Racism in Asia

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Contents 1 Brunei 2 China 2.1 Hong Kong 3 India 4 Indonesia 5 Korea 6 Japan 7 Malaysia 8 Pakistan 9 Russia 10 Taiwan 11 References 12 See also

[edit] Brunei

Brunei, is a monarchy and a very conservative Islamic country. The majority of Malay Bruneians view themselves as being superior to the expatriate workforce. Racism is widespread in Brunei, especially towards people of South Asian origin who are referred to as 'Kalings' (a variation of Keling in nearby Malaysia and Singapore). People of other ethnicities are also subject to a range of discriminatory laws that give preference to ethnic Malays with regard to health, education and business ownership. People who are permanent residents of Brunei (referred to as 'pink ic holders') are officially regarded as stateless and are not recognised by the government. This could be considered a form of racism as these residents are more likely to be of Chinese ethnicity and face a multitude of problems when they attempt to enter a foreign country.

[edit] China

Main article: Racism in the People's Republic of China

For decades African students in China have been treated with hostility and prejudice. Their complaints regarding their treatment were largely ignored until 1988-9, when "students rose up in protest against what they called 'Chinese apartheid'". African officials, who had until then ignored the problem, took notice of the issue. The Organization of African Unity issued an official protest, and the organization's chairman, Mali's president Moussa Traoré, went on a fact-finding mission to China. The issue was so severe that, according to a Guardian 1989 Third World Report titled "'Chinese apartheid' threatens links with Africa", "'Chinese apartheid', as the African students call it, could threaten Peking's entire relationship with the continent."

Further information: Anti-Japanese sentiment in China

Anti-Japanese sentiment in China is an issue with old roots. Japan started off like other Western powers by annexing land from China towards the end of the Qing Dynasty. Dissatisfaction with the settlement and the Twenty-One Demands by the Japanese government led to a severe boycott of Japanese products in China. Bitterness in China persists over the atrocities of the Second Sino-Japanese War and Japan's post-war actions. Today, textbook revisionism and censorship remain contentious issues. Japanese are not well liked because of the Nanjing Massacre.

[edit] Hong Kong

In a population of almost 7 million [2] Hong Kong has gained a reputation as international city, while remaining predominantly Chinese. This multi-culturalism has raised issues of racial and sex discrimination, particularly among the 350,000 ethnic minorities such as Nepalese, Indians, Indonesians, Pakistanis and Filipinos, who have long established minority communities since the founding days of the former colony or have come to Hong Kong recently to work as domestic workers. For example, filipina females are often addresses by the degratory term "Pan Moi" and male Filipino Pan Ji. There are also around 380,000 immigrants from mainland China who have also suffered discrimination [3], as evidenced by cases of high unemployment rates, poor working conditions, psychological and physical violence, lack of minimum wage. In 2003, the number of complaints filed with the body handling discrimination issues, the Equal Opportunities Commission [4] was up by 31 percent.

A race discrimination bill has been demanded by human rights groups for the last 10 years, and the government has been accused of putting the issue on the back burner.

Last December 3, 2006 was the first time a drafted bill was released onto the Legislative Council, and is expected to be passed before the end of 2008. However, the bill is criticized to be "too conservative" [5]. The exclusion of mainland Chinese immigrants has also been a source of controversy, with the government claiming that they are not considered to be of a different race. Another issue of the bill has been of language instruction in schools. Low-income ethinic minority parents who cannot afford to send their children to English-instruction schools have to send them to Chinese-instruction schools, where they fall behind in classes or make little progress.

[edit] India

See also: Dalit, British Raj, Indo-Aryan migration, Aryanism during the British Raj, and Indian Caste System

The earliest rejection of discrimination spiritually, was made as far back as the Hindu sacred text of Bhagavada Gita, which says that no person, no matter what, is barred from enlightenment. Even early Hindu texts such as the Rig Veda discourage the abuse of outcastes. The text reads, "Indra, you lifted up the outcast who was oppressed, you glorified the blind and the lame." (Rg-Veda 2:13:12)^[1]. The caste system was equivalent to division of labour and a Shudra's son (the lowest caste) could become a Brahmin. But later this system became hereditary and a Shudra's son would remain a Shudra. During the British Raj, racist views against Indians based on the systemic scientific racism practiced in Europe at the time were popularized. Views include dividing linguistic groups into ethnic "classes" (see Historical definitions of races in India),[6].

