When we form views and beliefs we are usually influenced by facts and opinions. All too often, our views are also shaped by emotive immediacy and we make choices with little regard for the potential consequences.
A recent vacation to Cambodia provided me with a stark reminder of why we in the West must never be complacent about our freedoms, and why we must come to terms more fully with the notion of consequence.
Less than 50 years ago, and just 7,000 kilometres from Australia, between 1.5 million and 2 million people perished. They were executed, or died as a result of starvation, disease and overwork. One man was responsible. While working in a respected position, as a school teacher, he callously planned a social engineering initiative. His name was Pol Pot.
When we form views and beliefs we are usually influenced by facts and opinions.
Here is a snapshot of the material on display at one of Cambodia’s Killing Fields, where mass graves and human remains bear witness to the human carnage the country suffered for this man’s ideology.
‘Communism is the principle regarding the common ownership of wealth in which there is collectivity and equality. The idea of Communism is to try to establish a new society, which bears no class struggle; it tends to link with socialism’.
In Cambodia, the ideology was to have ‘’no class struggle’’, and for all to be equal. Is this an ideology that resonates with you? In Cambodia, the price was mass murder. What price would you pay?
A short drive from the Killing Fields is the former school that became the S-21 detention centre, where approximately 20,000 people were imprisoned and died. Today education is again the key to its existence. It tells a story of a barbaric genocide, so that such horrors will never occur again. And its main audiences are the survivors and the descendants of those who were tortured or killed. Inside S-21, panels displaying the facts of history span the rooms and corridors.
It tells a story of a barbaric genocide, so that such horrors will never occur again.
Some examples:
‘This clique of Criminals wanted to transform Cambodian people into a group who knew and understood nothing and always bent their heads to carry out the orders of ANKAR (KAMPUCHEA Communist Party) blindly. They educated and transformed the young people and adolescents, whose hearts are pure, gentle and modest, into odious executioners who dared to kill the innocents and even their own parents, relatives or friends’.
‘This clique of Pol Pot Criminals burnt the market place; abolished the monetary system; eliminated national culture; destroyed schools, hospitals, pagodas, and priceless monuments such as Prasat Angkor which is a source of pure national pride. They did whatever to get rid of the Khmer character and transform Cambodian soil into a mountain of bones and a sea of blood and tears, which were deprived of cultural infrastructure, civilization and national identity, [and] became a desert of great destruction that overturned the Cambodian society and drove it back to the Stone Age’.
This year marks 100 years since the end of the enormous carnage of the First World War. Far less than 100 years ago were the Great Depression, the carnage and destruction of the Second World War, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Many of our elders suffered and fought for the freedoms we have and, dare I say, take for granted; some are still with us. They fought and defeated the very ideology that Cambodia faced during the Pol Pot era.
Many of our elders suffered and fought for the freedoms we have and, dare I say take for granted.
Sadly, the same ideology – for all to be equal – is alive and well today, in our Parliament, our workplaces, our classrooms and our homes.
Is this an ideology that resonates with you? Are you guilty of being in agreement with an individual, purely because of their position or title – only to learn later that the alleged facts and opinions, concealed their real agenda?
Our future relies very much on our past. It depends on the passing on of accurate accounts of events, sacrifices and changes that have ensured our Western way of life.
Our future relies very much on our past.
The consequences of any equality debate are often identified only when it’s too late. Your knowledge, energy and wisdom are essential, to ensure that the people who serve us do so for the sake of equality that guarantees our continued freedom.
Copyright © 2018 Cheryl Lacey All rights reserved.
Parent, educationist and advocate of agitating change in Australian education. By raising the bar we can face any global challenges facing Australia and Australians.
Contact Cheryl on cheryl@cheryllacey.com
