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【走出国门】文莱华裔不再“无国籍”
【Beyond Boundaries】Stateless residents fight for sense of belonging in Brunei

[ 2013-12-26 16:44] 来源:中国日报精选     字号 [] [] []  
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【走出国门】文莱华裔不再“无国籍”

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There is a special group of ethnic Chinese in Brunei: they were born and raised in the country; they are well-off, well-educated and enjoy social status. They also love the country.

However, what is printed in the "nationality" column of their passport is not "Brunei". It once read "stateless" but now declares "permanent resident".

Lim Boon Hwa, 65, is one of the hundreds of thousands of these residents but he played a leading role, with others, in getting "stateless" removed.

"We held British passports under Britain's colonization. Then after independence, we became stateless. Why have things become worse?" asked Lim, vice-president of the Brunei-China Friendship Association and a businessman.

In Brunei, a multi-ethnic former British colony in Southeast Asia, citizenship, along with a range of rights and social welfare, is not granted automatically to everyone born within its borders, but is determined by ethnic descent.

After independence in 1984, only about 9,000 ethnic Chinese were given full Brunei citizenship. The others, about 20,000, like Lim, lost their nationality.

"I had to have a visa when going in or out of my own country, and whenever I went through customs abroad, I had to prove, with a lot of cash in hand, that I was not a refugee," he said.

Citizenship could be obtained if applicants had resided in the country for 25 consecutive years, and met language and cultural qualifications. But the complicated Malay language exam, which apparently required a detailed knowledge of the terms for local plants and animals, led many Chinese to emigrate.

"This was a loss for Brunei. Many of the emigrants were skilled technicians who worked for Brunei's oil industry for decades," said Lim.

Lim failed the exam twice and thought of moving to Australia. But he eventually decided to stay and try to change the system, which only allowed 200 people to take the exam every year.

"We respect the Constitution. But the exam's purpose should be to invite those who are qualified to be citizens, instead of going against them. I wouldn't have passed it even if I tried a hundred times; or, I would have passed away before I got it," he said.

After discussions with the Chinese community, Lim and two others prepared a memorandum for Brunei's government, suggesting it narrow the scope of the exam and increase the number of times people could sit it.

"Some people said it was not a good idea saying 'no' to the government, but I think we had to make them aware of our predicament," said Lim, who could recall every detail of the preparation process.

"The lucky thing was that Brunei's government encouraged improvement if you managed to prove something was flawed," he said.

Lim did it. Reform of the nationality law, passed in the early 2000s, allows stateless persons over the age of 50 to acquire citizenship by passing an oral, rather than a written, nationality test. Every test now allows 1,000 people to sit it.

But because of a strong background in education, Lim was excluded from the oral test, while others gained from his hard work.

By Zhao Shengnan in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei ( China Daily)

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在文莱,有一个特殊的华裔族群,他们生在文莱,长在文莱,生活富足,接受过良好教育,享有较高的社会地位,同时也热爱着文莱。

然而,在他们护照上的“国籍”一栏里填写的却不是“文莱”,而是“无国籍”,不过,现在已经改成了“永久性居民”。

65岁的林文华(Lim Boon Hwa)就是成千上万名此类居民中的一员,不过他所扮演的是领导者的角色,他是文莱-中国友好协会的副会长,同时也是一名商人。

他说:“文莱是英国的殖民地时,我们持有的是英国护照。但文莱独立后,就成了无国籍。为什么事情变的更糟糕了?”

在文莱这个曾是英国殖民地的东南亚多民族国家,并不能因为在文莱出生就拥有文莱的公民身份和一系列的权利与社会福利,这一切都是由居民原有的民族血统决定的。

1984年文莱独立后,仅有9000名华裔获得了完全的文莱公民身份,而其他大约两万名像林文华一样的华裔则失去了国籍。

“我出入自己的国家时必须持有签证,任何时候出国通过海关时,必须用大量现金证明自己不是难民。”林文华说。

在文莱连续居住25年以上,并取得了一定的语言和文化资质就可以获得文莱国籍,但马来语考试却非常复杂,甚至需要居民详细了解当地动植物的专有名称,这使一些华裔居民不得不选择移民。

林文华说:“这对文莱来说是一个损失,因为这些移民中很多都是训练有素的技术人员,在文莱的石油产业工作了数十年。”

林文华本人参加过2次考试,均以失败告终。他曾经考虑移民澳大利亚,但最终决定留下来向这个每年只允许200人参加的考试体系发起挑战。

“我们尊重宪法。但考试的目的应当是欢迎那些具备成为市民资格的人们而非抵制他们。可能参加100次考试我也无法通过,或者说,一辈子也考不过。”林文华说。

在与华裔社区的同胞们进行过讨论之后,林文华和其他两位华裔居民撰写了一份准备提交政府的谅解备忘录,建议缩小考试范围,并增加人们允许参与考试的次数。

“有人认为对政府说‘不’不是一个好主意,但我认为必须让政府知道我们面临的困境。”林文华说,这份备忘录准备过程中的每一个细节他都历历在目。

“幸运的是,当你证明某些方面确实存在缺陷的时候,文莱政府是鼓励对其进行改进的。”

林文华成功了。国籍法修改案在21世纪之初获得通过,规定50岁以上的无国籍居民只需通过口语测试就可以获得文莱国籍,无需再参加笔试。现在每次测试允许1000人参加。

由于强大的教育背景,林文华无法参加马来语口语测试,然而其他众多居民却因他的努力而获益。

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(中国日报记者赵盛楠文莱斯里巴加湾市报道)

 
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