Kampuchea’s Wisdom

“We have always respected Chairman Mao and learned from your works. Your writings have guided
our revolution until we achieved a nationwide victory. We are able to meet Chairman Mao in person
today and hear Chairman Mao talk about the issue of the lines. This is a very important and strategic
issue. We will be sure to do as you say from now on. I studied many of Chairman Mao’s works from
a young age, particularly your work on the people’s war. Chairman Mao’s works guided our entire
party while we were engaged in the political and military struggles. We made use of it in our actual
struggle and achieved results. When our struggles entered the most difficult stage, we studied the
work The Struggle in the Jinggang Mountains, and it steeled our resolve. We also paid close attention
to the experience of the Chinese people led by Chairman Mao after China was liberated…We also
study it within the party. We pay close attention to class struggle and line struggle. We will study
and learn from the experience of China until we achieve the final victory.”
– Pol-Pot, 1975

“The atmosphere in the offices and ministries is one that is connected to labor, connected to the
base areas, and connected to the cooperatives. It is an atmosphere of socialist revolution and
the building of socialism. However, many other offices and ministries are still weak in increasing
production. They still completely or almost completely rely upon the Organization and the State.
Not only do they rely on the State for clothing, rice, salt, fermented fish, fish, and meat, they
even rely on the State for vegetables. This is a great burden on the base areas, on the people,
and on our cooperatives. They live and work cut off from the base areas and cut off from the
people. When they have free time and rest from work, sometimes they play badminton, play
ping-pong, or sit in circles talking uselessly. Through this, capitalist and mandarin views and
attitudes gradually penetrate into the offices and ministries. On this point, we must take notice
and quickly reform. When you have free time from work, when you rest from work, do not re
-main idle. It is imperative to seize the opportunity to increase production — carrying water to
irrigate the crops and caring for them. In comparison with the struggle to increase production
by our people in the base areas, our offices and ministries are very far behind the people.
They are even behind the new people from Phnom Penh. How about our people? Our
people are proletarian. Therefore, our people constantly struggle to survive.”
– Khmer Rouge, In Tandem with the Movement to Grow Rice, 1976

“Mastering the labor force It is imperative to tightly grasp the labor force in each coope
-rative — to know how many strong (“sharp”) forces and how many intermediate forces
there are — in order to manage and use them most effectively. Furthermore, we must
maintain reserve forces as replacements when cooperative members fall ill, so that
work is not impeded and the offensive movement is not blocked. It is imperative to
adopt a broad view of cooperation with nearby cooperatives. We must not have the
narrow view of only thinking within our own framework. Regarding the labor force,
we must assess the reality of whether our cooperative has fully mobilized all its labor,
and if we can pull out idle forces to help nearby cooperatives that lack manpower.”
– The Khmer Rouge, The Preconditions For the 1976 Rainy Season, 1976

“What is a monarchy? It is a doctrine that entrusts power to a small group of individuals who
have high professional situations, so that they can exploit the majority of other social classes.
Monarchy is an unjust doctrine, as infectious as a putrid plague. Humanity must abolish it.
The monarchy is an absolute doctrine which exists only through nepotism. Its faults are nu
-merous. The monarchy is the enemy of the people. History shows us that since our country
has existed, we have always been dominated and exploited by the monarchy. The condition
of the people is degraded to that of the animal; the people, who are considered a herd of
slaves, are forced to work tirelessly, night and day, to feed the absolute monarchy and its
harem of courtiers. The monarchy is the enemy of religion. The people believe that religion
is their friend, that is why they have respect and place it above Man. But since ancient tim
-es, the monarchy uses demagoguery by making the people believe that it also represents
religion, that it respects the Ten Royal Virtues. To convince the people and exploit them
more easily, the monarchy had the poets compose the legend of Preah Leak Chinavong,
according to which the king always had the right to life and death over the people.”
– Pol-Pot, Monarchy or Democracy, 1952

“The ideology of private possession has not yet been completely eliminated from our ranks. This
is an obvious truth that we must recognize and pay attention to, and we must strive to eliminate
it step by step. We must see clearly and hold the correct view that all of us, comrades — regard
-less of our original class — have just come out of imperialist, feudalist, and capitalist society. We
lived for many years under the private possession system. Therefore, whether we want it or not,
or realize it or not, we still carry, more or less, the ideology of private possession (also called in
-dividual possession), which is the influence of the previous regimes. That is why some wrong
activities stemming from the private possession stance have occurred in our revolutionary male
and female youth ranks. These include. Material possession: Collecting booty for their own
unit or for themselves, privately using booty or collective materials in violation of Angkar’s
discipline and assignments, and taking control of various collective materials, etc.”
– The Khmer Rouge, To eliminate the individual & private possession, 1975

