Author: Sun
Date: 11-12-04 11:58
FM Liew wrote:
“Did you conveniently connect Communism to Khmer Rouge? Pol Pot ordered the killing of millions of communist and suspects in Cambodia......”
I don’t know what is your obsession with KR, but here is my take.
Communists kill other communists for self-interest, just as any political group would, if they want to seize power. For example, Stalin killed most of his closest comrades; the Sino-Soviet ideological conflict; second Indo-China war; the China’s Cultural Revolution. There are more examples, but you get the idea.
Your argument that just because KR killed communists, then KR can’t be communist, is too simplistic a link. But you are right to state that “Pol Pot is just another Suharto” in that both prefer to impose a dictatorship regime instead of a more democratic model.
Lets look at the background of KR’s leaders. Saloth Sar (who later became Pol Pot) and Ieng Sary forms the communist resistance, CPK, in the 50’s with the support of Communist North Vietnam. Pol Pot and some of its leaders were educated in France and visited the Soviet Union and China, were substantially influenced by authoritarian communism. Their declared ideology was a strange mixture of elements of Stalinism and Maoism. Of course it would be a mistake to impute the actions of the group solely to these particular imported doctrines, especially when a careful analysis of the group reveals a number of more general elements. Among the more notable characteristics of the KR were autarchy, authoritarianism, brutality, secrecy, reliance on willpower, extreme communalism, obsession with purity and purging, anti-Vietnamese hysteria, and extreme nationalism.
Now, let me get back to the topic proper, Chin Peng as a Communist leader.
FM Liew wrote:
“Communism...its only an ideology, and it's meant to work for the people. We'll never know whether it fit Singapore or not, since it was never tested on Singapore or Malaysia in very beginning “
Communism is DEAD. History has proven time and again that Communism has FAILED to “work for the people". It will NOT have worked for Singapore and Malaysia period. I thank God that Chin Peng failed in his attempt to turn the region to Communism.
Chin Peng had the wisdom to realize that too when he sought peace through the Baling talks in 1955. He left Malaysia to stay in Beijing in 1960 until the surrender of the CPM in 1989.
He actually lived through the China’s Cultural Revolution that began in 1966. I wonder what he thought of Communism and the madness of the Red Guards then. How far was that to his ideals of a Communist state.
China is more Capitalist than Communist TODAY because their leaders, in particular Deng Xiao Peng, have the wisdom to realized that the MARKET is KING and that they MUST adapt and change if they want to remain in power.
FM Liew wrote:
“Does Singapore practise "free market"
Yes, and more than most other countries. A free-market world is the only way Singapore can survive.
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