By Prak Chan Thul and Erik Wasson
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said that the international community and certain politicians have kept the Khmer Rouge out of the high school curriculum, and that Cambodian youth have not been taught about it since the 1991 Paris Peace Accords.
When Hoeun Sopheak graduates from Kompong Cham High School next month, she will have completed her secondary schooling without a teacher ever mentioning the Khmer Rouge, and without ever attending a history lesson dealing with the Democratic Kampuchea regime.
"They never talked about it, but I believe it happened," the 17-year-old said this week from her home in Kompong Cham town.
"My friends believe it too," she added.
Meas Phirum, a history teacher at Sisowath High School in Phnom Penh, believes that as a subject the Khmer Rouge regime is a period clouded by politics and best left alone.
The Cambodian history that is taught to Meas Phirum's 10th and 11th graders deals with Cambodia up to about the time of the French colonization in the mid-nineteenth century, while 12th-grade students advance to world history, he said. Many of the events in Cambodia's more modem history remain conspicuously absent from his syllabus.
For Meas Phirum, history lessons about Democratic Kampuchea can wait until after the tribunal has completed its work.
"Nobody knows about the cause of the killings and there has not been a tribunal yet," he said.
In 2002, an attempt was made to introduce the first modem Cambodian history textbook containing information on Pol Pot's regime into the 12th-grade high school curriculum. But as soon as 25,000 copies were printed, the book was withdrawn from schools amid controversy.
In April of that year, Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh publicly complained that the 1993 Funcinpec election victory over the CPP was not included in the textbook, although the CPPs 1998 victory was in the text. By the end of the month. Prime Minster Hun Sen had ordered the textbook revised, and it has not yet reappeared.
Four years after the book was removed from the classroom, Pok Than, a Funcinpec secretary of state at the Education Ministry, said this week that the textbook is still undergoing revisions, but did not explain why it is taking so long.
"History is still being learned, but some controversy has been taken out," he said.
He referred further questions to Education Minister Kol Pheng, who said he was too busy to comment.
One of the authors of the textbook, In Om Sameng, a professor of history at the Royal University of Law and Economics, said that the controversy over his book came on the heels of an order between 2000 and 2001 to keep the Khmer Rouge out of the classroom.
"[Former Funcinpec Education Minister] Tol Lah said that the context of the Khmer history served a political party," In Om Sameng said. At that time, said In Om Sameng, Tol Lah also wanted the Sangkum Reastr Niyum, the Khmer Rouge and the 1993 and 1998 elections all removed from the curriculum.
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said that the international community, as well as certain politicians, have kept the Khmer Rouge out of the high school curriculum, and that Cambodian youth have not been taught about it since the 1991 Paris Peace Accords.
"Do not blame the Cambodian government or Ministry of Education for this. When we signed the Paris Peace Accords, the international community demanded we take out the term 'genocide' from [school books]," Khieu Kanharith said.
"Before, we used to teach it a lot," he said.
"We have not taught it since the Paris Peace Accords. Because if the Khmer Rouge are bad, then it raises the question is January 7 good? You don't know the fight we had to make January 7 a holiday," he said, referring to the day that Vietnamese-backed forces toppled the Pol Pot regime in 1979.
To combat the dearth of information in high schools about the Democratic Kampuchea regime, the Documentation Center of Cambodia submitted a supplemental history textbook to Hun Sen and the Ministry of Education for approval earlier this month, said DC-Cam Director Youk Chhang. The 11-chapter text covers the early rise of the Cambodian communist party and ends with the fall of Pol Pot.
"We talked to some professors and they talk about their personal experiences during the DK regime but it is not done in a scientific way," he said.
He added that he has noticed some confusion and doubt about the regime when recruiting high school and college students to do work for DC-Cam.
"We are not in a position to say how much the young people know exactly. They do not come out and say they do not believe, but they express doubts because it is so difficult to comprehend what happened," Youk Chhang said.
Khieu Kanharith agreed that a black hole in the nation's history lessons should be resolved, because ignorance helped fuel ferocity in the past.
"There was a lack of education about the carpet-bombing by Americans. The countryside thought the city people were working to help those who did the bombing," he said. "Then they were told that to be a good citizen, you kill the enemy."
"They never talked about it, but I believe it happened," the 17-year-old said this week from her home in Kompong Cham town.
"My friends believe it too," she added.
Meas Phirum, a history teacher at Sisowath High School in Phnom Penh, believes that as a subject the Khmer Rouge regime is a period clouded by politics and best left alone.
The Cambodian history that is taught to Meas Phirum's 10th and 11th graders deals with Cambodia up to about the time of the French colonization in the mid-nineteenth century, while 12th-grade students advance to world history, he said. Many of the events in Cambodia's more modem history remain conspicuously absent from his syllabus.
For Meas Phirum, history lessons about Democratic Kampuchea can wait until after the tribunal has completed its work.
"Nobody knows about the cause of the killings and there has not been a tribunal yet," he said.
