. No paper.
No currency. No bartering.
No buying. No selling.
No begging. No giving.
No purses. No wallets.
No human rights. No liberty.
No courts. No judges.
No laws. No attorneys.
No communications.
No public transportations.
No private transportations.
No traveling. No mailing.
No inviting. No visiting.
No faxes. No telephones.
No social gatherings.
No chitchatting.
No jokes. No laughters.
No music. No dancing.
No romance. No flirting.
No formication. No dating.
No wet dreaming.
No masturbating.
No naked sleepers.
No bathers.
No nakedness in showers.
No love songs. No love letters.
No affection.
No marrying. No divorcing.
No marital conflicts. No fighting.
No profanity. No cursing.
No shoes. No sandals.
No toothbrushes. No razors.
No combs. No mirrors.
No lotion. No make up.
No long hair. No braids.
No jewelry.
No soap. No detergent. No shampoo.
No knitting. No embroidering.
No colored clothes, except black.
No styles, except pajamas.
No wine. No palm sap hooch.
No lighters. No cigarettes.
No morning coffee. No afternoon tea.
No snacks. No desserts.
No breakfast [sometimes no dinner].
No mercy. No forgiveness.
No regret. No remorse.
No second chances. No excuses.
No complaints. No grievances.
No help. No favors.
No eyeglasses. No dental treatment.
No vaccines. No medicines.
No hospitals. No doctors.
No disabilities. No social diseases.
No tuberculosis. No leprosy.
No kites. No marbles. No rubber bands.
No cookies. No popsicle. No candy.
No playing. No toys.
No lullabies.
No rest. No vacations.
No holidays. No weekends.
No games. No sports.
No staying up late.
No newspapers.
No radio. No TV.
No drawing. No painting.
No pets. No pictures.
No electricity. No lamp oil.
No clocks. No watches.
No hope. No life.
A third of the people didn’t survive.
The regime died.
Influence on Cambodia
Obviously it is impossible to know the full extent of the impact of the Khmer Rouge on Cambodians today, particularly as outsiders. We have heard bits and pieces from conversations on certain ways the history has influenced decision-making in communities and as it relates to financial lending. One organization told us that the word “cooperative” has an extremely negative connotation in Cambodia because of the way the Khmer Rouge organized forced labor and the history of forced communism. This past has lead to a distrust that impacts the ways people borrow and lend to one another, and a big reason why 90% of loans taken are individual (as opposed to group and community).
We also visited, Hagar Cambodia, an organization that works to rehabilitate women and children from domestic abuse and trafficking. When we asked how much the influence of Cambodia’s history had on abuse today, the staff person told us that one of the worst things that the Khmer Rouge regime did was destroy the family structure. Forced mass marriages and the de-unification of families into forced cooperatives destroyed many of the binding threads between families. Given that 25% of the population was killed, everyone today knows someone who was lost. Given that the regime ended only in 1979, everyone over 30 years old are survivors with first-hand memories.
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