The Cambodian literature was to abolish, uproot, and disperse the cultural, literary, and artistic remnants of the imperialists, colonialists, and all of the other oppressor classes... The second step was to strengthen and expand the building of revolutionary culture, literature and art of the worker-peasant class in accordance with the Party's proletarian standpoint. To eliminate remnants of "the oppressor classes, the Khmer Rouge persecuted people they defined as new people. The ability to speak French, for example, revealed one's association with Cambodia's colonial past and made one's commitment to the revolution suspect.