“This individual possession stance still has strong influence within the revolutionary ranks and
inside each of us. If we do not take practical measures and show high determination to smash
it, it will survive and expand further within the ranks and inside each of us. Our revolutionary
male and female youths must understand clearly that the struggle between the private poss-
ession ideology and the collective possession ideology within the revolutionary ranks and inside
ourselves is part of the class struggle. It is therefore a life-and-death, tense, and tough struggle.
Our revolutionary male and female youths must not compromise with it, tolerate it, or ignore it.
If we compromise with it, tolerate it, or ignore it, the collective possession stance will definitely
be defeated by the private and individual possession stance. That would mean the revolution is
defeated by the feudalist-capitalist regime. The people and the masses — who have already
traveled very far along the path of collectivity and who want our revolutionary male and female
youths to catch up quickly with this hot movement — will absolutely not allow this feudalist-
capitalist stance to dominate us again. Therefore, if any revolutionary male or female youth
is still attached to this individual possession and regrets losing it, they may stay behind and
cling to it. But the people and the masses cannot wait for them and will leave them behind.”
– The Khmer Rouge, To eliminate the individual & private possession, 1975

“We lived for many years under the private possession system. Therefore, whether we want it or not, or rea
-lize it or not, we still carry, more or less, the ideology of private possession (also called individual possession),
which is the influence of the previous regimes. That is why some wrong activities stemming from the private
possession stance have occurred in our revolutionary male and female youth ranks. These include. Material
possession: Collecting booty for their own unit or for themselves, privately using booty or collective materials
in violation of Angkar’s discipline and assignments, and taking control of various collective materials, etc.
Authority possession (authoritarianism): Applying authority over the people and over male and female com
-batants in the ministry; cursing and scolding revolutionary male and female combatants whose work does
not satisfy them; blaming and punishing revolutionary male and female combatants for even small mistakes.
Some comrades even use their authority to kill people who made mistakes but were not enemies.Some
comrades exhibit mandarin-ism, bureaucracy, and arrogance. They act as supervisors who have power
over others. They only give orders but do not want to do direct work themselves. They are not close to the
people and do not understand the well-being of the people and the male and female combatants. Ministry,
section, and unit possession: Keeping collected booty only for use within their own unit, ministry, or section,
without caring about the needs of the country or other sections and ministries, even when those people
and units need the materials urgently. For example, if others criticize their ministry, they react angrily
and attack back without considering that their actions may harm internal solidarity and unity.”
– The Khmer Rouge, To eliminate the individual & private possession, 1975

“The proud stance is the stance of wholeheartedly loving to serve one thing, or wholeheartedly loving
to apply something. Each class has its own proud stance. If a person holds a specific class stance,
that person also holds the proud stance of that class. The imperialists, feudalists, and capitalists are
proud of their stance — the stance of the oppressive class. But for us revolutionaries, we have a diff
-erent proud stance. Ours is based on the interests of the revolution, the nation, and our poor people.
The Proud Stance of the Imperialists, Feudalists, and Capitalists The imperialists, feudalists, and
capitalists are proud of power, rank, money, gold and diamond jewelry, and property. They are also
proud of plundering, oppressing, and killing people to enrich themselves. They take pride in wearing
makeup, powder, and perfume, dressing in flashy clothes, and adorning themselves with gold and
diamond jewelry. This proud stance stems from their savage, fascist, and oppressive nature — from
plundering, exploiting, and killing the people. It arises from the corrupted, rotten, and wild morality
buried deep within them. Moreover, the imperialists, feudalists, and capitalists strive to disseminate,
propagandize, educate, and corrupt our male and female youths by making them attracted to the same
kind of pride. They want our youths to follow them and imitate their lifestyle so that the youths will no
longer see the oppression, plundering, exploitation, and corruption carried out by these classes. When
our national and class anger toward them weakens, we will become less interested in the revolutionary
stance. Eventually, we will become afraid to struggle to overthrow them and their oppressive regime.”
– The Khmer Rouge, Eliminate Wrong Pride & Build the Pride of Being Servants of the People, 1974

“Does the person perform labor work themselves or not, and how much or how little? How do
they perform labor, and how much do they do by themselves? Or do they exploit the labor of
others, and if so, how much or how little? This is because labor is the source of human life and
the foundation of Marxist-Leninist doctrine. Examples: Landowners do not perform any labor
work themselves. They completely exploit the labor of others and take all the crops or resources
from the land. Rich peasants perform some labor themselves but exploit the labor of others
more. Upper middle peasants have sufficient food and some surplus. They perform more
labor than rich peasants but still exploit some labor from others. Middle middle peasants
work entirely by themselves. They neither hire others nor work for anyone else. Lower
middle peasants work by themselves using their available means, but they still lack some
means of production. Therefore, they must sell some of their labor to support themselves
and cover shortages. Political Trait After analyzing the economic trait, we can also examine
the political trait and, through it, the person’s political behavior. Based on their economic
and political traits — that is, their economic and political interests — we can determine
which class a person belongs to. However, between the two, greater emphasis must be
placed on the economic trait. Within the economic trait, the focus should be on the
possession of means of production and tools, and their relationship to production.”
– The Khmer Rouge, The Interaction of Materialism, 1974

