Rejection, Reflection and (Ultimately) Reception: The Uighur Situation in Palau

As promised, Stephen blogs THIS WEEK from The Republic of Palau.

I arrived here Monday night (local time) amidst a rare flurry of international media attention. The media attention was not over my arrival, but over the recent decision of Palau’s president to allow thirteen soon-to-be-former detainees from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to relocate here. My interest was to get as much reaction as I could, from as many folks as I could, as often as I could. The short story is this: while initial reaction here was quite cool to the idea of the Chinese Muslim Uighurs (pronounced: WEE gurs; also spelled "Uygurs") settling here after their forthcoming release, folks have turned the corner swiftly as the narrative has shifted from “taking America’s terrorists” to “welcoming marginalized people.”

I spent a half hour this morning talking with Patrick Tellei, who is president of the local college. Dr. Tellei was part of a delegation of four Palauans who visited with the detainees earlier in the week in Cuba, so I wanted to get his impression of them, of the local response to the idea of them moving to Palau, and of the shift in sentiment that I observed over the course of the week. While there were things that he was not able to share with me (for obvious reasons – they’re still being detained even though they have been cleared of charges, so there are lawyers involved), he was able to say that the eight men with whom they had a chance to speak (first in a group and then individually) were being fairly treated, were speaking English pretty well (though translators were around to help), and seemed genuinely appreciative of the opportunity to re-start their lives in Palau.

Dr. Tellei is in the majority position at this point in the week: supportive of President Johnson Toribiong’s decision to tell President Obama that the men were welcome in Palau. This is consistent with what I have heard from nearly everyone I have spoken to about this over the past 24 hours, but quite different from the reaction on Tuesday.

When I first arrived, I heard things like, “They’re terrorists,” and “why should we take them if the U.S. doesn’t want them?” The local papers on Tuesday (they are printed Tuesdays and Fridays) had headlines such as “Toribiong Defends Decision” (Island Times) and “[Senator and former President Tommy] Remengesau Says People Not Fully Informed on the Detainees” (Palau Horizon), which reflected a defensive position on the part of officials supportive of the relocation.

But there was an interesting contrast with a page 10 AP story about eleven asylum seekers from Myanmar who moved here back in February. The only member of the group who speaks English gushed about the reception from Palauans, who have treated them “as their own siblings.” When their money ran out, the Roman Catholic Church housed and fed them. This week, the president’s younger brother, who is also a Senator, decided to move them all into his farmhouse while they are waiting to hear if they are granted asylum.

Further, an op-ed on page 4 of the Horizon that day by Philip Haruo blasted what he saw as unwarranted hostility toward the Uighurs by sarcastically charging that folks who are outspoken about the plan “know more than the CIA and Interpol.” He noted that while he didn’t know much about the men that it wasn’t necessary for him to know: “I do know that they are human beings in need of help and no one seems to notice.” In word, Haruo was calling for (swallow hard here) empathy.

In contrast, we must consider the narratives that are available to Americans. The United States Congress has been clear that detainees are not welcome in the U.S., even if they are cleared of charges. Why? Because as much as we like to think that we value “due process” and the “best system on Earth,” we generally believe, deep down, that if someone is accused of something that they must have done it – or something else. Add to this the anti-Muslim sentiment that is rampant in the U.S. (and in much of the West), and we are left with a group of radicals (they want their own nation – sound familiar?) who are not Christian and, even though the Chinese government detests them and vice versa, are Chinese nationals (read: “communist”). Check out Newt Gingrich’s column in The Washington Examiner from last month where he tries and convicts the Uighurs right there in the Opinions section (and then be sure to read hilzoy’s point-by-point rebuke).

Similarly, the self-described conservative blog Hot Air was quite crass about invoking a common narrative, which has been that Palau is taking the men in exchange for money. (The U.S. has funded Palau since World War II and will likely continue to do so because it is in its strategic interest – there is no need for additional carrots or sticks.) Read through the comments of the folks who make up the private discussion board (comments can only be left by members, and membership is closed) if you want to experience severe insensitivity, hasty generalizations and arrogant mockery of Palauans.

Glenn Beck recommended that suspects be shot in the field rather than having formal charges brought against them. (Think I’m making this up? Watch here or below.)



For his part, Jon Stewart (see below or here) got a good laugh with the inevitable turn of phrase: Uighur, please!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Guantanamo Baywatch - Uighur, Please
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

In the three days since Haruo felt the need to remind Palauans of their duty to humankind and their culture of hospitality, the drastic change in public opinion can be seen by way of an unscientific measure of Palauans’ attitudes. Here are some excepts from letters to the editor in this morning’s (June 19, 2009) Island Times:

[From an American] I cannot imagine the deprivations these men have endured and a warm welcome to your island nation would probably do wonders. I appreciate [President Toribiong’s] compassion and willingness to give these men a chance, and I hope the people of your country appreciate what kind of president they elected.

