Talk:People's Republic of Kampuchea

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Article needs much attention, POV cleaning

1979-1989 is a very contested period in Cambodia and one where current leader were emerging, building their own consolidation of power (e.g. the then-minister of foreign affairs Hun Sen, Cheam Sim, etc.).

Anyone has the both the knowledge and neutrality to improve this article? One excellent source of information is 'Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge: Inside the politics of Nation Building' by Evan Gottesman.

I'm uncertain what the POV problem is in the article. The source you suggest has its own terrible POV problems in that it is blind to the nature of the Vietnamese occupation and is at the edge of being pro-Vietnamese. The government that Vietnam installed and that still rules Cambodia today is a Khmer Rouge government presided over by a Khmer Rouge military figure. It is not Pol Pot's Khme r rouge, but its still made up of Khmer Rouge. As far as I'm aware, the only people who consider the period contested were the supporters of Vietnam and defenders of their military occupation of Cambodia. If you want POV corrections to be made, your going to need to be much more specific about what you disagree with in the current article. 168.127.0.51 15:45, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Of course I'm not suggesting we should only base the article on the book mentioned above, but was mainly suggesting this book as a good starting point because of its heavy use of old official documents (notes, minutes, written orders) from the PRK era. I think what you're saying is what a lot of people feel in Cambodia and contextually speaking, that feeling is very much understandable, but would really benefit if you could temper it and use a more neutral dialogue. PRK was definitively a Vietnamese sponsored regime maintained in power by Vietnamese troops, some of it's main leaders received political training in Vietnam, etc. One could label this scenario a disguised occupation and would probably be right. Furthermore, I'm not disputing the fact that lots of political leaders chosen by the Vietnamese before and after ousting the Khmer Rouge were former Khmer Rouge, and most of them are still remaining in power until today.

That being said, Wikipedia aims to achieve a neutral ground were facts can be written, sourced, and diverging opinions stated if necessary. All data written above should be fact checked and footnoted, and then - using a neutral language - this chunk of Cambodian history could become a good article in Wikipedia :o) NIRVn 13:21, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I would like to see some references, at least, for the current article; it is difficult finding good sources for this period. I will try to follow up on the Gottesman book, above. Can't find a middle ground until you read it for sure, ay? Pat Struthers 09:36, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Reverted title back to People's Republic of Kampuchea to use NPOV page title...NIRVn 13:21, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Having read Gottesman, I feel sure that the article can be stripped of much POV and improved to show how the regime was constructed and what it's ideological outlook was. I may have a go at putting something together along these lines. What is there at the moment covers a lot about the nature of the PRK vs. KR, but not so much about domestic matters. manchester_me 02:38 9 November 2006