Young Khmers key to the future

March 30, 2011
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

At this time, more than any other time, a "no can do" attitude and unproductive activity, including gossip, back-biting, character assassination, etc., that distracts from a common effort to struggle against a repressive autocracy should be discarded. A positive "yes, we can" attitude and activities aimed at uniting Khmers to fight for change need to be promoted.

For the last two weeks, my columns focused on the necessity for Khmer youths to cultivate quality thinking, because change is inevitable and pro-activity does influence the change they want to see. Their nation's future depends on this.

Although I am encouraged by ensuing discussions on the subject, some readers raise concerns, justifiably, that today's Khmer youths are caught in a regime that has confiscated school books, in an economy in which four million live in excruciating poverty, and attend public schools that received a mere 1.6 percent of GDP, compared to 5 percent of GDP in one of the world's poorest countries, Mozambique.

Last week, an e-mail from a young Khmer in Phnom Penh informed me that schools are open only a few hours a day, and that many young Khmers don't even know what computers are.

A former American State Department official who served in Phnom Penh, Donald Jameson, wrote of the need for "an urbanized, better educated and informed citizenry," in his article, "Cambodia's Bumpy Road." But the current regime's inexcusable neglect of the education system will only accelerate the increasingly unbridgeable economic and social disparities.

Remember that of Cambodia's 14.7 million people, more than 50 percent are younger than 21 years old -- 4.7 million are 14 and younger; 9.4 million are between 15 and 64. The median age is 22.9 years. The impact of a poorly educated citizenry is incalculable, and that impact will persist for generations.

Yet despair is not an option.

At this time, more than any other time, a "no can do" attitude and unproductive activity, including gossip, back-biting, character assassination, etc., that distracts from a common effort to struggle against a repressive autocracy should be discarded. A positive "yes, we can" attitude and activities aimed at uniting Khmers to fight for change need to be promoted.

Long journey

Recall the words of India's great leader, Mahatma Gandhi, "I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others." And recall the advice of one of the world's great civil rights icons, Martin Luther King Jr.: "Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness."

My regular readers know I am not a fan of petitions and appeals and that my inalienable rights are non-negotiable, but I stand in no one's way who does petition and appeal. I take off my hat in respect to the expatriates and others who set aside their differences to demand their inalienable rights during demonstrations sparked by the March 18 anniversary of the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk. These members of the "Lotus Revolution" hoped to focus attention on the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and to demand that Hun Sen step down.

March 18 was their first step. "A vieach york mok thveu kang; A trang york mok thveu kamm; A sam ro'nham york mok thveu oss dot," say the elder Khmers. That translates to: "Curved wood makes wheel; straight wood makes spoke; twisted-crooked wood makes firewood." The different participants of the Lotus Revolution showed that everyone and everything has a place in the struggle for freedom!

The journey promises to be long and full of risks. Though not everyone is fit for the journey, everyone can find his or her place in the struggle. Fear is counter-productive. Neither poverty nor economic inequality, nor the inevitability of political repression are ordained. With courage and persistence and a strong conviction, nothing is impossible.

As Lord Gautama Buddha, the critical thinker, said 2,500 years ago, "I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."

Personality paradigm

Equivalent to the saying, "Apples don't fall far from the tree," a Khmer reader spoke astutely of bamboo shoots, that grow into thick, tall, and rugged bamboo trees, as he lamented about the young Khmers who have been raised in a corrupt society. He wonders what kind of people they will become if this is the only culture they have known? A fair concern.

The "nature vs. nurture" debate is an old one. Various studies have posited that 45 to 50 percent -- I also read 35 to 40 percent -- of a person's personality is shaped by innate qualities or genes (nature), and the remainder is shaped by personal experiences (nurture).

At school, I taught a personality development paradigm: Man acts, or not, based on perception. One's values and beliefs (taught, or not, by parents, schools, and society), and experiences influence one's opinion and interest, and make up attitudes. When this process is at play with his innate qualities, a person's personality emerges.

A creature of habit, of repetitive thought and behavior that become ingrained, man's personality is more often predictable than not. If thoughts and behaviors are learned, so they can be unlearned. So learn from what the elders have done, keep what is beneficial and discard what is not.

There are many things to learn and unlearn.

Someone advised to achieve what one has never had, one must do what one has never done -- a corollary to Albert Einstein's definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result.

It's important to persevere. One can hypothesize that Hun Sen perpetuates a miserable education system by design to hold back progress and discourage an empowered citizenry.

Nevertheless, there is more than one route to learning. One must not acquiesce to circumstance.

It's important that young Khmers focus and engage their energy in attitude and value changes. These will precede regime change.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at

peangmeth@yahoo.com.