“Formosa betrayed” and the Degar peoples in Vietnam
Firstly, I want to sincerely thank you for introducing to us the movie “ Formosa betrayed”. I was very touched by that movie. Before I heard about 228, about KMT fled from Mainland China to Taiwan and occupied this beautiful land. However, I was not aware of how painful that process happened.
Even knowing history especially about the war is a very interesting topic for me, it helps me widen my knowledge; learn more about the past and understanding more the present. Still, it often makes me upset whenever it came to politics. It always has stories like KMT sending one person to kill David Wu ( of course David Wu belongs to other party and fight for liberating his country so KMT has the reasons want to kill him) and then KMT themselves tried to assassinate this person, even worsen they lied that they wipe out the Communist, but actually they tried to kill the local Taiwanese. It is kind of clear at the end of the movie when the commander said to the main actor: the great threat is not from Mainland China, even after Nixon change his attitude from Taipei to Beijing, but it is from inside country, from Taiwanese local people. I am so glad that finally, Taiwan has its own democracy. Nevertheless, anywhere, anytime war is meaningless. It came along with tears, blood, and pain of innocent people.
Any conquer brings with it both pain and reward. To be fair, KMT came to Taiwan also bring many resources from mainland China, for example, a plentiful antiques in National Place Museum or big investment from the US, I still remember in the movie: that guys on TV only be there for keep making money to Taiwan. Later I was thinking about Vietnam with its War. I suddenly remember about a title of a newspaper about Tay Nguyen, a highland area in the South of Vietnam where is considered as a Bhutan. However, I have not had time to read more about it at the time. Before I only was taught that Viet Minh- or Communist government of unified Vietnam did so many good things for our country, but maybe it is not absolutely like that.
I did a small research and knew that the native inhabitants of the Central Highlands are the Degar (Montagnard) peoples. Vietnam conquered and invaded the area during its "march to the south” 1975. Ethnic Kinh people became majority predominates the indigenous Degars after state sponsored colonization directed by the current Communist government of unified Vietnam. The Kinh people were originally centered around the Red River Delta but engaged in conquest and seized new lands such as Champa, the Mekong Delta, and the Central Highlands. While the Kinh people received strong Chinese influence in their culture and civilization, the Montagnards in the Central Highlands maintained their own native culture without adopting the external culture and were the true indigenous natives of the region. Before French’s rule, the Central Highlands was almost never entered by the Kinh people since they viewed it as a savage populated area, but the Kinh people expressed interest in the land after the French transformed it into a profitable plantation area to grow crops on and realization of its crucial geographical importance.
Montagnards have fought against and resisted all Vietnamese invaders through the time. Nowadays, they still tried to keep the autonomy for the Degar tribe namely The United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO). I learned that the during the war, North Vietnamese Communists forcibly recruited "comfort girls" from the indigenous Degar peoples and murdered those who didn't comply, inspired by Japan's use of comfort women. Nowadays, Kinh people ravage the natural resources from the forests, minerals and rich earth here. That information was banned before until recently when free in public communication. And thanks for learning English so now I can find information from different resources. No surprise that what I read in Vietnamese from official government resource is very different with what I read in English.
Also since I went out of Vietnam, I had chance to see and compare with other countries, I read more about history and started to open my eyes with those events, so I understand that what a civilian was taught, was educated in one society may not the truth and I guess it never ever can be a whole picture. What happened stayed in the past, history was written by some people, some dominant group, we can never know. Of course, I will not compare what happens with Taiwanese local people and Vietnamese people in Tay Nguyen, I just so glad for Taiwanese that your population is bigger and you was very brave to fight for your democracy and your voice was recognized no matter strong the dominant group is. I truly happy for you, my dear Taiwanese.
What can I do? One person could not make the whole historical story and of course I myself can never change the whole world. Leader, control, dominant, conquer …still happen and will happen. However, I just want to live in a harmony world. I think I can only hope the peaceful world will last as long as possible. So I with my small lifetime in such a huge world will try my best to become a good early childhood educator so that those children will grow up with harmony ideology. John Lennon said: You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one. Yes, I am dreaming
Thank you for giving us this homework so I had a chance to know more about your country, my homeland and my self-direction.
