Tragedy In Xinjiang
It’s surprising that not that many references have been made to the deadly riots in Xinjiang in an attempt to justify OB markers and press muzzling and my sympathy goes to ex-NMP Siew Kum Hong for not being nominated for a second term.
There has been a lot of talk on what NMPs should and should not do. Mr Siew’s involvement in a straw poll on whether Bukit Batok residents wanted a by-election was often seen as “crossing the line”. But then, why is an attempt to seek public opinion seen as “non-neutral” unless some people may not be comfortable with the results?
But the biggest objections towards Mr Siew seem to come from Netizens who felt that he shouldn’t have taken sides in the AWARE saga. I’m not sure if people from a certain religious group have ganged up against him, but to me, many people seem to have forgotten that Mr Siew may have been an MP, but he had absolutely no power to change laws or dictate the outcome of parliamentary “debates”. We should certainly get worried if the Minister for Law or Home Affairs sits in at the AWARE AGM and applauds certain members while booing others, but Mr Siew? Come on! I’d rather have him than people who don’t raise eyebrows or leave any impression.
Let’s take a trip back to Xinjiang and like many people who love to travel to exotic places, Xinjiang tops my list of “Must Go Again” places. What’s the attraction there? Well, you can read any travel brochure for the details, but Xinjiang in 1997, struck me as a Chinese territory that had a character of its own. Though the Han Chinese were fast becoming a majority there, the Uyghurs stood out with their characteristic signboards, buildings, bazaars and festivals. Not far from Urumqi is Tianchi, a lake in the Tianshan mountains. The inhabitants here are mostly Kazaks. I’ve spent a night in a yurt here run by a Kazak family. Their customers were all Han Chinese or foreigners. They spoke good Mandarin and were positively pro-business, arranging ethnic dances and suggesting extras like a lamb BBQ for us. He even sent a runner to get us some beer. The boss of the tour company that arranged this trip for me was a Uyghur.
Urumqi had bazaars on Fridays and even the Han Chinese restaurants served dumplings stuffed with mutton. Several Han businessmen I’ve met showed off their linguistic talent by speaking Uyghur. Even though it’s already a modern city back then, Urumqi still exuded the exotic charm of a minority race’s culture. Sure, I noticed the differences and a lack of community bonding between the Uyghurs and the Hans, but I found the Uyghurs to be quite positive about China’s economic develpment. Absolutely nobody was going to migrate to the poorer neighbouring states. The Uyghurs had it good in Xinjiang. People here, both Hans and Uyghurs were a lot friendlier, more laid back, less grouchy and calculative than people from the other provinces. A racial riot was the last thing on my mind.
It’s 2009 now. More Han Chinese people have moved into Xinjiang, not just as tourists but as settlers. Unlike the earlier settlers, they were less sensitive to local customs and practices. Tall buildings pierce the skyline. 5-star hotels and cybercafes are everywhere. Today’s Uyghur youths sport mobile phones and can be contacted by email or SMS. Some even have notebook computers. The new airport put most domestic terminals in Thailand and Malaysia to shame. I’m quite sure the majority of Uyghurs welcome all that. But the streets of Urumqi resemble those of Bangkok. The glitzy shopping malls and sleazy karaokes have overshadowed the more traditional buildings. It’s easy to see why the traditional Uyghurs are more than a little uncomfortable. Change has come about too quickly. Not enough was done to curb some of the undesirable side effects of change.
But over the past week or so, the most glaring opinion coming from learned members of the Singapore community, is that the Uyghurs were against progress/business and hence attacking the Han immigrants. It obviously shows a lack of understanding of how Urumqi has already progressed, under Han and Uyghur leadership, into a modern and even wealthy city way back in the 90s.
Even in ancient times, Xinjiang was not just a barren desert but an oasis on the Silk Road, providing horses, food and water for traders and pilgrims. This was made possible by an ancient technology to channel glacial melts from the Tianshan mountains into the deserts. Intrepid and starving travellers from Western Tibet have reported arriving at outposts in the deserts of Xinjiang, overflowing with food, fruits and other supplies. How can one say that the natives are backward and agianst progress? They certainly weren’t and they certainly aren’t.
My take? If China still wants to fight and control separatism, it’s not only religion and the media that need to be moderated and regulated here. One also needs to moderate “progress” and “development”. As with all other cities in China, progress brought pollution, corruption, cover-ups, increased crime rate, a loss of comaradire and culture. No good Muslim or Han Buddhist, Taoist, Christian or free-thinker would chop people’s heads off like what some of the rioters did. For the violent rioters, both Han and Uyghur, it’s not about religion. It’s about the beast taking over the moral human when light-speed, unregulated wealth-seeking are the order of the day. It’s each man for himself. They would kill for their own interests. Han or Uyghur, they both love their food and their money. It’s not that the Uyghurs want to impose fundamentalist policies and fight again progress and wealth-generating projects.
The trigger point for these riots was actually an anti-Uyghur attack that occurred in a Guangdong toy factory owned by Hongkong tycoon Francis Choi. Native Guangdong workers entered a Uyghur dormitory and attacked, killing 2 and injuring 118. Apparently, these workers were acting on an unsubstatiated claim by a Guangdong woman that she was raped by two Uyghur men. Had the lawless workers been arrested and publicly punished as they deserved, it would have been far more difficult to spark off Uyghur anger in Xinjiang.
What should have been done? In the age of SMS and broadband internet, anything that happened in Guangdong is only an SMS away from Urumqi. Covering things up won’t work in this century.
Many of us in so-called developed countries dream of accumulating wealth and retiring in a peaceful, unspoilt paradise island. How would we feel if the paradise we have retired to turns into the same noisy, hustling, bustling city of crowded MRTs, expressionless faces, traffic jams, COEs, ERPs a 3/4 tank rules? Do we not feel cheated? Was the island paradise not developed enough already? Where do we go from there?
Well, there are some people who don’t wish to go anywhere. While some city states are made up of immigrants with no shared culture and history, Xinjiang is very different, with rich cultures, traditions and a history of which the people are proud. What happens if you start changing the face of a once peaceful, religious and sufficiently well-endowed land, with which the people are quite contented, turning it into an economic powerhouse that only worships money? Everybody wants the economy to be good, but the economy isn’t everything.
