中國網站品牌欄目（頻道）
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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) |
在文萊，有一個特殊的華裔族群，他們生在文萊，長在文萊，生活富足，接受過良好教育，享有較高的社會地位，同時也熱愛著文萊。 然而，在他們護照上的“國籍”一欄里填寫的卻不是“文萊”，而是“無國籍”，不過，現在已經改成了“永久性居民”。 65歲的林文華（Lim Boon Hwa）就是成千上萬名此類居民中的一員，不過他所扮演的是領導者的角色，他是文萊-中國友好協會的副會長，同時也是一名商人。 他說：“文萊是英國的殖民地時，我們持有的是英國護照。但文萊獨立后，就成了無國籍。為什么事情變的更糟糕了？” 在文萊這個曾是英國殖民地的東南亞多民族國家，并不能因為在文萊出生就擁有文萊的公民身份和一系列的權利與社會福利，這一切都是由居民原有的民族血統決定的。 1984年文萊獨立后，僅有9000名華裔獲得了完全的文萊公民身份，而其他大約兩萬名像林文華一樣的華裔則失去了國籍。 “我出入自己的國家時必須持有簽證，任何時候出國通過海關時，必須用大量現金證明自己不是難民。”林文華說。 在文萊連續居住25年以上，并取得了一定的語言和文化資質就可以獲得文萊國籍，但馬來語考試卻非常復雜，甚至需要居民詳細了解當地動植物的專有名稱，這使一些華裔居民不得不選擇移民。 林文華說：“這對文萊來說是一個損失，因為這些移民中很多都是訓練有素的技術人員，在文萊的石油產業工作了數十年。” 林文華本人參加過2次考試，均以失敗告終。他曾經考慮移民澳大利亞，但最終決定留下來向這個每年只允許200人參加的考試體系發起挑戰。 “我們尊重憲法。但考試的目的應當是歡迎那些具備成為市民資格的人們而非抵制他們。可能參加100次考試我也無法通過，或者說，一輩子也考不過。”林文華說。 在與華裔社區的同胞們進行過討論之后，林文華和其他兩位華裔居民撰寫了一份準備提交政府的諒解備忘錄，建議縮小考試范圍，并增加人們允許參與考試的次數。 “有人認為對政府說‘不’不是一個好主意，但我認為必須讓政府知道我們面臨的困境。”林文華說，這份備忘錄準備過程中的每一個細節他都歷歷在目。 “幸運的是，當你證明某些方面確實存在缺陷的時候，文萊政府是鼓勵對其進行改進的。” 林文華成功了。國籍法修改案在21世紀之初獲得通過，規定50歲以上的無國籍居民只需通過口語測試就可以獲得文萊國籍，無需再參加筆試。現在每次測試允許1000人參加。 由于強大的教育背景，林文華無法參加馬來語口語測試，然而其他眾多居民卻因他的努力而獲益。 相關閱讀 （中國日報記者趙盛楠文萊斯里巴加灣市報道） |
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