Strengthening & Improving the Party’s Leadership Stance – The Khmer Rouge, 7/7/1973

Republished from the Angkar’s official newspaper the Revolutionary Flag

Suggestions: Further strengthening and improving the leadership stance. Further strengthening and improving
the leadership attitude of the party. Further strengthening and improving the organizational line and action line
of the party. I. Confirmation of the importance of the party leadership The party leadership refers to the whole
party which directs the revolutionary movement in accordance with the political and organizational lines of the
party. In short, it is the leadership by cadres and full-rights party members of all levels. However, in actual situations,
the leadership is exercised by a cadre or a full-rights member. Based on our past experiences, some people
demonstrate good leadership while some others show medium leadership. Some cannot lead and some others
manage the groups in the wrong directions. This is due to the differences in leadership quality. In brief summary,
leadership is applicable, but difficult. Thus, in order to avoid subjectivism, the leadership stance and attitudes
must be better strengthened. For example: Sometimes, we do not like a work determined by the party; we crit
-icize it through various thoughts. But when doing it, we do not lead it well as the previous comrade did. Occa-
sionally, a party member has many qualifications and possibilities, yet their leadership is quite poor, so the
movement is not well encouraged and agitated. This shows that leadership has its secrets; it is not subjective
or based on individual wishes. Therefore, cadres at all levels must constantly strive to increase their leadership
quality to well manage their members. The leadership-related issues must not be subjectively resolved. We
must learn from each other, especially from any place whose leadership quality is good. For example: In the
war by the people in two battlefields with the same natural obstacles, similar forces and amounts of bullets,
the people with good leadership in one battlefield can defeat their enemy while the other one fails.

This is due to the absolute quality of leadership. Therefore, all cadres in every battlefield must learn from each
other, especially from the battlefield with the highest and sharpest achievements. For example: In leadership to
increase production, in spite of the same economic line and natural disasters, the productivity movements are
varied. This is due to the different quality of leadership. Good leadership leads to a good production movement.
In contrast, if the leadership is weak, there will be a poor movement. Various aspects in leadership: In good lead
-ership, we must know whom we will lead. These include the popular masses both inside and outside of the party
ranks. What are the two classified groups composed of? Regarding the popular masses inside the party, they are
mixed compositions in terms of their original classes, characteristics, capacities, knowledge and qualities. For
the outside ones, their compositions are even more varied and complicated. Therefore, we must know each of
the two categories of the masses so that we will be able to lead them, but not to follow them. In order to lead
them well, what should we base ourselves on? For example: Some cadres who originally belonged to the peasant
class said they experience difficulties in the leadership of the petty bourgeoisie and intellectuals; however, some
cadres could well lead their members who are peasants and workers while some others could not. Some cadres
who originally belong to the petty bourgeoisie and intellectual classes encounter difficulties while leading their
peasant and worker members as they are sharply slow and they also could not manage their members who are
petty bourgeoisie and intellectuals since they usually come into conflicts. Some female cadres could not work
well with male members. They wish to work with female members as it is easy to talk with each other. Yet, while
they are working with female members, complicated problems and conflicts usually arise. In fact, the incapacity
in the leadership is not due to the different sexes, but it is thanks to the fact that they do not stand upon the party’s
worker class standpoint and are still stuck in private ownership and partisanship.

