Cambodia: The Bloodiest Domino

Although not being able to watch the entire film thoroughly, I have found the movie about Cambodia: The Bloodiest Domino, a very interesting piece. It was a very good insight into the most recent civil wars in this 21st century, starting from the time Cambodia was given independence.

From watching the movie, I got to see how complicated the relationship and thread of how such disastrous events happened to this country. Taking the most notorious event of Cambodia, the Pol Pot, as an example, it would be wrong to put all the blame on just Saloth Sar; many people were behind this and there were a lot of motives; nothing was black or white. With this taken into consideration, ECCC seems like a rather unfair process as only few crime committer during the regime are being brought to court.

Besides, from the film, I have learned how true the typical description of humans as having cruel, wild, greedy nature really is.  The scene where Vietnamese people were killed in Cambodia from racial discrimination, with their body cut open and their livers, taken out is extremely disturbing to me. It is shocking to learn that Cambodians, who have often self-proclaimed and been considered as a gentle people, did such repugnant acts—the acts that are so sickening and that I myself couldn’t even think of doing.

In addition, the film has ensured me what kinds of values/principles I believe are in a good leader. In the film I saw many actions taken by the leaders with all the power, which I think good leaders should never take. The fact that Prince Sihanouk ignored the warning by the US government about the upcoming bombing and let it kill many innocent lives, simply because of him expecting compensation money/aids to come in return of the destruction of the bombing afterward, was just abhorrent. Even though the leader was given the authority in governing his people, I believe he has no right in the world to compromise so many lives for such a benefit, whatsoever. All in all, I have discovered more of values in good leaders from just looking back at the history and how it was led.

In conclusion, from the documentary, I have seen many disturbing sides of the Cambodian history. Reflecting on what are projected in the film, I have learned a number of useful lessons—such as how to be a good leader by avoiding what bad leaders did/have done, how brutal and deadly humans can be in their natures, and that nothing is black or white. With these knowledge and understanding, I hope to contribute to preventing the country’s bitter history to repeat itself; especially should I happen to hold any top-leadership position.

Part 1/6