In 2002, an attempt was made to introduce the first modem Cambodian history textbook containing information on Pol Pot's regime into the 12th-grade high school curriculum. But as soon as 25,000 copies were printed, the book was withdrawn from schools amid controversy.
In April of that year, Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh publicly complained that the 1993 Funcinpec election victory over the CPP was not included in the textbook, although the CPPs 1998 victory was in the text. By the end of the month. Prime Minster Hun Sen had ordered the textbook revised, and it has not yet reappeared.
Four years after the book was removed from the classroom, Pok Than, a Funcinpec secretary of state at the Education Ministry, said this week that the textbook is still undergoing revisions, but did not explain why it is taking so long.
"History is still being learned, but some controversy has been taken out," he said.
He referred further questions to Education Minister Kol Pheng, who said he was too busy to comment.
One of the authors of the textbook, In Om Sameng, a professor of history at the Royal University of Law and Economics, said that the controversy over his book came on the heels of an order between 2000 and 2001 to keep the Khmer Rouge out of the classroom.
"[Former Funcinpec Education Minister] Tol Lah said that the context of the Khmer history served a political party," In Om Sameng said. At that time, said In Om Sameng, Tol Lah also wanted the Sangkum Reastr Niyum, the Khmer Rouge and the 1993 and 1998 elections all removed from the curriculum.
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said that the international community, as well as certain politicians, have kept the Khmer Rouge out of the high school curriculum, and that Cambodian youth have not been taught about it since the 1991 Paris Peace Accords.
"Do not blame the Cambodian government or Ministry of Education for this. When we signed the Paris Peace Accords, the international community demanded we take out the term 'genocide' from [school books]," Khieu Kanharith said.
"Before, we used to teach it a lot," he said.
"We have not taught it since the Paris Peace Accords. Because if the Khmer Rouge are bad, then it raises the question is January 7 good? You don't know the fight we had to make January 7 a holiday," he said, referring to the day that Vietnamese-backed forces toppled the Pol Pot regime in 1979.
To combat the dearth of information in high schools about the Democratic Kampuchea regime, the Documentation Center of Cambodia submitted a supplemental history textbook to Hun Sen and the Ministry of Education for approval earlier this month, said DC-Cam Director Youk Chhang. The 11-chapter text covers the early rise of the Cambodian communist party and ends with the fall of Pol Pot.
"We talked to some professors and they talk about their personal experiences during the DK regime but it is not done in a scientific way," he said.
He added that he has noticed some confusion and doubt about the regime when recruiting high school and college students to do work for DC-Cam.
"We are not in a position to say how much the young people know exactly. They do not come out and say they do not believe, but they express doubts because it is so difficult to comprehend what happened," Youk Chhang said.
Khieu Kanharith agreed that a black hole in the nation's history lessons should be resolved, because ignorance helped fuel ferocity in the past.
"There was a lack of education about the carpet-bombing by Americans. The countryside thought the city people were working to help those who did the bombing," he said. "Then they were told that to be a good citizen, you kill the enemy."
3 comments:
Let it be known that AH HUN SEN government had omitted many and many histroical facts from Cambodian history book just to please the Vietcong! The Vietcong are more interested in having all Cambodian children know only the Vietcong legacy especially the in the Vietcong invasion of Cambodia in 1979! The Veitcong want all Cambodian children to know that it is the Viet who are their savior!
What about the colonial history of the Vietcong took the over Cambodian land in 1949 and make the Khmer Krom as their slave?
The current Cambodian history book is a carbon copy of the Vietcong history book!
The genicide of 1.7 millions or so Khmer by the Khmer Rouge should be in Cambodia's history forever. The leading of what, by who, when, why, and how of the the major plyers in these killing should be mentioned so the next generations know and decide for their own truth. It should be known as "The Great Khmer Holocaust". If anyone attempt to denied or erase this part of Khmer history, is an attempt to deny that Angkor Wat doesn't exist or the existence Khmer itself.
Any Khmer who thinks the atrocity committed by the Khmer Rouge by killing of their 1.7 million fellows Khmer does not deserve to be in spotlight in Khmer history book even if it is a bad part, is a Khmer Rouge and is a traitor to all Khmer, and a sellout to any political influence of foreign or demistic goverment.
To the new generation of Khmer who did not know or hear rumors about Pol Pot(Khmer Rouge), I urge you to dig deep within yourself and confront the truth. It is effecting me as much as it effect you. The slaughtered of 1.7 million Khmer is rival to that of Jews Holocaust or any mass dying of innocense humanbeings anywhere or anytime world history. This should should brings tingling through your spine, because that is the truth of Cambodia, Khmers killed Khmers. I also urge you to dig deep to find the truth behind Pot Pot or Khmer Rouge and decide for yourself of the motives behind such killing. If and when you find an answer, pass down your knowledge to your next generations to never ever forget this tragedy.
Khmer kill Khmer must never happend again, even if it was by the influence of others. Just ask yourself a question, " Would you kill your own family?"
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