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Taiwan and Her People

By Vanii

Suppose, there is freedom of thought in a particular country but people's minds are influenced by innumerable dogmas -- What is the remedy? What step can be taken to remove the dogmas?

All the countries of the world suffer from dogma. Religion means dogma, communism means dogma, capitalism means dogma -- all the political `isms' are expressions of dogma… Dogma is rampant in the political sphere also. The dogma of a number of countries does not even recognise the existence of a certain other country even though the people of that country were the original settlers and they have every right to live there. But that country is a developed country -- according to cardinal human principles, should it not get proper recognition by the nations of the world? These are the plays of dogma.

(Excerpt from Prama’－4 of PROUT in a Nutshell Part 9 by Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, the propounder of PROUT)

Who were the original settlers of Taiwan? Some say Changpin culture from the southern China about 30,000 or 10,000 years ago. Some say the ancestors of Taiwanese aborigines from different directions went back to 7,000 years ago because Changpin culture lasted until 5,000 years ago. Many archaeological relics may have vanished or have not been discovered yet, but the history of Taiwan says the aborigines were the major inhabitants before the 18th century.

According to linguisticians, Taiwanese aborigines are the Austronesian family, which includes peoples from the island of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, all the way to tiny, isolated Easter Island, and extending north to Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Pacific and Indian Ocean islands, and southwards to New Zealand.

The derivation of the word "Austronesia" is austro plus nesia, and the Austric language family includes Austro-Asiatic and Austronesian. Interestingly, Shrii P. R. Sarkar mentions that the Austrics originated from Asia and the aborigines and Maoris of Australia and New Zealand all belong to the Austric branch, which did not have its own script and they became familiar with Roman script when Christian missionaries came in contact with them while proselytizing.

It was reported by BBC in 1998 that Dr. Geoffrey Chambers at Victoria University in Wellington, NZ thought the origin of Maoris was in China, but he told ABC in 2003 that it was in Southeast Asia or mainland Asia. Others favor Taiwan origin while some official websites in China say that the ancestors of Taiwanese aborigines came from the southern China.

From Shrii P. R. Sarkar's discourses, however, I presume that the origin of the Austronesians may have been India's ancient Austrics. Gond people, the original inhabitants of Gondwanaland, may have evolved from the first human beings one million years ago in Rarh. As for the origin of Homo sapiens, I prefer "Out of Rarh Hypothesis" (scholars' so-called Out of Asia) and "Singleregional Hypothesis" to "Out of Africa Hypothesis" and "Multiregional Hypothesis". Homo erectus in Java, China and Africa may have been extinct due to the fierce onslaught of hostile nature. But Rarh's Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens and then the single species of Homo sapiens scattered itself over different parts of the world and eventually evolved into the Aryans, the Austrics, the Negroes and the Mongolians.

Moreover, Chinese pictorial script emerged 6,000 years ago. But Taiwanese aborigines did not have their own script until the Dutch missionaries taught them Roman script when the Dutch occupied Taiwan between 1624 and 1662 (the 17th century). From then on, in fact, Taiwanese inhabitants began to suffer economic and political exploitation -- from the Dutch, the Spanish, the Chinese Ming Dynasty (Cheng Cheng-kung), the Chinese Qing Dynasty and Japan to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) led by Chiang Kai-shek.

With Ming and Qing Dynasties' occupation of Taiwan, the Chinese came in flocks here. In the 18th century, the Chinese population outnumbered the aboriginal population. Even Chiang Kai-shek accompanied by over one million followers fled here in 1949.

Many always refuse to admit "Taiwan was/is part of China" to be the Chinese imperialism and feudal ideas, even claim "Taiwan has belonged to China from time immemorial". This is not only a dogma but also fascism. Furthermore, it hides an expansionist move like Great Britain toward Northern Ireland, Japan toward Manchuria and China toward Tibet. If 75% Nepalese of Sikkim and 78% Chinese of Singapore use the same logic to claim “Sikkim is part of Nepal” and “Singapore is part of China” separately, that will be ridiculous!

The people of Taiwan have enjoyed freedom of thought, speech etc. since one-party totalitarianism of the KMT was forced to lift the 38-year martial law decree in 1987 under the pressure of the people. But so far dogma has been rampant in the education.

In terms of cardinal human principles/values and socio-economic unit of PROUT, Taiwan as sovereign independent nation is tenable even though the Chinese Communism has collapsed. And I don't think that East-West Germany model can be applied to the so-called China-Taiwan unification (I don't say "reunification"). [END]

Copyright The author 2004