When
I was handed a book last Sunday after church service by my daughter, I somehow
was elated that I get to read another new book during my spare time. I must
admit the I love reading a lot and I love true stories and biographies. It
wasn’t the glitz and the glam that I am after but inspiration, encouragement
and a good topic of conversation one day.
So,
as I unraveled the plastic bag thrust to my hand by my daughter, SYuen, I was
told that the book is from my friend Joo Li who had informed earlier in one of
“foodie” get together that she is going to loan me a book to read. She said it
was compelling, heart warming and something about atrocities of war. Well, I am
all up for it, I guess. As I see the cover of the paperback book, it was
entitled “First They Killed My Father – A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers” by
Luong Ung with the picture of a shoeless young girl standing sideways in the
middle of the red earth road. It doesn’t really catch my attention at first as
my mind was racing for Sunday lunch that day!!!
As
the day wind down, I picked up the book in the late afternoon of Sunday, with a
cup of coffee at the sides and some tid-bits, I was reading furiously as I was
hooked by the surreal revelation of the events that had happened to the writer,
Ms. Luong Ung who was 5 years old at the time the atrocities and barbaric
ethnic cleansing which was carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime under the
atrocious and evil dictator, Pol Pot. I know that as a reader, for me to enjoy
the book, I would have to have that vivid imagination of being transported to
the scene as explained in the book. I must admit that as I read the early
childhood and the early part of the cruelty of the Khmer Rouge regime on the
Cambodians, my eyes welled up with tears.
Maybe,
you can say that I have become emotional and all softie but I wanna say to you
that I knew these places in Phnom Penh. I was there in Phnom Penh just about 3 years ago and I have seen those buildings mentioned by the writer especially
her housing area and I had seen for myself how poor these people were. My heart
was practically wrenched out when I saw a couple and their two children
sleeping at the side walk of the closed cafés /pubs using cardbox pieces as their bed and blanket while countless
number of people sleeping at the open–aired Phnom Penh Municipality Park and
marbled benches. I could not understand nor relate any of these until I read
this book. Why do people sleep in the centre of field or huddled together or
even children playing gleefully at the park in the middle of the night or even
couple scrounging for food at night. I guess, the experience from the cruelty
of the Khmer Rouge regime had caused such deepened scar to the people. I saw
all this as I was at the top floor of an open-aired pub downing my Angkor beer
and mojitos as the cool breeze caressed my face.
As
I walked in the park, I could see people huddled together in their old clothes
and I could see so much pain in their faces. I did not know then but now I
know. I guess, some people still had not forgotten the atrocities of the
yesteryears or suffered much. There was certainly a lot of children around and
they gleefully played “football” made from tied up/balled up newspapers. They
seemed happy and contented but there was certainly a lot of children. Daly, my
guide at that time told me that those are the unwanted children of the Khmer
Rouge day. I did not know what it meant then but it certainly made sense to me
now as I read about the rapes and brutality that had befallen the Cambodians
during those difficult times. Maybe, just maybe, the scars still lingers on
despite people moving on with their lives.
One
experience I would not forget is the visit to TuolSeng Genocide Museum. The
very former high school in town which was turned into a torture centre by the
Khmer Rouge regime. As I walked along the corridors of torture chambers, barbed
wires, photographs of executed Cambodians, families and even skulls were noted.
There are also photographs of the “killing fields” including the locality and
map of the fields. The prison cells in the classrooms were extremely small,
constricting and had a small hole. I still remember the facial expression of my
tuk-tuk driver who took me there. His facial expression was virtually pained
and he had tears in his eyes as he read about those who had died in the prison
and how one is tortured while being in the torture centre.
Coming
back to the book, I could envisioned the words, the thoughts and the situation
penned by Luong Ung through the eyes of a 5 year old child. It was devastating
to lose your elder sister, your father and eventually your mother and youngest sister
through a series of brutality and war from 1975 – 1979 under the Khmer Rouge
regime. Reading a good story is like that at time. You need to feel and be like
the character in the book and feel your way through the book. A good true story
writer could transport you back to that situation or that scene. I feel that in
this book. Powerful depiction of the scenario and the situation at that time.
It
was devastating for a child of 5 years old to have to go through what she had
to go through. One has to be deaf, dumb, mute and emotionless to just stay
alive at those times. What a horrible thing to do! All in all, the book hit me
with its raw honesty, brutality of war, atrocities inflicted by evil hearts,
the hunger, the desperation for help & support and most important of all,
robbing of one’s childhood and dashing of dreams. The feeling of being left for
dead was literally real for Luong Ung and her family. You get to feel that realism as she described
it all in her book. Yes, this was a love letter to Cambodia and its people.
I
truly was moved by this book. So, go and watch the movie on Netflix. So,thanks again,
Tan Joo Li for the wonderful book !
