First They Killed My Father is a 2017 story of resistance to genocide, directed by Angelina Jolie and set in Cambodia under Khmer Rouge rule in 1975-1979.
Based on a true story, the movie is based on the memories of Loung Ung, a young boy at the time, and his family. It tells the whole drama through the eyes of a child who was too young to make sense of what was happening around him.
Actually, this movie came to my mind when I was going to write an article about Cambodia. When I lived in Cambodia, I thought that there must be a reason for the distortions in the system, the failure of the education system, the inadequacy of the infrastructure and the need to constantly seek outside support. I had some knowledge about the Khmer Rouge period, but I did not take into account that a four-year period that resulted in the death of 2 million people had consequences that would affect the entire future of a people.
Although Maoism and Pol Pot are rooted in Marxism, there are serious differences in their implementation and interpretation. Both aimed to create a classless society based on agricultural collective production. While Mao took steps to do this in a more planned way without completely excluding the private sector from the revolution, Pol Pot aimed for a radical transition from the city to the village with a plan called Year Zero, and the economy, which already lacked solid foundations, was seriously damaged and the people had to face famine.
While Mao often emphasized the importance of cultural and infrastructural development in the revolutionary process, Pol Pot completely rejected the cultural development and differences of human beings, and punished the educated people he saw as enemies in order to equalize all Khmer people at the same cultural level.Maoism is still influential among revolutionary movements in the world today and theses are written on it, but Pol Pot is known as a leader who committed genocide beyond being a revolutionary leader.I think it is important to understand the difference between them, so I wanted to give a brief information.Now let’s return to Cambodia.
Pol Pot, who was actually educated in France, believed that urbanization and cultural development were the cause of class differences, so his first action was to evacuate the cities and create an agricultural society. The capital Phnom Penh became a ghost town in a few days. Everyone living in the cities was assigned to the fields and camps, regardless of age and gender. Educated doctors, teachers or government employees were seen as a threat to the regime and executed. Even those with glasses were thought to be educated and they were also killed. Schools and religious institutions were closed, books were burned and many institutions were destroyed so that they could not be used again. Hospitals were closed and modern medicine was completely banned. The closure of hospitals and the denial of access to medicines led to an increase in diseases such as malaria, which were very common in the region, and many people suffered and died from these diseases. The clergy in the temples were forced to work to death in the fields because they were defined as parasites living off the backs of the people. The children of the people who were killed were punished in the same way on the grounds that they would take revenge in the future.
In this article, I don’t want to go into the chronological order and how the events developed, but I think there are conclusions we should draw from history. Imagine that you suddenly lose all the values of your country. Everyone who is educated, your written history, your historical heritage, in other words, your memory is erased. In the 1970s, when the whole world was preparing for a new century. For example, in the years when Microsoft was founded or the Wheel of Fortune competition started, you were punished for knowing how to read and write.
We are very lucky that our Republic was founded on solid foundations by forward-thinking leaders. But I don’t know how successful we are in protecting the Republic. But if we don’t protect each other, unfortunately, Pol Pot who want to protect us will always be in other names and other objects.
Peace be with you
