Cambodia: SIHANOUK's SANGKUM REASTRE NIYUM (1of8) [KH] скачать в хорошем качестве

Cambodia: SIHANOUK's SANGKUM REASTRE NIYUM (1of8) [KH]

Under the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who had once ruled as king but had stepped down from his throne to assume the post of Prime Minister, Cambodia presented to the world a picture of peaceful prosperity, with Phnom Penh as the symbol of commerce and culture. In 1963 the prince announced the nationalization of banking, foreign trade, and insurance as a means of reducing foreign control of the economy. In 1964 a state trading company, the National Export-Import Corporation, was established to handle foreign commerce. The declared purposes of nationalization were to give Khmer nationals, rather than Chinese or Vietnamese, a greater role in the nation's trade, to eliminate middlemen and to conserve foreign exchange through the limiting of unnecessary luxury imports. As a result of this policy, foreign investment quickly disappeared, and a nepotistic "crony socialism" emerged somewhat similar to the "crony capitalism" that evolved in the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos. Lucrative state monopolies were parceled out to Sihanouk's most loyal retainers, who "milked" them for cash. Postcolonial Cambodia was a society with a deeply rooted sense of hierarchy that permitted one man to exercise enormous power. From 1945 until 1970, that one man was Norodom Sihanouk, who ruled Cambodia first as king and then as its Head of State. Cambodian political structure during Sihanouk's rule bestowed "power on a small group of men who...exploit[ed] the majority of the people at every level". "Nepotism and corruption were the way of life. Cambodia was an agrarian society whose economy did not develop beyond agriculture and other small labor-intensive industries. The absence of strong economic bases manifested in the people's low standard of living. The resulting gulf of economic disparities between a concentrated group of wealthy ruling elite and the poor masses served as the battle cries for social and political changes intended to wrest political and economic power from the ruling elite and to distribute them to the poor masses. During Prince Norodom Sihanouk's Sangkum Reastre Niyum regime, he seemed to be a little dictator against his Khmer educated men. But he was so different from his ancestors, who did not build any schools for their Khmer children to learn anything, seemed to keep all Khmer children in a dark cage. His ancestors seemed not wanting all Khmer children to be educated at all. They were afraid of their Khmer children to become well-educated so that they could not rule Cambodia with only their royal families in comfortable lives on the sweat, blood and tears of their fellow countrymen. They completely forgot that the more educated people they have, the stronger their country is. Because those educated peoples who can prevent their country from the fugitives of Mongols, Siamese, and the prisoners of Mongols, Yuonese from being wiped out like Champa and Laos. Yuon and Siam governments encouraged their children to learn all things they could. They built universities and colleges from 18th century on, whereas in Cambodia there was none. As we Khmer of this generation can understand more clearly about Prince Norodom Sihanouk's ancestors' and his natures that didn't want all their Khmer children to learn was to read like this:- To publicise his views and those of the men with whom he was now associated, Thanh in 1939 founded a Cambodian language newspaper called Nagaravatta (Angkor Wat). The publication of this newspaper involved one of the historical ironies that are such a frequent part of Sihanouk's life, for the member of the royal family who agreed to become the paper's patron was his father, Prince Suramarit. The editors had first turned to Sihanouk's bluff, no-nonsense uncle, Prince Monireth, for patronage, but he, in a manner strikingly reminiscent of the Duke of Wellington's views on railways, refused, since he thought improving the education of Cambodians would 'make them more difficult to govern'. Prince Norodom Sihanouk who built so many schools everywhere in Cambodia for his Khmer children to enjoy learning whatever they wanted to, but mostly they learnt only how to irrigate water into the fields. His Khmer children were not allowed to learn any political sciences.... However, his ordinary people seemed to enjoy their lives under his Sangkum Reastre Niyum Regime, even if his country was also completely under siege being already engulfed in wars with the two young-warmongering nations-Siam and Yuon again. And, his people seemed being kept in a dark pond like a frog that knew nothing what was happening during his reign of Sangkum Reastre Niyum? His ordinary Khmer people did not also really know much about any Vietnamese secret agents/Vietcong living in Cambodia during a little dictatorial Sangkum Niyum of his? Why did he become a little dictator who gave a drastic order to his secret police to secretly kill his own Khmer educated men?