When it comes to Cambodia, we may only think of a series of horrible words such as drugs, gambling, fraud, and non-ferrous industries, or Cambodian children with dark and thin immature faces depicted in various film and television works and literary works, working in the mountains of garbage to get a chance to survive.
However, who would have thought that even the dark country once had a history of nearly two thousand years.
Perhaps to understand the evils beneath Cambodia's apparent prosperity, we need to look to its past for the truth.
The splendid civilization of the past
There is still controversy about how long humans have lived in Cambodia so far, and whether the humans who first appeared in Cambodia came from East Asia.
But what is certain is that the language system used in Cambodia today is inextricably linked to the Khmer people, and in the process of historical evolution, due to geographical limitations, the Cambodian language has also been influenced to some extent by Vietnam.
As Cambodia entered the Funan Kingdom, maritime expansion in Southeast Asia also began.
Interestingly, due to the frequent maritime activities during this period, Cambodia itself has almost no relevant written records, but there are relatively rich records in ancient Chinese books.
However, the developed economy of the Funan Dynasty also benefited from the convenient navigation of the Mekong River flowing into Cambodia, so since then, the Cambodians have begun to build water conservancy projects on the Mekong River, laying the groundwork for the black trade in the Golden Triangle thousands of years later.
In the mid-6th century, the rise of the Chenla kingdom promoted the prosperity of Cambodian religion while expanding.
The Angkor period under Chenla is undoubtedly the highlight of Cambodia's history that scholars around the world are enthusiastic about, during which Cambodia was tributed by countries in the west, including present-day Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia, and Cambodia also called itself "the most powerful country in Southeast Asia" in the Angkor period inscription, which shows its national strength.
At the same time as the rapid development of the economy, Cambodian culture, of which architecture and sculpture are the most prominent, Angkor Wat and Angkor City are even as famous as the Great Wall and pyramids, which can be called the peak of Cambodia's ancient culture.
Soon, the Chenla regime declined, Vietnam gradually controlled Cambodia, and implemented a series of strict ruling systems, which made the Cambodian people miserable, and many uprisings and rebellions were brutally suppressed, which also became the beginning of Cambodia's colonial destiny.
In 1863, the Cambodian leadership, coerced and lured by the French fleet, was forced to sign the Treaty of Franco-Cambodia, completely losing independence and sovereignty, and Cambodia's history of suffering began.
France not only implemented a series of economic and political policies to achieve the goal of economic plunder, but also paid special attention to the spiritual enslavement of the Cambodian people and completely deprived them of their political rights.
In the midst of suffering, the Cambodian people launched three large-scale uprisings, all of which ended in failure.
During World War II, France was defeated in Southeast Asia, but the suffering of the Cambodian people was far from over, and after the Japanese station, Cambodians had to live in the depths of both Japanese and French oppression and exploitation.
After Japan's surrender in 1945, the Cambodian people, who had endured long-term colonial rule, thought that they could finally establish their own regime, but they did not expect that the French colonialists would make a comeback, and even call it an "autonomous country".
Fortunately, the soul of the nation awakened in World War II allowed the Cambodian people to organize themselves, and after nearly ten years of resistance, the 90-year colonial rule of France was finally ended, and Cambodia's sovereign independence was recognized by all countries.
However, nearly a century of colonial history has brought not only humiliation to the Cambodian people, but even a deep-rooted servility, which partly explains the widespread human trafficking in Cambodia today.
Since then, as in modern Chinese history, Cambodia has entered a history of civil war for about 20 years, during the struggle between the democratic and republican factions, the Vietnam War broke out, and Cambodia tried to save itself in the war, so it changed its military camp several times in Vietnam and the United States.
The struggle for power in Cambodia ended with the victory of the Communists, and the United States eventually lost Southeast Asia.
After a long Cambodian revolution, this country that has been living in suffering for a long time finally ushered in a free new regime, the Cambodian People's Party.
Since then, the Cambodian people have opened a new era in history.
Suffering is never far away
Since the establishment of the new regime in 1993, Cambodia's total economic output has increased year after year, and the country's economic construction has achieved great results.
In the early 20th century, with the gradual recovery of the world economy, Cambodia gradually diluted the impact of the financial crisis, but the United States, as an important importer of Cambodia at that time, suffered serious economic trauma.