“Not even one day, one hour, one minute, or one second should be allowed to pass uselessly
or be used to think about difficulties or personal issues. Do not be distracted by anything that
is not progressive or unrelated to the revolutionary tasks of defending and building the country.
To save labor forces means knowing how to manage the available forces for the appropriate
work in a highly effective way — that is, using fewer forces, means, and materials to achieve
more work and greater results. In conclusion, in fulfilling all kinds of revolutionary tasks —
whether small or big, heavy or light — as well as in daily living and dressing, our revolution
-ary male and female youths must never forget the Party’s slogan which states: “Work more,
gain more, but spend less capital.” We must keep this slogan in mind seriously, constantly,
and everywhere. If we can promote the revolutionary thrift movement well and vigorously
everywhere in accordance with this Party slogan, we will definitely succeed in building
our country and building socialism in Kampuchea at a great leap forward speed.”
– The Khmer Rouge, Work More, Gain more, But Spend Less Capital, 1976

“We must do this in every field: world view (our understanding), life view (our understanding of our lives),
our lives, our economy in every field, culture, the arts, literature, sentiments, ideology, and ideas. Struggle
to eradicate what? Eradicate capitalist world views; eradicate the world views of various classes; eradicate
private world views. Build what? Build proletarian class world views; build proletarian class life views; build
proletarian class economy; build proletarian class sentiments; build proletarian class morality. The Meaning
in Actual Implementation: Ordinarily in our Party, generally speaking, there are positive and negative quali
-ties. As a positive, the true nature of socialism exists to a certain extent. We have struggled and eradicated
anything that was capitalist, that was oppressor class, and that was private ownership stance to an important
extent. But shortcomings still exist in terms of world view, life view, economics, and various class moralities.
So then, these appear as manifestations of material ownership in some miscellaneous problems. These
problems are still minor, but they are private ownership — a manifestation not yet fully in accordance
with socialist revolution. It is not yet pristine. When we take a stance of socialist revolution and look,
we see that, whether we look at ourselves or at our units, socialist revolution and socialist construct
-ion are not yet smooth. There are still entanglements. There is also still some ownership in terms of
power. Aside from this, our thinking in our lives, life views, and world views are not yet pristine — not
yet pristine in a proletarian sense. The thinking differs from the collective and from socialism.”
The Khmer Rouge, Honing the Ideology of the Proletarian Class, 1976

“When we stand on the side of the private, this contradicts the collective. On everything, in thinking or in
doing, do not stand on the side of the private; it is imperative to stand with the collective. In both thought
and sentiment, prepare and build the reflex of sitting oneself down on the side of the collective. Sort out
contradictions inside the Party and among the people by standing on the side of the collective in order
to think, to figure out, and to solve. Stand on the side of the collective to organize. If we stand on the
boundary, things will be in turmoil and not firm. When the objective entices, even a little, we come to
the private side. When we are standing on the collective side, even though the objective pulls us, we
have time to think; when we think, we become aware that we are sliding toward the private side and
we can immediately run back toward the collective side. In listening to reports, it is imperative to stand
upon the collective. Even when sorting out contradictions between our country and some other country,
stand on the side of the collective. When they profit, our joint revolutionary movement loses.”
The Khmer Rouge, Honing the Ideology of the Proletarian Class, 1976

“When we carried out socialist revolution profoundly, strongly, and broadly within the Party, the Army, and
the people, we found the bad germs. They came out. They came out because of the true nature of socialist
revolution, which pushed them out. So then, this enabled us to eradicate traitor elements dangerous to
the Party and our revolution in a timely manner… Perhaps some people think that socialist revolution has
been too profound and has led to the creation of additional contradictions. Some elements understand that
class struggle leads to the creation of contradictions. There certainly is this view on this issue. This is the
view of a person who does not want to see the contradictions; however, the contradictions do exist. When
we cover them up time after time, it becomes corrupt inside, corrupt inside society, corrupt inside the Party
and inside the Army. If we do not make profound socialist revolution, they will build many forces. An example:
The traitor strings that we smashed successively were organized traitor strings, systematic strings, that
had existed since the national democratic revolution period. However, during that period, they could live
with us. In socialist revolution, they were segregated out. 1976 was a year of class combat inside our
revolution and inside our Party. Many germs appeared. All the traitor strings appeared. So then, we did
not raise socialist revolution so there would be contradictions. In truth, the contradictions had already
existed for a long time, but they had been buried. We must clearly resolve this mistaken view that exists
within our ranks. When socialist revolution is absorbed inside the Party, inside the Army, and inside the
people, it segregates the good and bad elements, the revolutionary elements and the traitor elements.”
– The Khmer Rouge, The Shining Victories of 1976 & The Clear Bright Future of 1977, 1976