Khmer Mentality in Ten Points

Based on :

“THE TEN BASIC ROOTS OF KHMER MENTALITY”
Translated from the original text entitled "Proloeng Khmer" in Khmer language, 1973,1997)
Editing author: Khmer Aphiwath group
Publisher: Khmer Aphiwath group
Melbourne, Australia
Translators: Kua Cham

Read the book at :

www.khmerinstitute.org/articles/art12.html

PLEASE NOTE:

The comments below are mine. The author of this book, its translator and KhmerInstitute.org are NOT responsible for my comments.


Khmer Mentality in ten points:
1-Matriarchy
2-Hidden Strength
3-Self-Prasing Attitude
4-Agriculture
5-Being Insensitive to Rules
6-Being Inactive
7-Fuzziness on Commitment
8-Extremism
9-Truth-Word Worshipping
10-Chastity or Purity

Comments:

1- MATRIARCHY

A so-called matriarchal society is predominantly ruled by women but modern sociologists and anthropologists dismiss the Matriarchy theory. Besides there were really a few queens in Khmer history and legends compared to a countless number of kings and God-kings. Last but not least, up to the mid-20th century, the Khmers learned to read with Buddhist monks at their temples. Unless they’re old nuns, women couldn’t and still can’t easily go to these holy places! It's a Patriarchy in essence. Women look after kids, cook, wash clothes and remain low-profile. Period.

There's even a Women Code of Conduct called Chbap Srey (Chbap = law, Srey = woman) that teaches women how to obey their semi-god husbands. The Buddha, a spiritual role model , abandoned his wife and new-born baby to join and lead a congregation of beggars. Not a very good example for child support !!! Worse, raised by his aunt, the Buddha put women in the background and denied them the right to be worshiped the same way male Buddhist monks have been revered ever since. Why women worship this woman-hater and child-support-evader "god" ??? I don't get it !!!

2-HIDDEN STRENGHT

There’s something about being Khmer, a binding power with which the Khmers built their empire stretching from one to another end of Southeast Asia. The same indescribable force protected them against two powerful nations, Vietnam and Thailand. In the '80s, the country’s rebirth from ashes and chaos accounted for this mysterious power, something similar to the unique natural phenomenon of Lake Tonle Sap that flows backward when it’s filled up with the Mekong River water from Tibet. But Cambodia is still one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world in 2009. Where’s this hidden strength?

3-SELF-PRAISE ATTITUDE

True. The Khmers are self-centered, pretentious and conceited. An outstanding book that we the Khmers must read is written by Marie-Alexandrine Martin, a French ethnobotanists who lived and worked in Cambodia for over 12 years. Her book is a wake-up call: “Cambodia: A Shattered Society,” (Le Mal Cambodgien) translated by Mark W. McLeod.

4-AGRICULTURE

True but the Khmers are shifting from a typical rural society where farming is the only way of life making people content with bare necessity. Before it, they had no business getting involved in public health, education, social security, financial independence, thus a great divide between the capital Phnom Penh and the countryside. Pol Pot took advantage of this, manipulated and set the working class and farmers against a corrupt bureaucracy.

5-BEING INSENSITIVE TO RULES

True. However, this is waaaaay too big a subject to put into a nutshell as it involves religion (Buddhism), superstitions, psychological understanding of the Khmers, politics (my worst nightmare!) to name a few. But as Khmer Kings' rules were unjust, the Khmers just ruled them out to exist and survive !!!

Here's one of the most famous Khmer proverbs:

"Don’t give up crooked ways, don’t go straight" ,i.e.,

"don’t obey the law !"

In a nutshell and from a psychoanalytic view, in order to exist and survive the Khmers had to pervert the visible and invisible laws, both designed by Khmer God-kings and the Bakus (Brahmins) to ENSLAVE them for centuries.

A countless number of heads fell off kneeling bodies each time the kings were unhappy. Up to the start of Pol Pot’s revolution in the '70s, young women were forced to marry men they didn’t love by their own parents for money or social advancement. There was no escape whatsoever, so they hung themselves !

Don't blame them, blame the system !!!

6-BEING INACTIVE (i.e. lazy)

It was true at the time of the study and mostly before it, mainly because Cambodia is a country blessed by Nature. Where there’s water there are plenty of fish and vegetables to eat. But the other devastating reason was the fact that the Khmers were so sick and tired of being taken advantaged of (feudalism, slave trade, forced labor...) for centuries they resorted to doing as little as possible. Don’t blame them, blame the Mandarin system and Khmer kings.

7-FUZZINESS ON COMMITMENT

SO TRUE. The Khmers make promises they can't keep, a surviving strategy that allowed them to escape from royal corvée (forced labor) recruiting officials and unfair tax collectors up to the early 20th century. But Cambodia set up its first National Arbitration Center in August 2009.

8-EXTREMISM

TRUE. Both in Love and Hate and almost everything. Yet, it’s a Buddhist country, the middle-path way! Having a serious conversation with a Khmer can really be a nerve-breaking experience. In general, you can’t talk sense, logic or reason to them. The only Truths stem from the Buddha’s teachings, a single-minded way to view World’s Affairs, i.e., life is but suffering! Check out this binary top-down way of thinking with a Khmer or Western Buddhist next time you have a chance to talk to them, or with yourself if you are a Buddhist.

Ignorant, the rest of the world is IGNORANT (Buddhist euphemism for stupid), only the Buddhists know the ultimate Truths. Nice attitude !

9-TRUTH-WORD WORSHIPPING

Even truer. The author of this book traced the origins of Truth-Word worshipping back to the time when Brahmins helped Khmer kings to subjugate the Khmers. Now we can see the making of Khmer history through the “Return of the Bakus” (Brahmins) in the Royal Ploughing ceremony in Phnom Penh, re-enacted as from 2004(?). Superstition runs high again and is promoted by present-day Khmer kings, the true beneficiaries of this tradition they use to CON the Khmer people again and again, even in 2009 !!!! It's OUTRAGEOUS: children sniff tire-repair glue on the streets near their palace while these kings stand by IDLE, worse they spend tens of thousands of dollars to predict crop by inviting cows to eat cereals with great pomp and ceremony !!! Brilliant, your majesteeey !!!!!

More than one third of Cambodians

live below the poverty line, struggling

to survive on less than $1 a day.

Poverty is especially pervasive in

rural areas and among children,

who constitute more than

half of the country's population.

Source : UNICEF 2009

10-CHASTITY OR PURITY
Chastity, not any more. Purity, yes with Buddhist followers, e.g. , in 2006, a 20-year-old Khmer Buddhist monk, Yin Keo burned himself to death because he wanted to make himself an offering to the Buddha.



Conclusion:

Regardless of our shortcomings, we are Khmers with a strong feeling of belonging together that we can use to rebuild our country, and don’t even think about any other ‘revolution,' we won’t survive. Let’s just help the wounded and the poor out of poverty.

Education is key to everything, not warfare.

Don’t get mad at me, use all your noodles* to live an honest, healthy and happy productive life. Life is short, live it to the full !!!!

(* brain’s capability)