The Khmer mentality

Two essential element always remain in the Khmer society, even in the darkest times : the respect of the king, and the pyramidal structure of the social hierarchy. Thanks to theses two statements, Cambodia managed to keep his unity despite multiple invasions from his powerful neighbors.

During the colonial times, the french supoprted the king to avoid any nationalist rebellion and legitimage the Kingdom of Cambodia. Still today, the Khmer society is based on these two elements : despite the absence of political consciousness and the weak education level of the majprity of the Khmer people, many of them keep a portrait of the king on their wall, and are extremely proud to be the descendants of Angkor builders, even the ones who never visited Angkor Wat. Even the khmers rouges, who refused anything coming from Cambodia's past, were respecting Angkor Wat. Pol Pot declared : "a people who is capable to build Angkor Wat is capable of everything."

Impact of the khmer rouge regime on the khmer society

Every genocide created important disorders in the post genocide period. But the particularity of the khmer rouge genocide is to have eliminated the intellectual class in a society that counted a few of them. How does a society can run without intellectuals, and which role is left for the few ones who survived ?

Appart from this, the Khmers Rouges removed commercial, culturals and religious customs which where familiar to the Cambodians for hundred of years. How long will it take to the Khmer people to get back their history ?

Impact of the French colonisation on the Khmer society

In surface, the French colonisation seem to have left very few traces. The french built the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, encouragé le développement des arts et engagé la restauration des temples d'Angkor. Par contre, au niveau du système d'éducation, même si le système d'éducation français a très peu touché la classe paysanne, la "mission civilisatrice de la France", selon les termes employés a l'époque,  a profondément marqué l'élite intellectuelle cambodgienne des années 50. Certains de ces intellectuels ont pu briguer des postes importants dans les administrations, d'autres, influencés par la vague de communisme qui sévissait en Europe, ont voulu réformer le système cambodgien et se libérer du colonialisme français.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.