PEOPLE

The Boat h ple
be left stateless by the rcfusd of other nations to accept them, It k , :
this issue which goes to the heart of the problem of the rcfugtc in .;
the twentieth century.
The rise of the nation-state in the nineteenth century changed thc '
way peoples saw themselves and this tendency has strengthened in
the twentieth century. The great religions of the world have long
resign& themstlva to accepting parity, even inferiority, with the
, '
power of the nation-state, Communism has challenged nationalim
- and lost. The ~rbitrary power of the nation-state over human
beings can k frightening; and it behaves, more often than not,
towards other nation-scates irrationally, refusing to allow the slightest
interference with itself yet demanding the right to interfere with
others, But i~ authority to protect its citizens from outside attack
and, within the nation itself, to prokct thc weak, or the majority, . '
make it a formidable fact of modern life. Weak nation-states arc prey .
to great powers, ideologies and commercial and cultuml tyrannies,
'
all of which, especially in the so~alled 'third world' of developing
nations, havc given the state ample justification for increasing ia
power.
A person who is forccd to live outside the authority of the nationstate
becomes, in the modern world, s person without the rights d '
duties of a citizen. The idea of an4internationa1 citizenship' is attrac-
,
tive in principle, as is the idea of living in isolation in a utopian em- ..
munity. But each is a way of opting out of the issues posed by the
j
'
hat people who, like the Indo-Chinese rcfupes generally, are too ,
intensely connected with the forces of history and politics that have
erupted to displace them, for them to become citizens in limbo, sani- . ,
tized against time and place. If kept in anonymous camps or process- i
ing centres indefinitely, they are more likely to become diwffd
than to become citizens of the world, It is from the interplay of
people and nations in the real world that solutions to the real prob- ,
lcms of refugees are likely to come.
It is imperative, therefore, for nation-states to kome more .
inclusive, less exclusive, if it is to be within the nation-state iwlf :,
that h e problems of the wentiah century arc to k solved. This is '6
not to deny the need for international organizations, such as the
United Nutions, which is valuable, indeed indispensable, M
instrurnenr of conciliation and, sometimes, &dve organization. '
i
The UNHCR is a case in point, But without a growth of civilizing
valua within states, the United Nations is no more h n decoration,
s vine that covers hard stone. As remarked wrlier, the number of
refugees in the world is growing and they are now predominantly
from Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and hia. If they are
to be resettled, there will need to be major changes in the attitudes
of all nationa especially in racial and cultural tolema, as the backgrounds
of the refugees are likely m be very different from thw
of people in the probable countria of rcsettlemmt.
Both the fierce nationalism of Vietnam and the nationalism of
affluence of the industrial dmoaacies have becn shown by the story
of the boat people to be inadequate. Vietnam's nationalism, which
is one of its sQengths, causa tension within itself and uneasiness
without: it is not a model for developing countries in South-East
Asia, which generally have a more pragmatic attitude to international
influenccs and currents of life in the wider world. One of
the several tragic consequences of Vietnam's conflict with China is
that its nationalism, which needs to be moderated, has been
inflamed.
The nationalism of the western democracies, which makes them
loath to share their wealth and social organization with pcople from
poor countries - so that they will accept refugees with racial or culrural
backgrounds similar to their own, but not from Africa or Asia
- is no mdcl for the rest of this century, either. Communist states
have perhaps the poorest record of all, although, as the trafic is away
from them rather than towards them, they have not yct been
seriously tested, Communist states have played politics with refugees,
admitting only hose who= ideological credentials are acceprable
and ignoring the international problem as such. One of the
interesting effects of the exodus of refugees from IndoChina is that,
because its causes art complex, md praise and blame is not easily
apportionable, and because also its political and saategic implications
are sensitive and serious, the communist states, including the
USSR, havc been drawn into discussions, This, at least, is hopeful
because it is unlikely that Vietnam will bc the last country in which
a refugee crisis follows revolution.
During the writing of the story of the boat people, analogia and
metaphors kept coming to mind - and king discarded. The Nazi
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