Literacy and Education under the Khmer Rouge

By George Chigas and Dmitri Mosyakov
The Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale University

(Featuring an overview of Revolutionary Flag Magazine)

Abstract

This essay considers the function of literacy and education under the Khmer Rouge. In particular, it examines Tung Padewat (Revolutionary Flag), a magazine published monthly by the party of Democratic Kampuchea between 1974 and 1979. Using Tung Padewat as an example of the Khmer Rouges own efforts to publish printed material, the essay addresses the common misperception that the Khmer Rouge were opposed to reading and writing per se. The essay concludes that it was what and how one read, rather than the ability to read and write, that made certain kinds of people suspect in the eyes of the regime.