Cambodia

 Genocide, deforestation, corruption – and fun 

     Sihanoukville, August 13, 2014

     Cambodia could be a depressing place. I’m having a great time. 

     For a country best known for its killing fields, corruption, and poverty, this is a surprisingly pleasant destination. At least for tourists. Or anyone with money. This is a poor man’s Hawaii, a cheap date, palm trees and cocktails amidst the have-nots. 

     A mostly flat, green, lush tropical country of rice paddies, shrinking forests, and ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples, Cambodia is still recovering from the brutality of the Khmer Rouge government in the 1970’s. The economy is growing, tourism is booming, the young population seems happy enough.

     And yet…

     Under the surface is the ongoing pain of mass death inflicted upon the people by their own government 35 years ago, and the continuing exploitation of the people and the land by that same government. 

     Human life is cheap here. So is the environment. Government officials and business people share the same goal: make as much money as quickly as possible. Damn the torpedoes – full speed ahead! Who cares if the torpedoes of poverty, ignorance, and destruction of nature may be leading to a grim future? Let’s have fun now! And that’s exactly what I’m doing. 

     The pace of life is relaxed here, the people are friendly, the food  good to excellent. After a couple days visiting the Royal Palace and other sights in the low-key rivertown capital of Phnom Penh, I joined my tour group, and in the last 11 days we’ve had a nice mix of activities and downtime. A bike ride and an oxcart ride through the countryside visiting the locals in their villages and rice paddies. Visits to the famous Hindu/Buddhist temple complex of Angkor Wat and nearby jungle temples that look like something out of Indiana Jones. A six hour boat ride down a tropical river and across a lake from Battambang to Siem Riep. An overnight homestay in a house on stilts. Bullfrogs, crabs, dragonflies, and fish in green rice paddies and among palm trees as the full moon rose in the east and the sun set amid pastel clouds in the west, the soft evening light turning the emerald fields into eternity. Laying in a hammock amid gentle breezes at a beach on the Gulf of Siam. It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy. 

     And yet…

     Between 1.7 and 3 million human beings were tortured or worked to death by the murderous regime of Pol Pot and his henchmen. Inspired by the brutal forced relocations of Mao Zedong’s Chinese Cultural Revolution, in 3 days Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge turned Phnom Penh from a city of 2 million into a ghost town. We went to one of the 196 torture camps, this one in the capital, and there we stood in the cells where horrific torture was performed on innocent people. From there we went to one of the 380 killing fields, where recorded music was played on loudspeakers to cover up the anguished moans and cries of people being raped and bludgeoned to death.

     The legacy of this cruelty lives on today, since almost every Cambodian family lost relatives to the communist butchers. Yet only three of the killers have been tried and convicted, two of them just last week, after 35 years of impunity. Worse yet, I’m told that the Khmer Rouge is still in power, albeit under a different name and backed by the communist government of Vietnam.

     Communism is no longer the government’s ideology, however. Although Buddhism is the nominal religion of the masses, the ruling class worships the Almighty Dollar, so materialism is the de facto religion here. The rich are getting richer by selling off Cambodian assets to the highest bidder and pocketing a percentage of the profits. The forests have been logged almost completely. Even Angkor Wat, the main tourist attraction in Cambodia, has been “sold” via a long lease to the company of a Vietnamese friend of Prime Minister Hun Sen. So the profits from Angkor Wat go to the Prime Minister and his buddies, and none of it to the Cambodian people. 

     There is resentment here toward the Vietnamese, not only because they control Angkor Wat and  its profits, but because there are said to be up to one million illegal Vietnamese immigrants here, some of whom are supposedly buying or stealing Cambodian land. And Vietnam has occupied a Cambodian island off the coast since the war in Vietnam. Vietnam helps keep the greedy Cambodian ruling class (formerly known as Khmer Rouge) in power. One local tour guide told me that Vietnam is colonizing Cambodia with permission of the Cambodian government. 

     On the other hand, most of the landmines from the war years have been cleared, the young generation is resilient and hopeful, and things are getting better in some ways. I’m moving on as well, heading to Vietnam in two days. Cambodia has been far better than I expected, and it will be a tough act to follow. But I hear that Vietnam is up to the challenge.