Almost every visitor to Cambodia is struck by how nice the Cambodians are. I know that my critics will say, “People everywhere are the same; there are good and bad people in every country.” However, anyone who has travelled abroad will aver that people in different cultures and countries are very, very different.
So why are Cambodians so nice: friendly, smiling, helpful, considerate…? My first question is, have they always been that way, or is this personality a recent phenomenon? One obvious answer is their thorough grounding in Theravada Buddhist culture. Two words that you hear quite often in Cambodia are mettá and karuná, as defined by Wikipedia:
- Metta (Loving-Kindness): This is perhaps the most visible aspect of Buddhist influence. Metta is the wish for the happiness and well-being of all beings, without discrimination. It fosters a spirit of benevolence, patience, and non-aggression towards others, which translates into the gentle and accommodating nature many visitors observe.
- Karuna (Compassion): This principle encourages empathy and a desire to alleviate suffering. Many Cambodians possess a heightened sense of compassion for others, leading to acts of kindness and understanding.
On the other hand, perhaps the horrors and suffering of the Khmer Rouge era may have had an influence. “Many observers note that having experienced such deep suffering, Cambodians often possess a unique perspective on life. They value peace, community, and the simple joys of human connection perhaps even more profoundly. This collective experience of rebuilding and moving forward with hope has cultivated a generous and forgiving spirit, often expressed through kindness towards others.”(Wikipedia).
By the way, if you read accounts of Pol Pot, such as Brother Number One, you will find that he was very charismatic, in the sense that people were immediately drawn to his warmth and friendliness. He was, like most Khmer, a very personable figure.
In my wide travels, I have visited a few countries with equally nice people, mostly in Africa, which is not a Buddhist continent.
Guinea. When I entered Guinea, in West Africa, I immediately noticed the politeness and warmth of the people there.
A former French colony, Guinea was liberated by the famous Sékou Touré, revered by many anti-colonialists around the world.
The charismatic Sékou Touré turned out to be a tyrant, who murdered or tortured thousands of his opponents in the infamous Camp Boiro prison, where as many as 50,000 persons may have died. When I visited Guinea after Touré had died, the people still lived in fear of the oppressive one-party state with spies everywhere. Worldhistoryedu.com describes it as:
- Authoritarian Rule: Touré’s government gradually became repressive, with widespread surveillance, a one-party state system, and harsh treatment of political opponents.
- Economic Decline: Despite early successes in nationalization, Guinea’s economy suffered from mismanagement, leading to shortages, stagnation, and dependence on foreign aid.
Uganda. Similar to Guinea was Uganda, home of Idi Amin. He was charming, jovial, and extremely charismatic. I was in West Africa at that time, and my Nigerian students were celebrating an iconic photo of Idi Amin being carried in a royal sedan chair by four WHITE servants.
Idi Amin’s charisma was a significant factor in his rise to power and his ability to maintain his régime. This allowed him to build a cult of personality and maintain control over his people and the international community.
Like Sékou Touré, Amin became a ruthless tyrant, wantonly murdering his opponents. International observers and human rights groups estimate that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed under his regime.
Perhaps you have seen the movie “the Last King of Scotland”, about a Scottish doctor named Garrigan, who becomes a trusted confidant of Amin’s, but gradually comes to see the horrors perpetrated by the dictator.
When I moved to Uganda years later, I found nice, polite people. I did a lot of walking in remote villages, where people would pleasantly tell me of how their villagers had been massacred under Idi Amin. Again, did the Idi Amin experience cause the local people to be kinder and more considerate, or had they always been that way?
Mozambique. Finally, I come to Mozambique, where I spent two years with the United Nations. The country was just recuperating from years of authoritarianism, mismanagement, and bloody warfare under Samora Machel. Like Touré in Guinea, Machel was hailed as the liberator of Mozambique from the Portuguese. He wanted to instill his Marxist-Leninist views on the country and he brooked no dissent.
Worldhistoryedu.com describes his Frelimo régime as follows:
That approach meant political intolerance and the repression of “dissidents”, as well as the marginalization of certain ethnic groups,
The treatment of leaders who opposed Frelimo’s vision was harsh. On their return from abroad, many were imprisoned in concentration camps. They were put on arbitrary trial and executed. It turned into arbitrary detentions and displacement of entire families, increasing the systematic violation of human rights by the state.
Mozambicans are perhaps the nicest people in all Africa. Now here’s the kicker: when the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visited the country in 1498, he called it “a terra de boa gente”, that is, “the land of nice people”. This is a partial answer to the question, “Were Mozambicans always nice?” Apparently, they were, as their niceness was observed centuries before the terrors of Frelimo.
To return to Cambodia. My thesis is that the Khmer people have always been nice people, perhaps because of Theravada Buddhism, but perhaps not, as certain African peoples have been nicer than others with no reference to Buddhism.
All of the countries I have described have undergone the horrors of genocidal dictators – Pol Pot, Sékou Touré, Idi Amin, and Samora Machel. Is it possible that these cultures had bred such nice people that they were easily exploited by tyrants? Did the Khmer people and others fall prey to charismatic leaders because they were too nice or too trusting and tolerant?
I spent a year in Samlot District, the last bastion of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Many of the people there were either former KR cadres, or had suffered from the KR. They all expressed the feeling that they would do anything to avoid a repeat of the horrors of Pol Pot. This entailed putting up with corruption and bad behavior by government officials, as long as the people were left alone.
It would seem that in none of the four countries mentioned was there ever a bloodthirsty cry for revenge. None of the four peoples appear to be particularly vindictive.
I also note that none of the four mass murderers mentioned was ever held accountable. Pol Pot may have committed suicide or had a heart attack, but he was never arrested. Touré died of a heart attack in New York, still in power in the failed state of Guinea after 30 years; Idi Amin died in exile in a mansion in the Ivory Coast, and Machel died in a plane crash while still in power in 1986.
