Try socialism 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

 

Pol Pot's hideous regime (Khmer Rouge) was ended by Vietnam, which captured and plundered the capital (Phnom Penh) in January of 1979. The ruined nation of Cambodia became the "People's Republic of Kampuchea" (the PRK) and remained a communist state.

"Under Vietnamese control, the PRK was established in the wake of the total destruction of the country's institutions, infrastructure and intelligentsia wreaked by Khmer Rouge rule."

Lim Pengkhun was born to rice farmers in 1980. "For the first 15 years of [his] life, Cambodia was a command economy controlled by communist and socialist policies and remained one of the most impoverished nations in the world."

Things started to change in 1989 when the last Vietnamese occupiers left Cambodia, and reforms started transitioning their economy from "command" to free market. New private property rights turned state-owned enterprises into person-owned enterprises. The U.N. invested in education, infrastructure, and health.

photo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Try socialism 1

One of our political parties wants us to try Socialism policies in America, a theme that comes up every four years in our national election. It's not a new idea. Other countries have tried socialism, and we don't want their results. The story of what happened in Cambodia is the theme of this week's posts, re-posts from five years ago on this blog.

A boy who had been educated in Cambodia's elite schools went to Paris, France, and became a follower of Marxist-Leninist communism there. Returning in 1953, he joined communist forces fighting the Cambodian government. The boy was Pol Pot.

Eventually he led his armies to defeat the government, and took control of Cambodia's politics and economy in 1975. His goal was to create an "agrarian socialist society," so he forced people out of cities and onto collective farms. His vision demanded social uniformity. His solution to dissent was to kill dissenters.

photo of mass grave

"Following the examples of Stalin and Mao, Pol Pot brutally murdered more than one million Cambodians in the infamous Killing Fields of 1975-1979 as he implemented his vision of communist utopia. He abolished private property, money, prices, commerce, and even cities—a full descent into barbarism.

"Death sentences were levied against any number of “class enemies.” Simply being a former civil servant, student, artist, or capitalist of any variety—including a “street noodle vendor or a motorcycle taxi driver”—was enough to earn a spot in one of Pol Pot’s mass graves."

from FEE
(cont'd tomorrow)

Cambodia 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Freer market reforms during the 1990's opened the door to optimism. Mr. Lim's parents had no hope for a better future, but his own generation saw that grinding poverty as rice farmers was no longer the only option: they saw freedom to improve their lives.

From 1995 to 2017 Cambodia's economy grew at an average rate of 7.7% per year. (To compare, good growth in the U.S. is about 3%/year.) In 2007 the poverty rate was still about 47%, but by 2014 it was at 14%.

photo

What does Cambodia look like now? This author recently visited Mr. Lim and reports:

"Mr. Lim works in tourism. He drives a Lexus SUV on paved roads. He buys groceries from a thriving local market, and his daughters go to school. His brother owns a pharmacy in Phnom Penh. Another brother is a nurse at a major hospital . . There are entrepreneurs everywhere . . I witnessed family-owned coffee shops, restaurants, general stores, and roadside markets."

In one generation the grim poverty was turned around. Mr. Lim says it came because of: "Peace, education, technology, and the entrepreneurial spirit of Cambodian people.”

from "Entrepreneurship Lifts Cambodia from the Clutches of Extreme Poverty in a Single Generation"

Cambodia 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Pol Pot's hideous regime (Khmer Rouge) was ended by Vietnam, which captured and plundered the capital (Phnom Penh) in January of 1979. The ruined nation of Cambodia became the "People's Republic of Kampuchea" (the PRK) and remained a communist state.

"Under Vietnamese control, the PRK was established in the wake of the total destruction of the country's institutions, infrastructure and intelligentsia wreaked by Khmer Rouge rule."

Lim Pengkhun was born to rice farmers in 1980. "For the first 15 years of [his] life, Cambodia was a command economy controlled by communist and socialist policies and remained one of the most impoverished nations in the world."

But things changed in 1989 when the last Vietnamese occupiers left Cambodia, and reforms started transitioning their economy from "command" to free market. New private property rights turned state-owned enterprises into person-owned enterprises. The U.N. invested in education, infrastructure, and health.

photo

(cont'd tomorrow) 

Cambodia 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

About two million is the number of Cambodian people murdered by their own government during the "killing fields" period between 1975 and 1979. That's 20-25% of the total population, but the suffering went even further than the appalling number of deaths..

A boy of five or six lived through it and tells his memories as an adult in the video below. He lost his whole family:




A woman soldier in the Khmer Rouge army now grieves her own participation in the brutal war of the government against the people here.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Cambodia 1

Disaster came to Cambodia in 1975. Here's how it happened.

A boy who had been educated in Cambodia's elite schools went to Paris, France, and became a follower of Marxist-Leninist communism there. Returning in 1953, he joined communist forces fighting the Cambodian government. The boy was Pol Pot.

Eventually he led his armies to defeat the government, and took control of Cambodia's politics and economy in 1975. His goal was to create an "agrarian socialist society," so he forced people out of cities and onto collective farms. 

His vision demanded social uniformity. His solution to dissent was to kill dissenters.

photo of mass grave

"Following the examples of Stalin and Mao, Pol Pot brutally murdered more than one million Cambodians in the infamous Killing Fields of 1975-1979 as he implemented his vision of communist utopia. He abolished private property, money, prices, commerce, and even cities—a full descent into barbarism.

"Death sentences were levied against any number of “class enemies.” Simply being a former civil servant, student, artist, or capitalist of any variety—including a “street noodle vendor or a motorcycle taxi driver”—was enough to earn a spot in one of Pol Pot’s mass graves."

(cont'd tomorrow)