NEW EVIDENCE unearthed in Cambodia last month suggests that Pol Pot had a stressful time whilst starting at university. A series of diaries written by one of the most despicable characters in history during his first year at Phnom Penh Polytechnic offers a unique personal insight into the psyche of the former Khmer Rouge leader who described himself as “nervous with girls”.
After doing well in his A-levels, Pot elected to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics but he was soon mortified by the decadent nature of Freshers’ Week ice breakers. He quickly became withdrawn and failed to attend any pub crawls, and after a botched initiation involving shrimp paste he wasn’t picked for the Hockey First XI. Lon Nol, a fellow (and only surviving) resident of Pot’s halls recalled the dictator’s unwillingness to drink snakebite or have promiscuous sex with strangers. Instead Pot preferred to sit in his room reading Maoist doctrine whilst listening to Belle & Sebastian.
Despite his social problems, Pot quickly became involved in student politics. One of his diary entries proclaims Union officials to be “toothless paper tigers” and “stooges of the Yankee Imperialist Lickspittles”. However his attempt to pass a motion at the Union AGM suggesting that the Indie Night be reorganised as a peasant-led agrarian collective was met with howls of derision. Such was his unease at university life that once he assumed power he had the entire student body of Cambodia liquidated and turned the ancient library square into a labour camp.