If they stand on the party’s worker class standpoint, they will be able to lead other people and to be under other
people’s leadership regardless of any original classes they belong to. Therefore, in order to be a good leader,
the stance of the worker class, the political line, ideology and organization of the party must be followed and
the party’s secrets must be kept. When they are able to lead the popular masses both outside and inside the
party, they will be able to manage the revolutionary movement, stormy attacks against the enemy in the front
-line battlefields and the movement to boost productivity in the supporting bases. Accordingly, in order to con-
stantly improve the leadership quality, each cadre or party member must absolutely stand upon the party’s
worker class standpoint, political line, ideology and organization determined by the party. Do not be loose.
With looseness, we cannot be a good leader. II. Further strengthening and improving the Party’s leadership
stance Leading must be based on the lines and views of the popular masses. Leading must be democratic
centralism. Leading must stand upon high responsibility. Leading must be objectively analyzed. Leading must
be practical. Leading must be mainly considered on politics and ideology. 1. Leading must be based on the
lines and views of the popular masses. Last year, we very well mobilized the popular forces throughout the
country to fight against the enemy except the traitorous clique of Lon Nol, Sirik Matak, Son Ngoc Thanh, In
Tam, and Cheng Heng. All over the country, people of all classes, status and forces have been led and mob
-ilized to serve and support the liberation war. This is due to our ability to manage them in accordance with
the popular masses’ line and views. We are convinced that we are able to mobilize them and exercise their
forces. In addition, the party has also adopted action lines and carried out political lines in compliance with
each social class as well as properly followed its line to mobilize the popular masses.

People have also been properly led by the party based on the line of the popular masses. Generally speaking,
the party has pursued different leading lines for Buddhist monks, peasants, etc. in accordance with their conc-
rete situations. For example: In the evacuation of people from the areas under the control of the enemy to the
liberated zones, we took strong and optimistic views of the mass population to successfully send them away to
the countryside with no worry that people could be fraught with difficulty due to the lack of everything. In addition,
we were not afraid that people in the liberated areas could not help the evacuated people. With strong popular
views, we believe that our people could do everything. Although we were in the situation that we lacked rice as
we are now, we dared to evacuate many more people. Based on our past experiences, we see that people could
resolve the problems. For example: While Vietnam and Laos ceased fire, did we believe that our Kampuchean
masses, people, and military could carry on fighting in a tense situation where the US imperialists were inc-
reasingly bombing? This is the stance of the popular mass views. If we did not have strong popular masses’
views, we would not decide to fight against them alone as we are doing right now. All in all, we must have both
strong popular masses’ views and a proper popular masses’ line. We must have action lines in accordance with
the knowledge level of the popular masses in order to lead them well. While leading the popular masses inside
the party, we must be able to control the concrete situation of each individual in order to determine and take
measures, and develop requests properly for each period by avoiding subjectivism and idealism. 2. Leading
must be democratic centralism. Regarding this matter, we would like to discuss collective leadership-related
problems and separate individual responsibility. For example: The national congress is annually held to draw
and sum up experiences collectively and then we separately work in our bases.

And then, with a definite time, we are invited to attend the annual congress to draw and sum up our experiences
again. This has been repeatedly practiced. This is a picture of democratic centralism which has been successfully
implemented by the party throughout the country. By doing this, we have implemented collective and separate
leadership properly and even better. With this kind of good leadership, although it is in changing and dictatorial
situations, each place can operate with independence and self-reliance. And when all levels could do this, the
party leadership will be improved and qualified. In the past, the central level, sector level and zone level have
done very well. We must continue to do it very well at both district and branch levels since there are a lot of
things to be improved. They do not know how to hold a congress; especially at the branch level, they still have
a work habit which depends on machines and just follows orders from the district and sector levels. Therefore,
the party aims at building and strengthening the branch level to be a strong organization of the party in the bases
and a master in the implementation of collective leadership and personal responsibility. The district and sector
levels must undertake field visits to help direct, assess and evaluate the situation and help draw experiences
directly. If this can be done, the leadership quality of the party will be improved. 3. Leadership must stand upon
high responsibility. Leadership must be responsible for all political issues, ideology and works. It must be respon
-sible for the party, revolution, people, nation, classes, and all comrades. Therefore, in order to carefully and
deliberately avoid mistakes, we must strive to work very hard to improve the party, revolution, people, nation,
classes, and all comrades. For example: The responsibility for the party: If a complicated conflict occurs in any
framework, comrades at that level must jointly resolve it and strive to educate each other to put an end to the
conflict with the spirit of high responsibility and avoid bothering the party.

