No, we have never been decolonized

Most of us have likely known about the history of colonization in our history classes in school. Many of our countries have been independent for years, so colonization is just something in the past and only historians should be interested, right?

Well, No. An entire body of research, post-colonial studies, has been produced to tell us that colonization is affecting everything today (including countries that have never been colonized), and we will lose a lot of perspectives and opportunities by disregarding it. Recognizing colonial influence on the present is to help us understand that things do not have to be the way it is, and that we can make changes to truly decolonize ourselves.

To give an example, I will talk about three widespread misunderstandings about the world, which are actually a belief sold to us by the history of colonization. and I will focus on the first one here:

1. The world can be divided into countries, each country has rigid borders and own their territtories and natural resources.

Results: Strong reactions to territories' dispute; Strong resistance of 'foreign' migrant workers (but usually not rich investors); Take for granted that governments have the rights to transform the natural resources within its territories to benefit all; Strong nationalism with hostility to others.

First of all, territories of post-colonial countries today are mostly decided at the end of colonization. Pre-colonization world had empires, small nations, and remote places with no governance apart from community organization. Many have historically evaded central governments (See James Scott's The Art of Not Being Governed). But now the entire world is divided into countries with quite rigid borders under different authorities/governments. These borders are usually formed with negotiation between the colonial masters and the elites of independent nations, but not everyone in the territory is consulted. The current world map is a quite recent construction, with most countries form between 1940s to 1970s. If you look at it you will see some borders are drawn in straight lines (look at Africa and North America). Isn't that appearing strange to you?

What this means is that everyone now suddenly belong to some new countries, and they have to pay tax and follow rules set by the new government (though many of them already did under colonization, and the process continues after 'independence'). Governments are now free to allow outsiders to go into any area within their border to extract natural resources previously used by these communities for their essential livelihood or instruct them to produce certain valuable products (really similar to time under colonization). Similarly, government can choose to grant ownership of any land or resources to any parties they favor. It is possible that the governments might know absolutely nothing about some of these communities except that they are located within the borders, and with that alone, they have the power to take away their lands and ways of lives.

It is common across the world today to see clashes between indigenous people and governments. The usual explanation by the governments is that these people are backward and in need of government's help. So they disregard their ways of lives and force them to leave their homeland, especially when these homeland are places with rich natural resources, so that the government can exploit them and earn some revenue to sustain the government beuracracies, possibly enriching some private pockets along the way. But instead of saying this, the government will claim that they are trying to uplift people from their primitive lifestyles and give them free housings, which will immediately be agreeable for most of the population. However, think about it this way---if you think moving people from jungles into cities are good things, how about the idea of moving you into jungles? They only know how to live in jungles just as you know how to live in cities. It will be as shocking for them as it is for you.

In the Malaysian case, we have the Penan people and the Bakun Dam. Similar stories can be found in North America, in the Amazon, in different parts of Asia. The United Nations recognize the suffering of indigenous people worldwide under the hands of the government and have made government to sign the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Some countries don't sign it. In Asia typically such as Malaysia, governments like to argue that the Malay are the indigenous people themselves. You can see indigenous movements are much more stronger in places where the white people stay after colonization--North and South America, Australia, because the apparent difference in appearance. Things become a little complicated in Asia to ask who are the indigenous and who are the colonizers. But regardless who are the colonizers, it does not cancel the fact that acts resembling colonizations are happening.

To talk about modern countries, we have to talk about modern governments, which is what I will do in my next post. Stay tuned.