2012). In addition, the CPK ventured to flush out alleged ideological oppositions from the population and inside the party (not all member of the CPK were in support of the methodologies being implemented) (Sonneborn, 2012). Methods which involved extra-judicial executions and torture targeting certain ethnic minorities, students, teachers, religious leaders, and other well-informed populations (Heuveline, P. 2001). .
After Pol Pot's election, an immediate manifesto entitled 'Year Zero' was implemented, dictating that Cambodia revert back to an agrarian, pre-civilized society (Courtney, 2013). Due to this ideology, Pol Pot brutally eliminated doctors, artisans, economists, lawyers, and professors to make sure that their intelligence would not cause threat to his authority. These mass murders and loss of life resulted in a concept referred to as the "lost generation". This concept refers to the large portion of the population which would now be caretakers, having been killed, leaving many elderly people without any financial and/or humane (home and health) support as this population is unable to support themselves. This is observable in modern day Cambodia as the amount of elderly homeless people has increased exponentially over the period of a few years. It is a common cultural belief that in Cambodian culture, it is a matter of course to take care or your parents and close relatives as it is known as a metaphoric insurance towards your future well-being (C., 2013).
The economic revolution of Cambodia was a lot more ambitious and radical in comparison to any other communist country. The cooperatives, or state, owned all land; there was an absence of plots unlike in the Soviet Union or China. The constitution, implemented in December 1975 and declared in January 1976, had an emphasis on the indication that the ways of the countries production was the state's collective property (Sonneborn, 2012).