For example: The responsibility for the people: For the evacuated people, the party at the bases shall be resp
-onsible for both spirit and materials. Although there is a lack of everything, we must try our best to resolve it.
If there is no spirit of responsibility, there will be no effort to address the problems, but accusations on people.
This makes people feel even more insecure and more angry with the revolution. For example: The responsibility
for comrades: In the communication between one office, zone, sector, and comrade to another respectively,
they must be united and help each other with the spirit of high responsibility although there are some mis-
conducts in behaviours and speeches toward each other; we must be patient and tolerant with each other.
Therefore, cadres at all levels must strive to further build the stance of high responsibility. 4. Leading must
be objectively analyzed. For example: In 1968-69, the ruling class fought us and some foreign countries put
pressures to prevent our military and political struggles. However, we analyzed that the party and Cambodian
people could fight back. We therefore took some measures to resist. Although there were some difficulties,
we could further protect, strengthen and expand our forces. This was due to our objective analyses. For
example: In the situational and movement analyses throughout the country, while Vietnam and Laos ceased
fire, and the American imperialists increased their war in Cambodia, we could correctly analyze the situation
in order to properly take military, political, and diplomatic measures both inside and outside the country.
Thanks to our proper analyses, we were able to take measures to promote the movement further. On the
contrary, if we had just analyzed the situation based on the world pressures by considering the American
imperialists as the extremely powerful country, we might have taken wrong measures, disarmed and joined
the ceasefire discussion resulting in our destructive movement with no individual identity and prestige like
what we are having now. We had correctly analyzed, adopted proper measures, and had good encouragement.
As a result, we received a great historical victory.

In order to objectively analyze, we must carry out analyses based on the revolutionary movement of the
popular masses and control the pulse of the revolutionary movement, and evaluate the ability of the pop
-ular masses whether they are able to do it or not. We must estimate the force of the enemy and our force
correctly. If we could objectively analyze, proper measures will be taken. People, the party’s organization,
cadres and comrades must objectively and comprehensively analyze the situation by looking at all good
points and difficult points of the enemy in order to evaluate their ability and then put practical measures
in accordance with their forces. Doing this enables us to lead and use them. For example: In the analyses
of the spies, sometimes if we just think that their force is so strong and continuously spread the rumours,
it will create a confused atmosphere. We must analyze their strong and weak points and then take meas
-ures to resist and eliminate them. Therefore, we must not analyze anything based on subjectivism. When
we analyze something subjectively, wrong measures will be taken. This will lead to failure such as broken
internal solidarity and unity, which is destructive to the movement. 5. Leading must be practical. Leading is
a comparatively maximized practicality. Loose leadership must be avoided and it must be practical and
relevant to the popular mass movement. For example: In the leadership to carry out storm attacks against
the enemies in battlefields, we must clearly know our situation, the enemy’s situation, and our force and
ability. When we tightly control the fighting line and constantly carry out stormy attacks, it will be very
effective. If our leadership is loose, we will not be able to carry out shock assaults against the enemies
and we will be destructive. For example: In order to strengthen our branches at zone or sector levels,
field visits to instruct and evaluate the concrete situation in the bases must be conducted to draw
experience so that the branch quality is improved.

