The Xinjiang conflict Looking at the Chinese paper currency, the renminbi (RMB) amid news report of uprising in China’s Xinjiang reminds me of language and culture diversity in the context of conflict between state and ethnic groups. If notice, we will see five different scripts at the back side of the RMB banknote at the right corner in Chinese [written in Romanized script] it says “Zhongguo Renmin Yinhang” and other four scripts; Uyghur, Mongolian, Tibetan and Zhuang for minorities in China. As academic Arienne M Dwyer from East-West Center put it in her booklet : The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy, and Political Discourse saying “the presence of these four minority-script phases illustrates that relation of writing to high language prestige in China.” RMB banknoteChina also has conflict with Islamic-ethnic minorities in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region which Uyghur nationalists call it “East Turkistan” or “Uyghuristan” in west part of the communist ruled country. The region shares one-sixth the huge country with more than one percent of Chinese population or some 18 millions. China, since the ancient time through the modern communist regime, wants to maintain its hold of Xinjiang and don’t want to see it develops into something like Tibet or Taiwan. China claims Xinjiang and the Uyghurs have been part of China since ancient times, dating back to the first century BC but Uyghur aspirations to be independence never disappears. Uprising against communist ruling has erupted time to time in recent history between 1980s and 1990s. Nonetheless, there has not been hot conflict in Xinjiang like those in Palestine, Chechnya, Aceh, Mindanao and Southern Thailand until recently. China knows very well that the solution to ethnic conflict would include linguistic and cultural autonomy for major ethnic groups. Language policy in border regions responds to local condition and as professor Dwyer cites in her study on the Xingjiang Conflict the policy is one of the most flexible in the world. However, in order to build “one China”, such policy has been changed nearly two decades ago and thus multilingualism and cultural pluralism were replaced by monolingual and monoculture. Beijing has shifted from cultural accommodation to a policy of assimilation. Of course, minority languages still exist in their respective region and these scripts in small RMB banknotes remain but Beijing has a covert policy of monolingualism through education reform conducting classes, except on language subjects, in standard Chinese. This policy shift served only to reinforce of both Uyghur nationalism and small separatist movements. A series of violence in Xinjiang drew international attention since April 1990 when an uprising attacked local government office and police. A number of violence including bus bombings took place since then in 1992 and 1997, bloody protest in July 2009 as well as the Kunming attack on March 1, which Beijing also blamed Uyghur. The Xinjiang story is a lesson for Thai elites and officials who are struggling to contain violence in the predominantly Muslim region. They put a lot of effort to assimilate the Muslim Malayu in the deep south by employing their Thai nationalism ideology to overrule local nationalism. The method is a counterproductive. The Thai nationalism fails to take superior over the Malay. They clash and produce violence, instead.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 05:15:46 +0000
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