"[Macbeth is] not without ambition" (Shakespeare I.v.18).
Macbeth and Pol Pot were ambitious, determined people who both had a single selfish goal. While Macbeth aimed for power to call his own, Pot strove to shape his country to fit his personal vision, not considering that it would abolish the values of others.
"It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul's flight,/ If it find heaven, must find it to-night" (III.i.141-142).
Both Macbeth and Pol Pot would sentence to death anyone who they suspected were disloyal. Much like Macbeth, Pot grew paranoid and extended his murders to many of his long-lasting colleagues from the Khmer Rouge, all to secure his reign and power.
"Alas! Poor country;/ Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot/ Be called our mother, but our grave; where nothing,/ But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;/ Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rent the air/ Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems/ A modern ecstasy; the dead man's knell/ Is there scarce ask'd for who; and good men's lives/ Expire before the flowers in their caps,/ Dying or ere they sicken" (IV.iii.164-173).
Under the rule of the tyrants, both Scotland and Cambodia suffered greatly. The lifestyles of both countries deteriorated, becoming full of pain and fear. Violence and death became a common occurrence in the lives of the Scottish and Cambodians alike, especially with the slave labour enforced on the Cambodians.
"Now does he feel/ His secret murders sticking on his hands...Now does he feel his title/ Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief" (V.ii.17-18 and 20-22).
Both Macbeth and Pol Pot proved not to care for the well-being of their people, therefore showing that they were not fit to rule their countries. Even though Pot's vision was to create an "ideal" society for Cambodia, he brutally forced his citizens into it, not considering their opinions or rights. The millions of Cambodians who were put into slave labour were told by the Khmer Rouge that "whether [they] live or die is not of great significance" ("Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979").