The houses here in Koh Rong, Cambodia are crooked. They are falling down, the wall boards rotting, the footings leaning in uncomfortable directions. I thought the structures were just old and weathered from too many salty storms, and then I noticed the new building that is being put atop poorly placed concrete pilings, pilings which are sloppily nestled in shallow sand near the shore. It won’t last long either.
Last night I was telling the kids about the Khmer Rouge, and how Pol Pot led a genocide that wiped out an entire generation of educated Cambodians. Forty years ago everyone with money or an education was summarily executed by the Khmer Rouge. If you ran a business, they killed you. If you had gone to school, they killed you. If you spoke a foreign language, they killed you. If you wore glasses, they killed you. They killed one quarter of the population. Who was left? Militants and simple farmers.
Although the Khmer Rouge officially gave up 18 years ago, they are not gone. The prime minister is from the Khmer Rouge. The left-over militants walked out of the jungle in the 90’s and have reintegrated into the police forces. Our guide is afraid of the police. Who knows who you’re taking to when a police man pulls you over – it could be a former assassin.
And be careful what you say — everyone knows you might disappear if you speak out against the government. The government works for the government, not for the people. Locals describe it as a communist state following China’s model in which elections exist in name only and those in power work towards total control of the society. They fear that Vietnam is really running the show here, and in Vietnam the Vietnamese fear that China is running the show there. Perhaps that is true. A puppet master pulling strings.
The crooked foundation on that new beach house seems symbolic of the Cambodian people’s situation. They would like to improve, but they seem not to know how. As a result of the Cambodian genocide, they have no elders, few educated people, and they lack teachers who can help them improve their lives. With a deeply corrupted government, education dollars are not going towards reeducating the children, who are only allowed to attend school for 4 hours a day.
That new beach house probably won’t last twenty years. The Cambodian economy similarly is not set up to grow. In killing off a whole generation of the educated and business classes, Cambodian leaders have destroyed the knowledge and know-how that it takes to compete on a global scale today. How will Cambodians improve the lives of the people here? Will they learn to put the foundations deeper, anchored in stable bedrock? Will they choose to educate their people, and anchor their society in modern skills and knowledge? I hope so, but signs are not promising. The slow passage of time may weather their social structures just as it will weather that crooked home, leaving the people with an un-ending supply of basic problems that keep them busy.
Tragic.