It is claimed by some activists [7] that casteism practised in India is a form of racism, but this is debated by those who believe that casteism has nothing to do with physical attributes, unlike racism. At the UN world conference on racism (August 31 - September 7 2001) the Indian Government opposed the discussion of caste in the conference, saying that "the caste issue is not the same as racism" [8].

Such allegations have also been rejected by many sociologists such as Andre Béteille, who writes that treating caste as a form of racism is "politically mischievous" and worse, "scientifically nonsense" since there is no discernible difference in the racial characteristics between Brahmins and Scheduled Castes. He writes that "Every social group cannot be regarded as a race simply because we want to protect it against prejudice and discrimination".^[2] In addition, the view of the caste system as "static and unchanging" (which would indicate a form of racial discrimination) has been disputed by many scholars. Sociologists describe how the perception of the caste system as a static and textual stratification has given way to the perception of the caste system as a more processual, empirical and contextual stratification. Others have applied theoretical models to explain mobility and flexibility in the caste system in India.^[3]. According to these scholars, groups of lower-caste individuals could seek to elevate the status of their caste by attempting to emulate the practices of higher castes.

Sociologist M. N. Srinivas has also debated the question of rigidity in Caste.^[4][5] For details see sanskritization.

Pakistani-American sociologist Ayesha Jalal also rejects these allegations. In her book, "Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia", she writes that "As for Hinduism, the hierarchical principles of the Brahmanical social order have always been contested from within Hindu society, suggesting that equality has been and continues to be both valued and practiced."^[6]

Historically, many Hindu reform movements have actively combated casteism and the practice of untouchability (segregation of the lower castes). In order to curb the practice of caste-based discrimination, numerous laws, including constitutional laws, have been passed in India outlawing casteist discrimination. ^[7]Special quotas are provided to the lower castes in access to schools and jobs. Lower caste political parties have achieved increasing prominence in the Indian political landscape since India's independence. The public practice of casteism has diminished significantly among the large urban and cosmopolitan classes in India. Nonetheless, the fight to end casteism is an uphill struggle, especially in rural areas where education and modernity are scarce, and numerous hate crimes have taken place in India that have been attributed to Casteism.

India's treatment of its lower-class Dalits has been described by UNESCO as "India's hidden apartheid".^[8] According to Rajeev Dhavan, of India's leading English-language newspaper The Hindu, "casteism is India's apartheid which will continue in its most vicious and persistent forms for decades to come."^[9] In the Indian caste system, a Dalit, often called an untouchable, is a person who lay outside the Indian Caste System. Historically, Hindu Dalits were forbidden to worship in temples and Muslim Dalits forbidden in mosques [9]. Dalits who converted to Christianity are frequently discriminated against by upper-caste Catholic priests and nuns.^[10][10] The majority of rural Dalits still live in segregation and experience atrocities to the scale of 110,000 registered cases a year according to 2005 statistics.^[11]

However, such allegations of apartheid are regarded by academic sociologists as a political epithet, since apartheid implies state sponsored discrimination, and no such thing exists in India. Anti-dalit prejudice and discrimination is a social malaise that exists primarily in rural areas, where small societies can track the caste lineage of individuals and discriminate accordingly. Sociologists Kevin Reilly, Stephen Kaufman, Angela Bodino, while being critical of casteism, conclude that modern India does not practice any "apartheid" since there is no state sanctioned discrimination.^[12] They write that Casteism in India is presently "not apartheid. In fact, untouchables, as well as tribal people and members of the lowest castes in India benefit from broad affirmative action programmes and are enjoying greater political power."^[12]

[edit] Indonesia

See Jakarta Riots of May 1998 and Anti-Chinese legislation in Indonesia.

A number of discriminatory laws against Chinese Indonesians were enacted by the government of Indonesia. In 1959, President Soekarno approved PP 10/1959 that forced Chinese Indonesians to close their businesses in rural areas and relocate into urban areas. Moreover, political pressures in the 1970s and 1980s restricted the role of the Chinese Indonesian in politics, academics, and the military. As a result, they were thereafter constrained professionally to becoming entrepreneurs and professional managers in trade, manufacturing, and banking. In the 1960s, following the failed alleged Communist coup attempt in 1965, there was a strong sentiment against the Chinese Indonesians who were accused of being Communist collaborators. In 1998, Indonesia riots over higher food prices and rumors of hoarding by merchants and shopkeepers often degenerated into anti-Chinese attacks.^[13]

