To Eliminate Wrong Pride & Build the Pride of Being Servants of the People – The Khmer Rouge. 8/1974

Republished from Angkar’s official publication The Revolutionary Flag

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 different proud stance. Ours is based
on the interests of the revolution, the nation, and our poor people. I. 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 Proud Stance of Revolutionary Male and Female Youths Because the Communist Party of
Kampuchea has continuously and attentively educated and nurtured them, hundreds of thousands of our
male and female youths — who were burning with blazing national and class anger — have sacrificed
their physical and mental strength.

They have joined with the nation and the Kampuchean people to fulfill the precious task of carrying out the
Democratic National Revolution: to expel the American imperialists and their servants, smash the traitors,
liberate the nation and the class, and then move forward to build socialism and communism in Kampuchea.
Our revolutionary male and female youths are very proud to sacrifice their youthful lives and are willing to
sacrifice their entire lives to serve the single bright ideal: the ideal of building communism in Kampuchea.
The proud stance of the Kampuchean revolutionary male and female youths is the stance of sacrificing
everything unconditionally to serve the Party, the revolution, and the people. That is why, during the political
struggle period, many of our male and female youths in the countryside and in the towns gathered to attack,
lead, and promote the glorious revolutionary role model. For example, what Comrade Keo Nhel and Comrade
Dam Pheng (ដាំ ផេង) did, etc., paved the way for the glorious revolution for our male and female youths
of today and the future. Thus, at present, our revolutionary male and female youths are demonstrating
great revolutionary heroism and identity by bravely leading attacks in Phnom Penh and in the other last
strongholds of the enemy on the military and economic battlegrounds, in food production, and in trans
-forming the people’s livelihood at various revolutionary centers. Our revolutionary male and female youths
are playing a very important role in uniting with the nation and the people to push the revolutionary move
-ment forward rapidly with a great leap forward on all fronts. This is the correct pride of our revolutionary
male and female youths. Some Examples of Wrong Pride We are achieving great victories on all battlefields
— at the front and in the rear — and on both the national and democratic fronts. In the liberated zones, we
have overthrown the oppressive classes, basically destroyed the old production network, and generally
organized low- and high-level production cooperatives. We have widely promoted clean revolutionary
culture and social affairs.

However, old views, old stances, old ideologies, and old traditions still blindly affect us in the liberated zones.
That is why, at present, in our liberated zones, there are still a few comrades among our revolutionary male
and female youths who — either consciously or unconsciously — continue to maintain the worldview and
stance of the imperialists-feudalists-capitalists. This represents a wrong proud stance and is partly counter
-revolutionary. For example: Some comrades are proud of their power and rank. They act authoritarian toward
the people, control them, give orders arrogantly, and look down on the people. They do not understand that,
as revolutionary male and female youths, their duty is to wholeheartedly serve the people. Some are proud
of showing their face in meetings and among crowds. They only like big shows, large meetings, and grand
assemblies. They do not want to work at the center or go down to the base personally. They refuse to go to
dam and canal construction sites or work in the rainy and dry season rice fields, etc. Some are proud of a
flashy lifestyle. They are overjoyed with motorcycles, cars, wristwatches, fancy clothes made of polyester
and nylon, bracelets, necklaces, and gold rings — the style of the children of the oppressive reactionary
classes. They do not care about the well-being of the people. Some are proud that they live in zones where
food is plentiful. They eat carelessly and waste a lot of food. They do not respect or follow the principle of
thrift rationing. They do not care about the difficult livelihood of the base people or how to support the front
battlefield. Some male and female youths who are medics are proud of carrying the medicine bag and
constantly wearing the stethoscope, but they do not want to work in the kitchen, do manual labor, or serve
the patients wholeheartedly. These are just some examples of the wrong proud stance that still exists
among some of our male and female youths. This is counter-revolutionary — the legacy of the old
tradition and old ideology. It comes from the individualistic stance and ideology of those who care
only about themselves and do not care about the future of the country and the people.

This ideology will prevent our male and female youths from making progress and from growing to keep up
with the revolutionary movement, which is rising, rolling, and leaping forward very rapidly. From the outside,
these youths may appear to be part of the revolutionary movement, but in reality, they are not yet truly
connected to it. Comrades — male and female youths — must not underestimate these wrong phenomena.
If these wrong views and ideologies continue to strengthen and spread, those youths will definitely be cut
off from our revolutionary movement. All Revolutionary Male and Female Youths Must Build the Proud
Stance of Servants of the People with Revolutionary Politeness and Wholehearted Dedication For our
revolutionary male and female youths, there is nothing more precious and nothing that can make us
prouder than turning our youthful age bright red — and always brighter red — so that it never becomes
dark or black. There is nothing that makes us prouder than educating, tempering, and arming ourselves
with the revolutionary stance and ideology so that we become as strong as steel in all circumstances.
There is nothing that makes us prouder than serving the people with revolutionary politeness and whole
-hearted dedication — working directly with them in the cooperatives to solve their livelihood problems
so that the people continue to grow and prosper materially, spiritually, and politically. There is nothing
that makes us prouder than striving to fulfill to the best of our ability every task — whether small or big
— assigned by the Party. Because all tasks, big or small, are revolutionary tasks that play an important
role in the revolutionary war to liberate the nation and the people and to improve the livelihood of the
masses. These are the correct pride of our male and female youths. Therefore, our male and female
youths must decisively eliminate all wrong proud stances that are the legacy of the oppressive classes.
We must faithfully join the great revolutionary movement that is now rising and rolling forward under the
leadership of the Party.

In practice, we must: Join vigorously in the movement to attack the enemy on the front battlefield and
smash the enemy’s alliances in both the front and rear battlefields. Join with the people in the water
project movement in the cooperatives: building dams, digging canals, securing water for rainy and
dry season rice cultivation, etc. When comrades participate actively in these two great movements,
you will gain greater trust from the Party. The masses will trust, respect, admire, and love you. You
will achieve more victories — both small and big — in building your revolutionary political and ideological
stance, and you will be able to further develop the correct revolutionary proud stance as true servants
of the people. Through this, comrades can successfully strengthen and expand the working-class
stance of the Party while eliminating the stances of other classes — the petty capitalist, non-worker,
and non-proletarian stances.