MLP! Not MLM

From the Pol Pot Journals:

There have been a few times when some people have refered to me as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist. Wrong. Mao was an ally, but he is dead now and the MLM movement has disowned me. That is fine with me because I have my own international, the MLP movement. That’s right, Marxist-Leninists-Polists.

Mao made a lot of mistakes in his time. I remember being in Tienaman square and witnessing the activities of the Cultural Revolution. It was chaotic, with people running around with leaflets everywhere. Mao didn’t have a peasant revolution. He just used the peasants to get control of the country. He spent much of his time trying to industrialize the country instead of focusing on making it better for the peasants. He sent city people out to stay with the peasants for a few months. What good did that do? They just ended up going back to the city as if nothing ever happened. How can they learn about farming and peasant work such a short time?

Mao was a staunch ally. He supported us with all the weapons we needed to win our war. He stood by all his allies and I applaud him for that. But I made it clear from the start, that we would have full autonomy to run our country as we see fit, with no interference with China. Mao agreed, but later, when we told him we had eliminated class distinctions he had the nerve to say:

“Certainly you have made mistakes. So rectify yourselves: do rectification!” After many years of revolution, salaries are not equal. We have a slogan of equality---but we don’t carry it out. How many years will it take to change that? Until we become communist? This matter is not clear.”

We had our own clear headed leaders and we didn’t need to be patronized by Mao just because he had a much bigger country. If we had more resources and people, we would have done a much better job.

Remember, we are Khmer, not Chinese. Anyone or group today can join my MLP international. I always felt I would someday outdo Mao. I still think my time will come.