"'To call for any sort of change is painted as an attempt to destroy the achievement of the past three decades and return to the cauldron of bloodshed and violence,' Strangio says. "When the liberation happened, it triggered a mass flight into what’s familiar — into tradition, into Buddhism, into conservatism, a very risk-averse view of politics.'
That idea extends to attitudes toward the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. According to Strangio, the government’s grip over information has 'inhibited the achievement of some kind of objective understanding of what happened.' That means even more time will need to pass before the nation can even really begin to come to terms with its history.
'It’s very hard within Cambodian politics to have an open and honest free conservation about who the Khmer Rouge is,' he says. 'It will take the passing of this political generation before people will be able to have one of these conversations.'”
~ Casey Quackenbush
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