The fundamental reason is that Cambodia is overly dependent on the four pillar industries, on the contrary, the domestic oil industry needs to be developed urgently, and whether it can make full use of its own oil resources has become an important constraint for Cambodia's future development.
In recent years, under the surface prosperity of Cambodia, illegal industries such as gangsters, black industries, and fraud have also secretly bred and even spread, unknowingly occupying a large part of Cambodia's economy.
With regard to drugs, a study published by the United Nations showed that Myanmar and Laos, the main opium producers in Southeast Asia, were growing their opium cultivation area, while Cambodia, as a close neighbor of the Golden Triangle, was simply blessed.
Not to mention that Cambodia is located in the tropics, the climate is humid and hot, the geological conditions are good, under the influence of the southeast monsoon, it has its own dry and wet climate, which perfectly regulates the growth cycle of crops and also becomes a hotbed for the growth of drug trade.
In addition, the rugged mountains and rushing rivers surrounding the Mekong provide natural barriers for the countries along the river basin.
Although the natural dead end has made it inaccessible for many years, it has also made it remote from the country and the country, unable to form a systematic and effective legal system, and also provided a shelter for illegal and criminal activities in Cambodia.
People who have been paralyzed by drugs are bound to find some new fun, and it must be great to earn some money to buy drugs on the way to have fun, and gambling satisfies all the good fantasies of these people.
But at the same time, they also unknowingly stepped into another abyss.
The reason why Cambodia's gambling industry "flourished" dates back to the seventies and eighties of the last century, when Cambodia was experiencing a vigorous civil war, economic development stagnated, considering the basic national conditions of uneven development of modern industry and agriculture, Cambodian leaders had to issue corresponding policies to promote the development of emerging industries, so Cambodia's gambling industry was officially legalized and renamed the gaming industry.
The legalization of the gaming industry has sharpened the polarization of national wealth, and Cambodia is now seen by the rich as a tourist destination and a slum full of garbage in the eyes of the poor.
Like India, Cambodia has almost no middle class and is particularly discriminatory.
Whites thrive here, freely mingling in underground industries and red-light districts, while other ethnic groups, including Thailand, Burma, Laos, the Philippines, and a large number of Chinese, struggle to survive here.
If men are ordinary citizens in Cambodia, women and children are completely traded in the colored industry, they have no human rights and self-respect, and forced buying and selling often happen.
But it has to be said that the reasons for Cambodia's current social chaos are also very complex.
First of all, based on Cambodia's own religion and cultural beliefs, Cambodia is one of the ancient countries with a long history and splendid civilization in Southeast Asia, in which religion plays a pivotal role in Cambodia's political, cultural and social life.
In Cambodia, citizens' religion is free and sacred, and the Cambodian Constitution has also stipulated that citizens' freedom of religious belief without touching the religious beliefs of others and not disturbing social order is guaranteed by the state.
Under Angkor, Brahmanism and Buddhism continued to grow, and with the introduction and development of Islam, Catholicism and Christianity, Cambodia's native primitive religion gradually declined.
Archaeological findings have shown that in Cambodia's original primitive religions, women had a high status and even tended towards a matrilineal society in terms of social structure.
It can be seen that in the later religious freedom activities, the dilution of primitive religion was not only the end of a civilization, but also buried hidden dangers in the decline of the social status of Cambodian women and children.
In terms of social customs, Cambodia, like most countries in the world, practices monogamy, but the difference is that Cambodian men and women usually mature earlier than the legal age of marriage in China, with women marrying at the age of 16 and men at the age of 19.
Compared with ancient China, Cambodia's regulations on marriage were more free and open, allowing free love and marriage, without the oppression of ancient Chinese feudal system, which could be called democratic and advanced in that era.
Nevertheless, the status of women in Cambodia has become a victim of the times in economic development.
Causing Cambodia's economic chaos today, it is easy to think that the colonial invasion that began in the last century is one of the triggers for Cambodia's gangsters, illegal property, fraud, gambling and prostitution today.
Years of colonial rule have made it more difficult for the people at the bottom of society who originally relied mainly on the agrarian economy to survive, and the unsuitable climatic conditions for human beings, the harsh living environment, and the brutal colonial rule may be the last straw that crushed the Cambodian people.