Amnesty International has estimated more than 100,000 Papuans, one-sixth of the population, have died as a result of government-sponsored violence against West Papuans,^[14] while others had previously specified much higher death tolls.^[15] The 1990s saw Indonesia accelerate its Transmigration program, under which hundreds of thousands of Javanese and Sumatran migrants were resettled to Papua over a ten-year period. Prior to Indonesian rule, the Asian population was estimated at 16,600. Critics suspect that the Transmigration program's purpose is to tip the balance of the province's population from the heavily Melanesian Papuans toward western Indonesians, thus further consolidating Indonesian control.^[16]

[edit] Korea

Koreans tend to equate nationality or citizenship with membership in a single, homogeneous ethnic group or "race" (minjok, in Korean).^[17] A common language and culture also are viewed as important elements in Korean identity. The idea of multiracial or multiethnic nations, like Canada or the United States, strikes many Koreans as odd or even contradictory. Both North Korea and South Korea are among the world's most ethnically homogeneous nations. South Korean schools have been criticized for hiring only white Americans who apply to teach English, because Koreans regard fair skin color as representative of "American" or "English"-ness.^[18][19] Other than that, there is widespread prevailing discrimination in Korea. People generally believe in a state of "pure blood" ^[20].

[edit] Japan

Further information: Ethnic issues in Japan

Japanese society, with its ideology of homogeneity, has traditionally been intolerant of ethnic and other differences. It is safe to say that there has been a strong sense of xenophobia since it has opened borders to foreigners. For example, the Dutch sailors landed on the Japanese shore were characterized by their "butter-like" body odor, hairiness, and unsophisticated behavior. Those who were identified as different might be considered "polluted" —- the category applied historically to the outcasts of Japan, particularly the hisabetsu buraku, "discriminated communities," often called burakumin, a term some find offensive —- and thus not suitable as marriage partners or employees. Men or women of mixed ancestry, those with family histories of certain diseases, and foreigners, and members of minority groups faced discrimination in a variety of forms. In 2005, a United Nations report expressed concerns about racism in Japan and that government recognition of the depth of the problem was not total.^[21][22] The author of the report, Doudou Diène (Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights), concluded after a nine-day investigation that racial discrimination and xenophobia in Japan primarily affects three groups: national minorities, Latin Americans of Japanese descent, mainly Japanese Brazilians, and foreigners from "poor" countries.^[23]

Japan accepted just 16 refugees in 1999, while the United States took in 85,010 for resettlement, according to the UNHCR. New Zealand, which is 30 times smaller than Japan, accepted 1,140 refugees in 1999. Just 305 persons were recognized as refugees by Japan from 1981, when Japan ratified the U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to 2002.^[24][25] Japanese Minister Taro Aso has called Japan a "one race" nation.^[26]

Ainu people are an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaidō, northern Honshū, the Kuril Islands, much of Sakhalin, and the southernmost third of the Kamchatka peninsula. As Japanese settlement expanded, the Ainu were pushed northward, until by the Meiji period they were confined by the government to a small area in Hokkaidō, in a manner similar to the placing of American Indians on reservations.^[27]

[edit] Malaysia

Malaysia is multi–ethnic country, with Malays making up the majority—close to 52% of the population. About 30% of the population are Chinese Malaysians—Malaysians of Chinese descent)—and Indian Malaysians—Malaysians of Indian descent—comprise about 8% of the population.^[28]

Economic policies designed to favour Bumiputras (ethnic Malays), including affirmative action in public education, were implemented in the 1970s in order to defuse inter-ethnic tensions following the May 13 Incident in 1969. However, these policies have not been fully effective in eradicating poverty among rural Bumiputras and have further caused a backlash especially from Chinese and Indian minorities. The policies are enshrined in the Malaysian constitution and questioning them is technically illegal.^{[citations needed]}

99% of Petronas directors are ethnic Malays, only 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese, only 5% of all new intakes for government army, nurses, polices, are non-Malays, just 7% of government servants in the whole government are ethnic Chinese (2004), drop from 30% in 1960, and 95% of all government contracts are given to Malays.^[29]

Both major ethnic groups have their own control and power. UMNO, the ruling political party, depends on the majority Malay population for votes by using laws that give Malays priority over other races in areas such as employment.^{[citations needed]} However, it is also need to mention that Chinese Malaysians control about 98 percent of the non-government sector, and they rarely employ Malays and not to mention the Indian Malaysians.^{[citations needed]}

