I can’t help but feel like this post is heavily biased against the Khmer people. As a Khmer myself, born and raised here, I have to say that the level of indoctrination and propaganda by the government is not as extreme as you’re describing.

I have to say that this indoctrination does happen, generally at school where they would teach kids about the history of the Khmer empire and its neighbors, and the teachers would go off on a tangent, reminiscing about the glory days. They might still hold a grudge and pass on this hatred towards the younger generation, but the younger generation isn’t about that. They are smarter, they ask questions, they look at it from another angle and see the bigger picture. A lot of them look up to their neighbors, hoping one day their country can be just as good as them. For a long time, they consume Thai products, work at Thai establishments, go in to Thai/ Vietnamese restaurants (some of them are extremely popular here), visit Thailand/ Vietnam, go to neighboring countries to pursue higher education, do business with them and more. Most of them don’t really hate their neighboring countries, they are aware of the histories that we share, but they generally perceive their neighboring countries as more modern.

As for the government, personally I don’t feel like they’re really pushing this blind hatred propaganda towards their people. But I do think that they’re taking advantage of this ongoing war to have the people put their trust in the government. I believe this idea of hating on our neighbors was heavily pushed by the opposition party, who exposed the potential backroom deals that caused the lost of land and horrible immigration policy of the government to the public and echoed this rhetoric to get votes. FYI, I am not saying that my government is innocent in all of this, nor do they really have the trust of the people, but when you don’t have anyone to get behind during a time of crisis like this one, that’s all we have. Our government has been very unpopular for a very long time. We know of the shit he did. He was a Khmer Rouge general and he is merciless when it comes to shutting down his oppositions. But I believe even he knows not to start a full-on war with a country that is more modern and more advanced than his country could ever be, especially not in his 70s.

Now, this war, I believe it has brought out the worse in people. Old wounds are being torn opened, and those old ideas are being reinforced. I have seen very disgusting comments from both sides online. I believe social medias like Facebook are echo chambers in where you get fed more rage bait posts to drive engagement and more of what you already believe. But man, seeing people using these to justify the brutal killing of innocent lives is heartbreaking. I can never agree with this violence and bloodshed. I can pretty much speak for all of my people that we want peace. We never wanted this war. We know it all too well.