In such a dark life, capitalism once again extended the claws of evil to these suffering people, thinking that it was salvation, but did not expect it to be an abyss of even more eternal peace.
Compared to living miserably by picking up garbage in the slums, Cambodians have clearly found shortcuts: drug dealing, underground boxing rings, gambling, gangs, scams, colored industries...
These desperate people had no other choice, and although they paid the price of selling their souls or bodies, they were left from the gloomy, dark, dirty, foul-smelling slums, and Cambodians who devoted themselves to these industries may not regret their previous choices.
Or is Cambodian education simply not able to support the Cambodian people to the extent that they distinguish right from wrong and adhere to the bottom line and principles?
The answer is yes, the long-term colonial rule and feudal monarchy have made Cambodia's modern education very backward, you must know that France in the initial colonial activities, Cambodia for decades of "foolish policy", the obstruction of Cambodia's education is conducive to paralyzing the people's mind, completely turning Cambodia into a vassal of France.
It is unimaginable that Cambodia did not gradually begin to establish university education until after World War II, and before that, Cambodia's education has been relying on temples and religions for transmission, which is simply a permanent pain in the history of human education!
With the end of Cambodia's colonial era, its education industry gradually flourished, but then came new challenges.
The Khmer Rouge period was a major tragedy in Cambodian history, when a large number of intellectuals were ordered to return to the countryside to reform and eradicate their "bourgeois identity."
After entering the 21st century, Cambodia's education system has gradually become complete, and the school education system has also been reformed, and the Cambodian government has also attached great importance to education, and the allocation has increased, but the problem of official corruption within Cambodia has also spread to the education industry, and many teachers have no name, although there is still a shortage of teachers, making it difficult to improve the level of education.
In addition, the reason why Cambodia can allow the underground economy to occupy a large amount of resources in the national economy is also inseparable from its imperfect and imperfect legal system.
During the Khmer Rouge period, Cambodia's judicial system was largely abolished, as were various law-related occupations.
It is not difficult to explain why Cambodia's underground industry still has no relevant laws and regulations to stop it when it has reached international renown, not only that, Cambodia still does not have a complete judicial process and unified judicial standards even in the nineties of the last century, which shows its limited enforcement capacity.
As a seaport country and long-term colonial invasion, Cambodia has a small industry, mainly relying on agriculture and tourism to develop the economy.
Its convenient geographical location has also attracted a large number of investors from various countries, especially China, and has become a hot spot for investment, but with the legalization of the gaming industry, the Cambodian government has found a large number of drawbacks and uncontrollable factors.
Immediately after that, gambling was explicitly banned, but as a gray industry with such a large dividend, how could these capitalists easily give up?
As a result, a large number of gambling factories went underground, while other investors, most of them Chinese, turned to telecom fraud, and the vast majority of the people defrauded were Chinese.
Some of these people are deceived by acquaintances, and some are abducted by leather bag companies, but the same is that once they enter such a fraud gang, it is difficult to get out, and even more so they will die in other places, and their methods are also terrible.
If it is a female Chinese, she will suffer inhuman abuse, and while being forced to commit telecommunications fraud, she must be beaten and scolded, and if she cannot complete the task, she may be sold into a red light district or sold in organs, which is really pitiful.
In addition, the skin and meat business in Cambodia can be seen almost everywhere, and even in the streets where special products are sold, many women can be found "selling" themselves along the way, most of them have a tragic life, since childhood because of poverty by others bullying and even violated, have no education experience, so at a young age had to put a clear price on themselves, relying on selling their bodies to obtain survival capital.
But in fact, this phenomenon is not a tragedy of a country or even an era, Cambodia has less than 200,000 square kilometers of land, but thousands of people are in dire straits.
The fact that a country once devastated by war is now the most corrupt country in Asia will certainly not be the eternal melody of Cambodia's destiny!
Bibliography:
Introduction to Cambodia Guangzhou http://find.nlc.cn/search/showDocDetails?docId=8661482254461573734&dataSource=ucs01&query=Introduction to Cambodia
Monsoon Blown Land Shanghai http://find.nlc.cn/search/showDocDetails?docId=2821346957814510625&dataSource=ucs01&query= Monsoon Blown Land
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Author: Yeonkai
Editor: Duo Jie