“Pol Pot’s Little Red Book: The Sayings of Angkar” by Henri Locard
This got to be one of the scariest books ever written.
Pol Pot ruled Cambodia for only 3 years, 8 months, and 20 days between 1975 and 1979. But during that relatively brief period of time he isolated the country from the rest of the world and abolished the followings: free markets, private property, schools, industrial factories, religious practices, foreign-style clothing, the traditional Khmer culture, newspapers, books, even abolished money and went as far as blowing up the central bank.
He also emptied the cities and forced the people to relocate to labor camps in the countryside to implement his agriculture plan for the country. This move was complemented with forced labor, mass executions (for those who rebel against it), and physical abuse; which resulted to mass malnutrition, disease, and massive death tolls due to overwork.
The immediate obvious question is of course, why?
This book – which I bought in a tiny bookshop in Siem Reap, Cambodia – provides the clearest clue about Pol Pot’s thinking, philosophy, and the rules that he made for the Khmer Rouge ideology during his brutal dictatorship.
It is, as the author Henri Locard remarks, “the sayings that made up a “newspeak” uttered by the mouths of the Khmer Rouge cadres: slogans, maxims, advice, instructions, watchwords, orders, warnings, and threats.” All of which were spoken in the name of “Ankar” (literally translated to “organization”), the faceless organization that was used to indoctrinate, control, and terrorized the people.
And that’s the fascinating part for me (if “fascinating” is the correct word). Unlike Orwellian “Big Brother” or indeed any other iron fist dictator from Stalin to Kim Jong-un, whose faces are plastered on every corner of the country, Pol Pot was simply called brother number one or referred to as no. 870 (the code number of the party center), while hardly any civilian knew what his face looks like in the first 2 years of Khmer Rouge’s rule. It was not until 27 September 1977 in a 5 hours speech when he reveals himself as the leader of the ruling Communist Party of Kampuchea.
The 433 sayings themselves were collected from the memories of survivors from all around Cambodia between 1991 and 1995. It is a mix between Cambodian traditional sayings, Chinese communist maxims, Khmer Rouge’s own rules, practical guides to everyday life (like fertilizing or farming), anti imperialist or anti feudalist sayings, and a lot more in between. Some are downright scary, but others are actually pretty good maxims to live by if taken in a normal context.
For example, in saying no. 63: “For the most glorious of revolutions, always practice thrift”, which looks like a normal everyday guide. But then the book crucially provide the context where this saying often accompanied by “for every measure of rice, we must set aside a handful.”
This, for Khmer Rouge, is translated as anyone who left even one grain of rice in the bottom of his bowl can be considered as an “enemy” of the revolution, and will be prosecuted for it. And during the prosecution the regime had to economize on the bullet, meaning, more often than not, the “traitor” will instead be knock senseless on the base of his neck with a hoe, until he died.
Indeed, in parts where it is not quite clear, the book provides the important additional context to the sayings, which turns out to be very sadistic. And this is a common case for many of the sayings, making the book a very valuable insight into the way the Khmer Rouge really operates.
In total, according to Locard, 2 million people died during the Khmer Rouge rule, which was roughly 25% of Cambodia’s entire population of 8 million. And it sends chills into my spine when thinking that the contents in the very book that I’m holding here can cause such a catastrophic human tragedy.
THE CHAOS THEORY 