Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-11-01

dergo certain types Of discrimir1a.
ton. No one denies that the Chi.
nese have proven thus far to b
better Businessmen, who reap cor.
reSpondingly better rewards, but
the Malay language predominates,
even in schools hitherto Chinese.
Certain 'pro-Malay' laws dating
from before the country's inde-
pendence two years ago limit
'ethnic' Chinese land ownership
and dominance in business and
professions. These laws, however,
are not intended to be 'perma-
nent.'
The Chinese in Malaga, how
ever, do not find such limitations
as malignant as those of Indo-
neSia, and are content to favor
a stronger Malay role in the
country's economy.
North Of Malaga, in Thailand.
the situation is now somewhat
better for "a million Chinese in
that country than it has been IN
years. Many restrictive laws, one
even including forced deportation
to Taiwan, are now either off the
books or imperative since the Thai
government has legislated fiercer
anti-Chinese policies than it has
been able or even willing to en-
force.
This Notwithstanding, attend.
ance in Chinese schools has
dropped from 175,O00 in 1919 to
fewer than $4,000 today, business
firms are hiring more and more
Thai natives by decree (Chinese
managerial skill and capital are
still Indispensable, and rigid citi-
zenShip qualification laws are still
a hardship.
Nationalist Chino Problem '.1
In other countries of Southeast
Asia, the problem exists on a lesser
scale. In Burma, the Burmese
themselves are but one of a num-
Der of nationalitieS comprising the
Union of Burma" and the Chi
nese number only 100000, or 1.6
per cent of the total population.
There is some rancor, however
over the alleged presence of Ma.
tionaliSt Chinese soldiers, said to
be still operating against the Chi
nese Communists from the remote
jungles of Northern Burma,
whence they strike into China
proper.
South Wet Mans Chinese pop
ulation of 100000 is 6.2 per cent
of the total population. Anti
Chinese measures have been hard
to enforce, again because of the
keystone role played in the econ
omy by Chinese entrepreneurs.
Citizenship laws granted Wet
NameSe nationality to Chinese
born in the country and even to
those born abroad who did not
necessarily want citizenship; this
led to protests from both Red
China and Nationalist China, and
to civil disobedience among the
Chinese population. Red tape and
noncompliance rendered the laws
practically imperative by 1857.
Restrictive laws in industry and
business, decreed a few years ago.
have not been enforced, again
because it would have been eco
nomic suicide.
Cambodia's 100000 Chinese are
SIS per cent of the total popula-
ton, similar thorn in the emo
tional side of the natives, but the
general lack of economic progress
in the country has rendered GER
tain types of jealousy irrelevant.
There is little enterprise for any
one, the Chinese included.
In Hong Kong, the Chinese are
80 per cent of the 3 million pop
ulation, and about ! million are
refugees from mainland China.
These latter Chinese dwell mostly
in Squatter shacks, on boats in
the harbors, and in massive H.
shaped blocks that house them
8 and 10 to room, built espe-
cially to take care of the post
1949 influx. Thousands of Chi
nese are prosperous business
men. traders, and capitalists. But
there is no anti-Chinese persecu-
ton as such in the colony; who.
after all, would destroy it's over
whelming majority? Certainly not
the British, whom time has proved
to be among the least of the viii
lians that have stalked the Orient.
In British North Borneo, where
a colony Of the old school shares
this main East Indian island with
the rambunctious Indonesians, the
l million Chinese are a hefty 81
per cent of the total, prosper we'll
under the British permissiveness,
. account for a disproportionate
share of the energy and industry
of the oil-and-rubber- area.
At present, Picking can well
spare the overseas Chinese, if they
can thereby win adherents in free
and neutralist Asia. Taipei refuses
this luxury, holding that the
human rights Of overseas Chinese
are not "barterable" for foreign
policy considerations.