One day he took me out to eat. When we got to the market, he told me to order anything I liked. I ordered duck. When I finished eating it, he asked me, “Was it good?” And I said, “Yes, very good,” His face darkened and he levelled a finger at me. “You ought to be ashamed sitting here eating such good food when most people who work ten tines harder than you have nothing at all.” A few days later, he took me out to eat again and again he told me I could order whatever I liked. When I hesitated, he said, “How about some Vietnanese spring rolls,” and ordered some for me. When I had cleaned my plate, he asked if they were good. They were, of course, but I didn’t want to say so. Instead, I said, “No, not so good.” At that he quietly exploded, again levelling his finger. “How can you eat so well and not appreciate it? What do you think an ordinary peasant would say about food like this?”
From a sincere, respected and admired political activist of the left, trying his best under Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s undemocratic Sangkum, to Democratic Kampuchean minister and Pol Pot front man currently charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Khieu Samphan’s 1959 doctoral thesis. Before the 1975 bid to realise a grand vision of national revival, within the framework of a ‘peculiar’ interpretation of the Leninist paradigm. Download by right-clicking here.
A theoretical and empirical critique of Cambodia’s Economy and Industrial Development would have to take into account the author’s circumspection in the form of unstated or understated political implications. Such a critique will not be attempted here. It seems more important to fix this extraordinary document into the political context to which it belongs in order to demonstrate that recent historical choices made by Kampuchea’s ruling classes were by no means the only ones available to them, and that in rejecting and temporizing with the developmental option, the Sihanouk regime made a fundamental political mistake: it lefts its critics and opponents with only radical alternatives.
With thanks to Tong Reasathea for doing the hard work.
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Working class people don’t read doctoral theses.
Not to mention write them.
Bloody Wordpress upgrade has messed up the videos.
Ha ha! Nerdy blogger. How’s the Russian going? Remember you’ll need to get Pineapple junior to speak the Queen’s if he’s coming over. That’ll be three languages.
Perhaps of interest to Rhoda Buchanan is an amusing memory I have of the person in the above photo and the question she once asked me: “What’s in Russia apart from, like, snow?”
“Dura, nyet, vy ponimayete tak nemnogo.”
I’m ashamed to say that after reading this post, I had to go out and get some (Vietnamese) spring rolls. They were very good as well.
Samphan always seemed the most unfathomable of the DK cadres, to me, though perhaps the inconsistency of his position was merely a result of masquerading as the “acceptable face” of the regime for twenty years.
I’m not at home, I can’t pull the exact quotation of the menu Khieu Samphan ate while he spent first weeks into the hiding in the peasant hut. But it didn’t sound too attractive too, it was like a vegetable soup, sometimes soup with curdled chicken’s blood and occasionally fish with rice. I think he’s a quite modest guy, but I, honestly out spit him. I don’t consume any meat or fish anymore, unfortunately DK leaders weren’t true vegetarians, though I think they could.
The above mentioned episode with Khieu Sengkhim is hilarious! He could escape the rage of his brother I guess only by ordering truly low quality rice with some cheap soup!
There’s some interesting info on Khieu Sengkim and Khieu Samphan in the book found here.
from page 255.
Also interview in French with Khieu Sengkim
http://ka-set.info/actualites/khmers-rouges/cambodge-khieu-sengkim-samphan-kampuchea-tribunal-interview-080430.html
I updated my website as http://khmersocialist.wordpress.com/
Here is the Khmer Riche article you mentioned on your blog.
Ib: He was of course late to the Cambodian maquis, fleeing there in 1967. Being of the Paris-educated generation, among other things, helped him to enter Sar’s group, that part of the smashed KPRP/CPK who had been in the jungle since 1963. Proved to be a dependable person who knuckled down. And due to his reputation and image, he was good for public relations both during the civil war and post-DK, when the CPK formally dissolved itself, the former leaders turned their backs on ‘Communism’ and focussed on fighting the Vietnamese. Some among their informal enemies but formal and uneasy allies would not deal with the likes of Pol Pot or Ieng Sary.
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