The Malay controlled government ensures that all Bumiputeras of Malay origin are given preferential treatment when it comes to the number of student places in Government universities, they are also given 7% discounts for new houses purchased by them, special Malay reserve land in most housing settlements, burial plots in most urban areas for the deceased Bumiputeras while the rest have to be cremated at such locations or pay premium prices, that all key government positions to be held by Malays including most sporting associations, a minimum of a 30% Malay Bumiputera equity to be held in Listed Companies, full funding for mosques and Islamic places of worship, special high earning interest trust funds for Bumiputera Malays, special share allocation for new share applications for Bumiputera Malays, making the Malay language paper a compulsory paper to pass with such high emphasis given to it, giving Malay students easier passing marks in the Government exams, better treatment of Malay prisoners in jail compared to non Malays, Overseas scholarships mostly for Malays, having certain higher learning institutions to be only filled up by Malays, biased court rulings against people who wish to leave the Islamic religion, just to name a few. This is a case of majority rights which is totally against all orthodox beliefs of constitutional law.

Places of worship for different races (Indian temples and Churches) have also been destroyed by Malaysian authorities including several ancient sites, including the 100-year old Maha Mariamman Temple in Padang Jawa. Street Protests by Indian Malaysians against discrimination took place in Kuala Lumpur on 26th November 2007 and were put down by the authorities and the leaders arrested.

[edit] Pakistan

Main article: 1971 Bangladesh atrocities

A strong anti-Bengali sentiment existed in the government machinery of West Pakistan before 1971.^[30]The genocide and gendercidal atrocities perpetrated by the Muslim-majority Pakistani regime during the liberation war of Bangladesh were strongly motivated by anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Bengali Hindu minority. ^[31] It should be pointed out, however, that two ethnic Bengalis: Muhammad Ali Bogra, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy held the highest office of Prime Minister of Pakistan. Historian Christoffe Jaffrelot argues in his landmark work "Pakistan. Nationalism without a Nation" that contemporary Pakistan is essentially little more than a Punjabi racial ethnocracy.He refers to the phenomenon as the "Punjabization of Pakistan"^[32]He observes systemic ethnic and cultural irredentism in Pakistan that intentionally minimizes and disparages non-Punjabis. Other ethnic and sectarian strife in Pakistan that have roots in perceptions of race are the Muhajir Urdu movement, and Pashtun nationalism.

See also: Martial_Race

[edit] Russia

Further information: Racism in modern Russia, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, and History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union

The term "pogrom" became commonly used in English after a large-scale wave of anti-Jewish riots swept through south-western Czarist Russia in 1881–1884. A much bloodier wave of pogroms broke out in 1903–1906, leaving an estimated 2,000 Jews dead. By the beginning of the 20th century, most European Jews lived in the so-called Pale of Settlement, the Western frontier of the Russian Empire consisting generally of the modern-day countries of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and neighboring regions. Many pogroms accompanied the Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing Russian Civil War, an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 civilian Jews were killed in the atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire; the number of Jewish orphans exceeded 300,000.^[33][34]

Racism inside Russia is quite a modern post-USSR phenomenon that has been steadily growing in the past decade. In the 2000s, neo-Nazi groups inside Russia have risen to include as many as tens of thousands of people. [11] Racism against the peoples of the Caucasus, Africans, Central Asians and East Asians (Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.) is an ever-increasing problem. [12]

A Pew Global opinion poll showed that 25% of Russians had an unfavorable view of Jews. [13] Racism towards central Asians is said to be widespread.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Taiwan

The Nationality Law of the Republic of China has been criticized^[35] for its methods of determining which immigrants get citizenship.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

Racism by country

v • d • e Racism History of racism Apartheid • The Holocaust • Racism in the United States • Anti-racism • Civil rights movement Racist ideologies White supremacy • Black supremacy • Social Darwinism • Nazism • Aryanism Acts of racism Institutional racism • State racism • Racial profiling • Racism by country • Hate speech • Racial segregation • Stereotype • Scientific racism • Slavery • Crime of apartheid Racial violence Ethnic cleansing • Hate crime • Race war • Genocide • Lynching Racism against groups Native Americans • Arabs • Armenians • Blacks • Chinese • Iranians • Irish • Italians • Japanese • Jews • Mexicans • Poles • Roma people • South Asians • East Asians • Whites Racist groups Ku Klux Klan • Neo-Nazis • Grey Wolves • South African National Party • Nation of Islam Anti-racist groups and movements NAACP • Anti-Defamation League • Anti-Fascist Action • Civil Rights Movement • Southern Poverty Law Center • Searchlight