Writing my Part
Political ideology is used to gather political support not around a specific person or goal, but around a cause or world view of how politics should be managed. Political ideologies is normally separated by two extremes, ‘the left’ and ‘the right’ with several increments in between. It ranges from Communism, Socialism, Liberalism, Conservatism, to Fascism (Heywood, 2017, Chapter 1). In Cambodia though, socialism seems to be the most prominent ideology among its leaders and their own interpretation of the ideology. Cambodia has went through many regimes throughout its tumultuous history. Even though they had similarities of socialist oriented, each specifies their own political inclination as better than the previous. To start, in Sangkum Reastr Niyum, also known as the People’s Socialist Community, prince Sihanouk put his ideology as unity, modernization, and dynamism. Unity existing in the form of Buddhism and monarchy. Modernization as in the betterment of the well-being and fulfilment of individuals. Lastly, Dynamism as in mutual assistance and conservatism of traditions. Prince Sihanouk stressed on neutrality, picking neither capitalism or communism, either politically or economically, but opting in between. Later on, the Khmer Republic in the Kingdom of Cambodia was led by Lon Nol. Although his regime did not achieve much, he had an ideology of chauvinism, meaning devoted to glorifying past ancestors as the purpose of present actions. Lon Nol wanted Cambodia as a Buddhist military state rather than a democracy and he proposed a ‘Neo-Khmerism’ to both modernize socio-economic, cultural, and scientific development of Khmer peopl; but also to achieve socialism through nationalism, republican democracy and popular well-being. Next would be the radical socialist revolutionaries known as Khmer Rouge ruling the Democratic Kampuchea. This extreme ideology did not fit with either left or right views of politics. They started out with their objective of national democratic revolution, to rid of imperialist, feudalists, and capitalists in Cambodia. However, when in power, the Khmer Rouge redefined their goals to the socialist revolution and national defense only with the ban of freedom of religions, any western practices, and collective systems. Finally is the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian-communist People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). The PRK, on paper, aimed to establish a people’s democratic regime as peaceful, independent, democratic, non-aligned, and a country moving towards socialism. However, in reality, the PRK made Cambodia more of a Vietnamese satellite state or lackey instead. All in all, it can be seen that although these regimes tout their own ‘Khmer socialism’, each differed in the way they approach how society should be. These regimes wanted change rather than development, therefore making Cambodia very unstable with its constant change of leadership (Slocomb, 2006).
References
Heywood, A. (2017). Political ideologies: An introduction (6th ed). Palgrave.
Slocomb, M. (2006). The Nature and Role of Ideology in the Modern Cambodian State. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 37(3), 375–395. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463406000695