It is with great sadness that we must deliver a failing grade to Chinese democracy. Mr. Christos' personal incompetence was the downfall of Xinjiang; the disgrace of the Republic of China is at the hands of an oligarchy likewise out of touch with its own populace. The shadow of dictatorship still looms over the country: barely a year into the first trial of the democratic process, it has already been co-opted, the will of the people subverted by the well-spoken few who advance a bizarre agenda of historical revisionism and cultural favouritism. Though it boasts of having achieved plurality and transparency, the government perpetuates the same alarming trend of top-down management as its authoritarian predecessor; the state crafts the policy, and the citizenry is made to conform.
The national rebranding of Xinjiang, on one hand acknowledging the majority demographic oppressed by Mr. Christos, has cunningly functioned to undercut Uighur cultural identity. The President claims Uighurs identify themselves as a "Chinese subgroup", that most speak "only Chinese"; and acting on no other justification than 'the Chinese are the largest', has unilaterally decided to rechristen the country the 'Republic of China'. Is he so arrogant, so contemptuous of the losing party that he feels he can abolish one of the founding cultures of his modern state? When contrasted with Mr. Christos' insistence that Xinjiang was not "China", these statements betray a disturbing ethno-nationalist polemic, the deadly symptom of a culture war. Compounding this streak of cultural supremacy in the most confounding decision, the government has adopted a policy of paying a federal tithe to the Holy See. Let us be clear, we hold no prejudice against the Pope, but we question in the most concerned language the president's
de facto instigation of a state religion that, culturally and historically, does not constitute the majority of public attendance. Will we also see tithes paid to the Grand Ayatollah, the Dalai Lama, and the leaders of all other religious groups within China? Furthermore, in a brazen insult to the populace, the Chinese written language is now to be made "European" and romanized, destroying a critical element of regional cultural history at taxpayers' expense. Two wrongs do not form a right: however the Communist Party suppressed practices contrary to its dogma, to respond with an equally arbitrary institution of orthodoxy, particularly in a supposedly democratic régime, is a betrayal of public trust.
Why is this new leadership so concerned with "Westernizing" (capital 'W') the country, alienating the state from all of its neighbours? And is this nonsensical and deeply painful attempt to tear down millennia of history anything less than cultural genocide? Over one hundred years ago, flip-flopping preferential treatment begat the tragedy of Rwanda; are we doomed to an Asian relapse?
But our most pressing concern is the tolerance, even perpetuation, of the criminal practices and agents that the new administration is supposedly reacting against. The president, "Mr. George", follows the same fundamentally undemocratic belief as Mr. Christos that the winner writes the rules, that the mob is only a danger if it is not on one's own side. In response to the rebellion instigated during the Communists' rule, the so-called 'republicans' sent in the army. The state of emergency has still not been lifted, and the government has recently instituted
more anti-terror legislation with the
support of the Communist Party. If justice existed in China, Mr. Christos would have been arrested and tried for crimes against humanity. Instead, he is the leader of one of the three main political parties, and his accomplices can be assumed to walk just as free as he. A parliament may exist, elections may take place, and every act of government may follow the letter of the law, but so long as the spirit remains ignored in theory and in practice, Chinese democracy remains unrealized.
The official government may have abandoned the democratic journey midway through, but the Scarlet Lancers honour our promises. Our commitment is unfaltering; our cause unyielding. One way or another, China will be free.