Kuoch Masy | Publication date 20 February 2018 | 17:19 ICT
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Actors dressed in Khmer Rouge uniforms carry flags, some of the ruling CPP, during a ceremony marking the annual ‘Day of Anger’ at the Choeung Ek killing fields last year. Hong Menea
Cambodia, a country with quite possibly the most public holidays of any nation in the world, has just added one more – and a controversial one at that.
A sub-decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin on February 14 and obtained yesterday declares May 20 the National Day of Remembrance, though for years it has been better known as the national “Day of Anger” towards the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. The designation brings the total number of days of national holidays in Cambodia in 2018 to 28.
The Day of Remembrance will be nestled in the Kingdom’s packed holiday roster between the Royal Ploughing Ceremony on May 14 and International Children’s Day on June 1. According to the sub-decree, the holiday is to “respect and pray for the victims who passed away from Democratic Kampuchea regime”.
The holiday has a controversial history, however. It was inaugurated in 1984 as the “Day of Hatred against the genocidal Pol Pot-Ieng Sary-Khieu Samphan clique and the Sihanouk-Son Sann reactionary groups” by the then-Vietnamese backed government, shortly after Vietnam’s ouster of the Khmer Rouge.
The day is often celebrated with re-enactments of Khmer Rouge atrocities and reminders of the “achievements of the Cambodian People’s Party”, which for decades has based its political legitimacy on its role in the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, drawing accusations that the holiday is strictly political.
Asked about the decision to officially mark the day given Cambodia’s already-copious holidays, government spokesman Phay Siphan declined to comment in detail.
“I do not know about why 20th May has been decided to be the Day of Remembrance," he said. "We already have the [Khmer Rouge tribunal] to dig out the truth for Cambodian people.”
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