If our leadership is loose or indirect, the branch will not be strong. Therefore, in order to have strong leader
-ship, in reality, we must have enough practical experience of responsibility, clearly control and know our
problems. And in real practice, we ourselves must closely monitor our first-hand experiences of both right
and wrong, use them by ourselves and subsequently learn both the right and wrong experiences from other
places. 6. Leading must mainly be considered on politics and ideology. The way of learning regarding crit
-icism and self-criticism will hold revolutionary life views throughout the country and zones. If we could do
it well every year, it will very much help educate and indoctrinate more political lines and ideologies to our
cadres. In addition, it is a capital to continue our work and helps our comrades to clearly understand the
political stance and ideology so that they are absolutely determined and will continue their work. Therefore,
we must continue to organize education programs throughout the country. In every zone and sector, we
must continue and strive to help educate people in our districts and branches in order to enable them to
continue the education process with self-reliance in the future. III. Further strengthening and improving the
leadership attitude of the party. Last year, the leadership attitude of the party was generally mature and
much more appropriate. Authoritarianism, mandarinism and bureaucratism were eliminated to a great
extent. Therefore, we were able to lead the movement with good solidarity both inside the party ranks
and with the people. There were not many conflicts. People paid more respect and were more satisfied
with the leadership of our cadres. At the same time, there is still authoritarianism in the bases. Thus, we
must jointly improve the leading work attitudes to be more appropriate in order to make people love and
satisfy us more. Furthermore, we must prevent authoritarianism, mandarinism and bureaucratism from
happening again. Moreover, there must be action lines and ways to strictly and properly continue the
process and avoid the loss of people’s benefit. Sometimes, it is a proper stance, but due to the lack of
caution in the action line, it results in political disadvantage.

For example: If the spies are arrested to be executed in the meeting before the people, some people may
be frightened of us. They think that we are extremely cruel. The stance to smash the spies is correct but
it is inappropriately carried out. Like it or not, it is already authoritarianism. Therefore, it provides more
negative impacts on politics. For example: Some people lack rice seeds, water or rice and these problems
are not resolved. This is a picture of mandarinism and bureaucratism because we do not get involved in
the settlement of the problem. Another leadership attitude is to manage the work with clear working dire
-ctions for each period. Knowing the important work to do first is significant and the auxiliary one is done
later. All works should not be done at the same time in a disorderly manner. For example: At the front battle
-field, we must carry out storm attacks against the enemy. We should not be engaged in holding confer
-ences or meetings. In the supporting bases, we must carry out storm attacks to be involved in and boost
agricultural production, not just engage in building houses, walls and roads. Education about these problems
must be clear. Generally speaking, the leadership attitudes stem from our leadership stance. If our leader
-ship stance and attitudes are inappropriate, our work will be wrong and will not go in the right direction.
This leadership attitude is the action line which affects the party’s political and organizational lines. Therefore,
comrades who have significant roles in the party at each level must settle the significant problems as quickly
as possible and in a timely manner to avoid interruption to the work process. For example: Comrades, the
zone and sector secretaries must be responsible for military problems since they are significant. In addition,
the leadership attitude must be properly based on the party’s action line in order to make our speeches,
measures, and slogans … in line with circumstances, environment, individuals, our compositions, open
and secret works, the front’s broad framework, the party’s framework, foreign affairs and foreign comrades,
etc. Do not be stiff as a poker or on your high horse.

However, the action line must absolutely stand upon the political line, ideology, and organization of the party,
and avoid using ways and pictures to detour the party’s political line, ideology and organization. For example,
the educational contents in the Party’s schools for zone and sector levels are highly based on the cadre com
-positions in the zones and sectors. The educational contents in the framework of district and branch levels
are lower in accordance with their compositions, capacity, and responsibility. For the popular masses outside
the party, the educational contents are also in line with their compositions, capacity, and responsibility… Do
not be stiff as a poker. The same applies for the indoctrination of intellectuals, peasants, workers, and Buddhist
monks. In addition, they must constantly and properly know and implement the party’s action line. If it is sub-
jectively done, not properly controlled and implemented, the education will not be good. The bases of popular
masses, military, and the party in the liberated zones have been built. We must also build the bases of popular
masses, military, and the party in the zones temporarily controlled by the enemies. However, it is quite different.
Therefore, the party’s action line must be actively understood, controlled, and implemented to well serve and
fulfil the political duties of the party. Otherwise, the revolutionary movement will not be well served and will
lead to its destruction.