Dear all,
I have frequently visited Sajha to read the interesting posts that are placed here. One recent post particularly caught my attention (http://www.sajha.com/sajha/html/openThread.cfm?forum=2&ThreadID=29939 : red alert’s contribution). I finally find myself with an urge to make my own contribution, so here it goes:
Lately I have been closely watching the news back home and am very worried about the situation. With the recent developments one cannot be sure what's going to happen next. In this regard, I want to share my experience with you. Over the past few years I have been doing some fair amount of traveling on holidays. It was on one of these holidays, that I went to Cambodia. I read up a little bit on the history of the country before I went there but nothing I read could have prepared me for what I encountered there.
Cambodia is a country not much different from Nepal. The houses and the lay of the land are also similar. The religion they practiced is mostly Buddhism but all the ancient temples were based on Hinduism. All around the ruins of the Angkor Wat were statues of Shiva, Vishnu, other gods, goddesses and apsaras. The people look like they could pass for Nepalese. They looked quite peaceful, docile and friendly, all working hard to make ends meet and make a better living for their family.
Yet, this same county carries a bloody story in the not so distant past. I could see it in the eyes of the people, in the lives they were living. I saw the remnants of it all through out the country, particularly in Phnom Penh. Ironically, the Khmer Rouge kept meticulous accounts of all their atrocities. This is apparent in the photos of all the prisoners (about 16000) that were tortured and killed at the Tuol Sleng prison (which was originally a school). The visit to that place was a very eerie and sobering experience. Quite a few of the prisoners there were Khmer Rouge members who had been labeled as betrayers for one small reason or another. Apparently a lot of mistrust and paranoia developed within the Khmer Rouge after they came into power. While I was in Phnom Penh, I bought a few books and one of them was so gripping that I could not put it down. The book was "Stay Alive my Son" by Pin Yathay, published by Silkworm Books. It's a compelling real-life account by a civil engineer about his experience before and during the Khmer Rouge regime. If you have not read this book, please buy it immediately and read it. It's a very easy read in simple language, 267 pages front to back You could probably finish this in a day because it's so powerful. It will make you travel through time and visit places that you could not otherwise.
Basically the gist of the story goes like this:
In April 17th, 1975, the government in power in Cambodia fell and the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh. The ordinary people had mixed emotions, they were happy that the war was over, but they could not make out the intentions of the Khmer Rouge. The rebellion had been a success. The corrupt government had toppled. The liberators, the Khmer Rouge were in town and were bringing equality to everybody. They rejoiced but did not know if this was really the end of the struggle. Turns out, it was only the beginning. The Khmer Rouge, with calculated preciseness, pounced on the uncertainty and ignorance of the ordinary people and asked all the city dwellers to leave their homes and be temporarily relocated outside the city. They used the excuse that the Americans were going to bomb the city (which was very effective since there was a war going on in neighboring Vietnam and I believe the Americans had been known to drop some bombs in Cambodia, mistakenly or not, in pursuit of the Vietcong). The Khmer Rouge told the city dwellers that they would be allowed to return to their homes in a couple of days. The people did not know better. They believed the Khmer Rouge. They left their homes with their families in a hurry. Some families were separated right from the start. Over the next few months, the Khmer Rouge methodically kept on moving the masses of people to different remote parts of the country and put them in labor camps. Families and friends kept getting separated and people had strong reservations on whom to trust. In the confusion of the takeover people had left in a hurry with only what they could carry and after a while they ran out of resources, were homeless, hungry and separated from family and friends. They were at a loss. They were forced to accept whatever fate the Khmer Rouge provided for them. This was the beginning of the class/education/status-based extermination of the city dwellers by the Regime. An estimated total of over 1.5 million people were killed or starved to death over a four-year period.
Now to get to my point, I am just concerned about the situation in Nepal and don't want Nepal to go through what Cambodia did in 1975. Granted that this is the 21st century, the age of information and one might make the argument that the Maoists could never do what the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia. The plethora of human rights organizations and the rest of the world would not allow that to happen. But you cannot discount the capability of a fanatical crowd misdirected by misinformation and empty promises during a time of utter confusion. I have no evidence of what the intentions of the Maoists are when and if they come into power. But if they did take the same path as the Khmer Rouge and decided to eliminate people based on class and education then we would not only have to worry about our families but also the progress that our country has made thus far because all the educated, technical and skilled people would be lost. Even if they came into power and stayed there for only one year or even a month, if the worst case scenario happens and they do go on a rampage, think of all the lives that would be wasted. I agree with the people's struggle for equality and the need for concrete change but I do not agree with the violent ways of the Maoists. Change is good but only if it’s for the better. Liberation is good but only if it results in peace and freedom. As I said before, I don’t know what the Maoists are thinking or what their strategy is but I would not like to take a gamble on whether they are going to follow the path of the Khmer Rouge.
Therefore, I think that it is highly important to let our loved ones at home know about what happened in Cambodia, so that it does not happen in Nepal also. I think that it is important that everybody know about the deception of the Khmer Rouge so that the Maoists cannot pull the same stunt, if it is their intention to do so. I would not want to have history repeat itself in Nepal just because people were not aware, because they just did not know any better. If there is anything to be learned from the Khmer Rouge incident, I think it is this. If tomorrow, the government topples and the Maoists stroll into town with their guns and they tell you to leave your homes to be relocated somewhere else, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE! It is your home, your safe haven. Nobody has the right to kick you out. Fight for it if it comes to that. Talk to your neighbors, have contingency plan, just in case. Again, it may never come to that but you’ll be glad that you were prepared if it does.
If the people's struggle for democracy is successful, great! If there is substantial change, great! But I don't want that to happen at the expense of innocent people who just didn't know any better. Already too many people have died. Lately there have been all kinds of disturbing news making the headlines: The Maoists are infiltrating the SPA demonstrations; the Army is doing the same. The Maoists are claiming that the movement is a joint campaign and Koirala is claiming that it's not true. Who is telling the truth, who is not? You might say that I'm freaking out - The Maoists will never come into power and even if they did, they could not carry out such atrocities. But I would rather be proved wrong than proved right regarding this matter. I just hope that it's not too late. It is not my intention to start a nationwide panic but rather to bring about awareness of a possible scenario.
For people who think I’m raving lunatic ranting about “Doomsday†for no reason, I just ask you to read the book “ Stay Alive my Son†first. You might just see things in a different light. If anybody else has read this book or visited Cambodia, please let me hear your comment.
-Concerned Citizen.
P.S. I will post the first chapter of the book for people to get started.
