Words
- by Roberto Rocha
- published from Cambodia
- on 2010.08.19
The extreme duality of Phnom Penh
If you want a real mind screw, visit Phnom Penh’s killing field and its glitziest night club on the same day.
On one you will see what a genocidal nightmare Cambodia once was. You will be greeted with a tower containing hundreds of skulls arranged by gender and age. You will walk past mass graves and step on human bones that emerge from the ground with each passing rain.
On the other you will see young Cambodians in Gucci and shades spending lavishly on vodka bottles. You will see them dancing and effecting the same touch-me-not demeanour of their Western counterparts. You will see them in massive hotel-casino-shopping complexes that would make Las Vegas feel inadequate.
And you won’t believe that these two realities are only separated by 25 years.
Learning recent Cambodian history is one of those Stalinist paradoxes where the tragedy of a few get multiplied into the faceless statistic of the many. It’s estimated that two million people were murdered by the Khmer Rouge, roughly a quarter of the country’s population, between 1975 and 1979.
Even the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, where Phnom Penh’s intellectuals were detained, tortured and killed, tries to humanize the numbers with photographs of the victims. But even then, these thousands of faces blur into an anonymous crowd, too numerous for empathy.
And so the question that rings louder is a practical, not a sentimental one: if the nation’s brightest – the doctors, engineers, lawyers, musicians, poets – were exterminated and only the uneducated peasants remained, what does this make of Cambodia’s present society?
Are most of them uncultured simpletons? Is this why there’s so much corruption? And does this explain the decadence of the nightlife despite the wounds that are still open as Khmer Rouge leaders quietly escape justice?
But this would be reverse engineering, and when it comes to societies, it’s never that simple. There are no prescribed grieving periods for genocide. Should Cambodians put their lives on pause while an ineffective justice system fails to nail those responsible?
Perhaps, instead of being shocked and dismayed, I should be glad. Perhaps those young Cambodians are doing the right thing: enjoying the freedom that their parents were robbed of. And that includes the freedom to have stupid fun amidst so much lingering pain.
- Photo by Lawrence Sinclair
Comments
Have you encountered any young people who don’t believe the Cambodian genocide even happened? That’s a phenomenon that really baffles and frightens me – a generation in complete and utter denial. Maybe it’s a psychological defense mechanism, the fact that many of them can’t seem to wrap their heads around something so awful that happened to their parents’ generation so recently.
What’s your take?
I haven’t been here long enough to say for sure, but I heard this before. Some expats told me the schools don’t teach this recent history, and that the genocide memorials are to show foreigners that they are doing something about it. This is a tough country to “get.” It leaves you with a lot of questions and getting straight answers isn’t easy.
Here’s what I can say after almost a month in Cambodia: there’s no way to deny the genocide. Every single person over 35 lived through the Khmer Rouge regime. Every family has been affected by it.
What might be the issue is that many people don’t want to talk about it. In her book “First They Killed My Father” Luong Ung explained that after the regime ended and families were reunited, no one spoke of it. Everyone just kept it their secret.
After three decades of not talking, it’s possible the younger generation doesn’t know enough or doesn’t want to face it, and that can be perceived as denial.
Interesting new insights – appreciate the follow-up on this.
When you get back to Mtl, I’d love to lend you the documentary “New Year Baby,” if you’re interested. It’s a fascinating story of a woman trying to deal with the genocide’s fallout on a very personal level. http://www.newyearbaby.net/
I’m learning so much reading you and traveling with you.
Dificil y facil a la vez, creer lo que nos podemos hacer entre seres humanos.
Amazing post!
Thanks
“Are most of them uncultured simpletons?”
I can understand how one from a Western perspective would arrive at this question. In my experience of Cambodia, the silence and corruption are fueled by war trauma, exacerbated by poverty . Trauma is an extremely complex, difficult thing to understand, especially (for me) in the case of Cambodia, where it’s existing on a mass, societal level. I see the materialism of some of the youth as a part of it too.
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