KR songs make comeback
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| People participate in an arts performance during the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Democratic Kampuchea, sometime between 1975 and 1979. The performance was likely for a visiting foreign delegation. (Photo Courtesy of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia) |
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| Kay Noeun (left) and two other women sing a Khmer Rouge song in Kampong Thom province’s Kampong Svay district last year. (Photo Courtesy of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia) |
Friday, 26 August 2011Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post
Lyrics from the past
LYRICS: We the Youth are Committed to Following Revolutionary Kampuchea
Forever
After one thousand years, the mighty Kampuchea has now liberated the
people held in darkness… men and women have been liberated completely.
Because the revolutionary Kampuchean Angkar is robust, it has led us to
persevere together to fight against the evil capitalist regime.
To indoctrinate the ideology of great revolution, the political
consciousness of Angkar’s strategy, with sturdy hands in every respect.
Revolutionary Angkar understands and knows clearly the friend and enemy,
knows good and bad, knows wrong and right. Revolution reveals the great
prosperous road.
Furthermore, Angkar has torched the blazing hot fire in which to battle,
to fight the capitalists until it collapses. Its servants big and small
are to be destroyed completely.
The successful fallen years continued by Angkar, to indoctrinate and solidify, the revolution is prepared to fight.
SOURCE: DC-CAM
“I think listening to them can be informative. However, a
steady diet of these songs as a norm of entertainment raises concerns
as the lyrics in many of these songs glorify blood and gore, violent
revolution and class warfare,” she said. “I hope it is just plain
curiosity, which is healthy.” - Theary Seng, President of Center for
Cambodian Civic Education
Sat
in a coffee shop on Phnom Penh’s Street 240, by the fence of the
Supreme Court, 53-year-old Chan Dara played several forgotten songs
composed during the Khmer Rouge era to a dozen assembled friends.
As music echoed through the
cafe, the supporter of King Father Norodom Sihanouk and collector of
Khmer Rouge songs spoke passionately about the tunes he first listened
to as a teenager after the downfall of the Lon Nol Era.
Just a few days after the Khmer
Rouge soldiers took over Phnom Penh in April 17, 1975, Dara heard the
music of the regime played through loudspeakers. The songs, at first,
helped him to understand Communist ideology and installed in him a
commitment to work hard and belief that the corruption of the past
government was over.
“My first impression of many of
the forgotten songs composed during the Khmer Rouge period was that were
good lessons on learning good governance and on how to be a good
person and leader – but I realised those thoughts were completely wrong
when leaders of the Khmer Rouge started killing,” said Dara.
As the population of Democratic
Kampuchea was sent into the fields to carry out forced labour, Dara
would listen to the songs in rice fields, while constructing dams and as
members of his family died around him.
But despite his suffering, and
the 1.7 million to 2.2 million people estimated killed under the Khmer
Rouge between 1975 to 1979, Dara still listens to the old music and is
attempting to collect every song he heard during that time.
Since 1993, he has collected
about 30 CDs of the forgotten songs from friends and music sellers. “I
now listen to the KR songs to make me to remember what happened during
the period of three years, eight months and 20 days in which at least
six members of my family were killed,” Dara said.
Experts on the era have helped
collate the songs, in hope they will help as an aid to national
reconciliation – with citizens taking ownership of their past.
Director of the Documentation
Center of Cambodia Youk Chhang says the 300 songs that DC-Cam has
re-mastered are becoming popular and have been copied and put on sale at
markets in the capital. An estimated 80 percent of the 3,000 teachers
trained by the DC-Cam on KR history have also asked for the music from
the era.
“The Khmer Rouge killed many
artists and intentionally indoctrinated Khmer culture, arts and way of
life. But they failed to eliminate the artistry of the Khmer people
because it is in our blood. We continue to sing today, including songs
written by the Khmer Rouge,” he said.
But for some, that can be an
emotional experience. One artist – 53-year-old Kay Noeun from Kampong
Thom province – performed the songs again, after singing them as a
13-year-old during the Khmer Rouge regime, for a DC-Cam event last year.
[They] make me remember what happened during the period ... in which at least six members of my family were killed
“It
was my first time to re-perform the songs last year and made me
remember my brother, who was killed during the regime,” said Noeun.
“When I sang all the songs, it was with a feeling of suffering.”
While some campaigners have
expressed concern over the trend. President of Center for Cambodian
Civic Education Theary Seng said that she believes and hopes the growing
interests in these KR-era songs stems from curiosity.
“I think listening to them can
be informative. However, a steady diet of these songs as a norm of
entertainment raises concerns as the lyrics in many of these songs
glorify blood and gore, violent revolution and class warfare,” she said.
“I hope it is just plain curiosity, which is healthy.”
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