Running out of excuses to defend its disastrous liberal
immigration and pro-foreigner policies, PAP leaders have been
resorting to the inappropriate use of historical examples to
showcase their own ignorance.
PAP MP Dr Ong Seh Hong quoted the example of Tang China during a
parliamentary speech on 13 March 2010 to lend support to the PAP’s
open-door policy to foreigners.
He claimed that Tang China’s propserity was due largely to an
open-door policy and tolerance. However, he forgot to point out the
fact that though there was a sizable number of foreigners living in
China, they remained a minority in China and most of them were
traders and not immigrant who planted their roots there.
(During the reign of Tang Xuanzhong, a major rebellion broke
out and it was led by two generals of Tujue ancestry – An Lushan
and Shi Si Ming. The 8 years of chaos which ensued weakened the
Tang dynasty irreversibly and it never recovered from it.)
As history had shown, the Han Chinese were able to assimilate
other ethnic groups successfully by their sheer numbers and
cultural superiority.
It took only less than 100 years for the 20 million or so ethnic
Manchus living in northeast China to become fully assimilated into
Han Chinese that they are hardly any of them left now who can speak
or write the Manchu language.
Singapore has let in too many foreigners within too
short a period of time such that there is no time at all for
them to be integrated properly into local society.
Besides, Singaporeans have less a racial or cultural identity
than the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans and it would not be easy to
assimilate them especially when there are so many of them here
causing them to congregate within their own communities.
Uncontrolled immigration can easily destroy a nation as
exemplified by the Korean empire of Balhae (渤海).
Balhae (698 AD – 926 AD) was founded in 698 AD from the remnants
of the Korean state of Gorguryeo (高句麗) after it was conquered by a
joint invasion from Tang China and Silla (新羅), another Korean state
which occupied the Korean peninsula.
Balhae became a major empire in Northeast Asia and occupied
southern parts of Manchuria, Russia’s Primorsky Krai, and the
northern part of the Korean peninsula.
This area was a volatile region with several ethnic tribes of
which the Koreans were one of them. Due to historical animosities
between Balhae and Silla, the Balhae kings banned the inflow of
Korean immigrants from Silla and relied on immigrants from other
ethnic groups instead.
(Balhae blamed Silla for “conspiring” with Tang China to
destroy its predecessor state Gorguryeo)
As Balhae was a newly founded country, it adopted an open-door
policy to immigrants from neighboring kingdoms and tribes including
the Khitan (契丹) and Malgal
(靺鞨).
Large numbers of Khitans and Malgals were allowed into
Balhae and the Koreans became an ethnic minority in their own
country in less than a hundred years.
Unlike the Koreans, the Khitans and Malgals were Tungesic
nomads and it was impossible to integrate them fully into Korean
society though the Balhae kings had implemented policies to
assimilate them such as allowing inter-racial marriages between the
two groups.
While the Koreans retained control of the central
government and aristocracy, the administration and military became
dominated by the Khitans and Malgals which soon led to social
conflicts and civil wars between them.
During the last years of the Balhae kingdom, it was
wrecked by endless internal turmoils, ethnic strifes and civil
wars between the various races in the empire and it was eventually
conquered by the Khitan kingdom of Liao in 926
AD.
Like Singapore, Balhae was a country built out of
nowhere. Though its southern portion was a remnant of
Gorguryeo, its northern territory were entirely virgin lands not
ruled by any state before.
The Balhae kings realized that their fledging nation
would not stand a chance against its powerful neighbor China or its
more populous Korean cousin Silla if it did not open its door to
immigrants to increase its population.
Unfortunately, they failed to appreciate the fact that
while immigrants may spur economic growth and increase a country’s
military strength within a short period of time, social unrest and
strife will ensue if the newcomers are not wholly integrated into
local society.
Though Balhae was able to achieve rapid growth and
prosperity a few decades after its founding due to the influx of
immigrants, it sowed the seeds for its eventual
demise.
Balhae was the largest and perhaps one of the
richest states in the history of Korea, but also its
shortest-lived, existing for barely more than 200 years when
compared to other more ethnically and culturally homogenous
states like Gorguryeo (700 + years), Baekje (700 +), Silla
(900 +), Goryeo (300 +) and Joseon (600 +).
Silla (53 BC – 935 AD) was a nation of
immigrants like Balhae and Singapore too, built by
gradual conquest and assimilation of neighboring statelets and
tribes but at a much controlled pace than Balhae which explained
its political longevity of nearly a thousand
years.
[Three Kingdom
era of Korea 53 AD - 668 AD, Source:
Wikipedia]
The name of Silla in Hanja – 新羅, means to “cast a net far
and wide to accept talents from all over the world”. From the
beginning of its existence, Silla was one of the most open nations
in East Asia at that time.
Being the weakest and smallest state on the Korean
peninsula compared to Gorguryeo in the north and Baekje
(百濟) to the west, the Silla kings had long realized the
importance of immigration in order to
survive.
Though Silla was able to grow and prosper by keeping its
door open to immigrants, it practised a highly selective
immigration policy unlike that of Balhae.
Silla welcomed only certain ethnic races which were
closer to them in terms of language, culture and bloodline and not
those who were further apart.
For example, when the Gaya confederacy (加倻) was
conquered in 562 AD, its people who were closely linked to the
Silla Koreans were completely accepted as Silla citizens and
they eventually become assimilated into Silla society, one of whom
became the great Korean general Kim Yu-Shin who conquered the other
two kingdoms and united Korea.
However, the Japanese (Wa) and those with mixed
Silla/Japanese heritage were evicted from their settlements along
the southeastern coast of Korea and sent back to Japan as they were
deemed “culturally distant” and “unsuitable” for permanent
residence in Silla.
Furthermore, while Silla maintained an open-door policy
to Korean immigrants from Baekje and Gorguryeo, Chinese, Khitans,
Malgals and other races were deliberately kept out. They were
allowed to trade with Silla, but could never become its
citizens.
Such a targeted immigration policy enabled Silla to
increase its population via immigration and ensuring the “ethnic
compatibility” of its people at the same time.
Though there were many ethnic minorities in Silla, they
were culturally and linguistically linked to the original Silla
Koreans thereby maintaining a largely homogenous
society.
There were few ethnic strifes or conflicts during Silla’s
long history unlike Balhae whose fault-lines were exposed within a
hundred years of its founding leading to political instability and
its eventual downfall.
Balhae was the last Korean state to hold any territory on
Manchuria. There are still a sizable number of ethnic Koreans
living in northeast China and Russia’s Maritime province today, but
few will remember the existence of Balhae.
Will Singapore end up like Balhae one day? We are now
fifty years old. When Balhae was fifty years old, it was a major
economic powerhouse in the region (northeast
Asia) like Singapore (southeast Asia) and it was
also the same period of time when it became
swarmed by immigrants.
If a country the size of Balhae which was about the size
of France could implode and destroy itself in only 200 years, why
not Singapore?
Singapore should learn from the targeted immigration
policy adopted by Silla and focused on getting immigrants who can
integrate more easily into our society such as those from the
southern provinces of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan of which a basic
command of the English language is a must instead of accepting
everybody indiscriminately like Balhae without studying if they are
culturally, ethnically and linguistically compatible with native
Singaporeans in the first place.
History has given us one important lesson of how
uncontrolled immigration can destroy a nation. We must take heed
before it is too late.
