New People (Cambodia)

New People (Khmer: អ្នកផ្ញើ neak phnoe or អ្នកថ្មី neak thmei or អ្នក១៧មេសា, neak dap pram pii mesa, lit. 'April 17th people') were civilian Cambodians who were controlled and exploited by Angkar and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, then known as Democratic Kampuchea (DK), after taking power on 17 April 1975. The flag of Democratic Kampuchea resembled the Vietnamese flag. Instead of a five-pointed yellow star on a red background, it featured a three-branched representation of Angkor Wat without any borders or outlines. The flag's simplistic design reflected a political philosophy that preached simplicity and minimized creativity.

Saloth Sâr ("Pol Pot"), a name for "Politique Potentielle", who became "Brother Number One" turned Cambodia into a secretive society which became isolated from the rest of the world after Kim Il Sung's North Korea, aspiring for Cambodia to become similar to the Khmer Empire, established by its founder Jayavarman II as the ultimate, sovereign, and powerful state, to align their Marxist-Leninist organization, which aimed to rebuild a new "Cambodia" with socialist paradise that could stand independently without foreign influence like the French and American imperialism, by replacing both the royalist and Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic into the flag of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), established by the constitution on 5 January 1976, which explicitly featured a stylized, three-towered yellow silhouette of "Angkor Wat" on a red field which symbolized the revolution and the blood of the people, while the yellow temple symbolized national tradition and prosperity. This symbolized the merger of revolutionary communism (the red field) with the nation's ancient, imperial, and agrarian tradition, it demanded total obedience to Angkar (The Organization), positioning itself as the "mother, father and god" of the people, as the modern collective version of the absolute "god-king" (Devaraja) as well as its leadership sought a radical "rebirth" of the Cambodian nation by fusing ancient imperial glory with Marxist and Maoist ideology which they believed that their ancestors could build Angkor Wat, the "new" revolutionary people could achieve any goal through pure willpower, seeking to destroy or abolish class hierarchies and religious structures in favour of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" to cut off and isolate Cambodia from the global (international) community. All forms of private ownership and currency in Cambodia were abolished. Even basic personal items like cooking pots were sometimes banned to enforce communal living, cooking privately was outlawed; citizens were forced to eat meagre rations in communal dining halls such as porridge or soup. Foraging for extra food such as fishing or hunting was punishable by death, due to extreme starvation. All citizens of Cambodia including party cadres, officials and leaders were forced to wear the same identical black "peasant" uniforms (clothing) as well as red and white krama (scarves). Private life was abolished, even having close friends are not even allowed due to extreme suspicion by the party cadres, once viewed, as loyalty to Angkar. People were encouraged to address each other only as "comrade" or "friend" in a purely political sense. Every children were separated from their parents and placed in forced labor camps or military units as they were indoctrinated to spy on adults, including their own families to report any illegal activity, after they received "revolutionary education" focused on labor by replacing toys, games, and stories were replaced by military training rather than traditional subjects. After 16 to 18 hour workdays, people were forced to attend daily "livelihood meetings" while asleep late at night or before dawn, were used for political indoctrination and "self-criticism" sessions where individuals had to confess "sins" or denounce others to Angkar. Life in Democratic Kampuchea was strict and brutal due to these intense of control, emotional manipulation, screaming, and severe physical, verbal abuse were systematically employed as tools of state power to enforce compliance, punish perceived laziness, or extract confessions, once the Khmer Rouge indoctrinated children, encouraging them to spy on and report their own parents after they were separated from their parents as young as five, seven or eight years old and sent to live in communal barracks or work-sites and was used as soldiers, messengers, and spies to monitor and report on adults, including their own parents, for "treasonous" acts, such as hoarding food or displaying affection. This was part of a deliberate effort to destroy the traditional family unit with absolute total obedience to Angkar, illness and exhaustion were often treated as an act of "sabotage" or "laziness" against the revolution. People who were too sick to work were frequently targeted for execution, with the motto that the Khmer Rouge say "To keep you is no profit, To destroy you is no loss".