Since the Angkor time, the word is more or less the same no matter how the country has changed.
It's been so hard a time for these few folks that they've come to love their country {too?} much.
"If I will be rewarded for my meritorious acts, I wish to be empowered to rebuild the pride of those who had sacrificed their lives for their visions that they brought for the land and the people and that for centuries never died." Khemara Phoumirak
For the source of the inscription, read http://sokheounpang.wordpress.com/if-i-am-reborn-i-wish-to-be-reborn-as-khmer-again/.