If we Palauans are proud of our Christian heritage and boast so much about our faith in Jesus, where is the proof? This is the time when we will show the world, if no one cares about these Muslims our arms are wide open to take them in.

The Uighurs are being branded by terrorists by some people. To their countrymen, they are nationalists. Is it wrong of any group of people to aspire to create their own nationhood? If these Uighurs are terrorists to say X country, then obviously they have grudges and political differences against that X country. If they come to Palau, do they have political movement against us? Do you think they want to take over our national government and change us to become Uighurs and not Palauans? I doubt it.

I didn’t cherry pick these responses. There were five letters on this topic in the Times (no letters at all in the Horizon), and all were strongly supportive of receiving the Uighurs with open arms.

These hardly sound like sentiments from uneducated bumpkins who will do anything for money, as much of the Western media has portrayed them. And if they were Americans, we'd say that they "flip flopped" and ridicule them mercilessly for changing their minds and not standing their ground. In societies with more sophisticated discourse, however, it is considered to be growth, stimulated by a recognition that things are not always as they appear and that the complexities in life require us to be attentive, flexible, and reflective of our core values (and the degree to which our attitudes and behaviors are congruent with those core values).

On the other hand, we cannot pretend that the initial response was not at least partially rooted in ethnic and racial resentment. Palauans are quite concerned about holding onto their heritage, and the influx of foreign (mostly Filipino) domestic workers and (largely Bangladeshi) manual laborers is the topic of much conversation here. Xenophobia is not an American invention. There are about 400 or so Muslims in this nation of approximately 20,000, so there are lingering questions about where these men would live, if they have families to bring with them, where they will work, where they will worship, and how long they might stay. These are real (and legitimate) concerns, but the sense here today is that while those questions are important, the welcoming of these thirteen men is not dependent on the answers.

Four other Uighurs were sent to Bermuda last week (left), where reaction has been mixed, where U.S. legislators will have to go to hear their story, and where the men have refrained from car bombing anyone for seven entire days. I communicated with a woman there (a former student) who reports that

[t]he big deal here was not really so much about the men themselves, but in the way our premier handled the situation. . . . It was announced on CNN that the men were here and living in Bermuda and that is the first that anyone heard of it. The governor was told the night before the story broke on CNN. Many people were upset; a lot of people were worrying about them being terrorists, others were worried about a possible Muslim increase on the island. The men did a live interview with our one local news programs for 90 minutes were the public could call in and ask questions, and they were given the chance to tell there story, which is very compelling.

You can read more about the reaction in Bermuda in The Royal Gazette. (While I’d love to make that my next island destination, it’s unfortunately not in the cards.)

There is no question that this is a difficult situation all around. The Bush Administration was certainly overzealous in making arrests and accusations and in labeling people "terrorists," which resulted in the detention of people who are not and were not a threat to the U.S. But once that happened, the bell could not be un-rung. President Obama is moving to close Guantanamo Bay’s detention center, and Congress, responding to fears of Americans, refuses to allow any of the detainees that we took from around the world to stay. Fair enough, especially if they have a home to go back to, but in this case, they do not. This leads to a very complicated and unique situation that is undergirded by ethnic stereotypes and resentment.

For hard-line U.S. conservatives and other Obama Administration critics, there is a triple bind. First, they want Obama to fail (and are refreshingly forthcoming about it), so anything he does needs to be criticized to try to drive his approval numbers down. Second, they hate communism, so they have a tendency to be sympathetic to critics of (“Red”) China, particularly those who have been oppressed by the authoritarian regime there. But all Muslims are (at least potentially) U.S.-hating terrorists, so they find it difficult to rally around these men.

For Palauans, it is clear that they will do what the U.S. will not: honor the rights and dignity of men who have no charges against them, who have no home, and whose lives have been disrupted inappropriately by one imperial power as they struggled against another. We do not need to romanticize their struggle or turn them into saints to have empathy for their position. They are guerilla fighters who wish to have an independent Muslim state in Northwestern China. Maybe they’re even mean. Maybe they’re tough guys who are willing to kill for what they believe. If they were our Founding Fathers or otherwise on our side, we would champion their cause.

The point is this: Palauans are digging deep into traditions rooted in their Christian faith to make space for those who need it. For all the talk of Christian values from the left and the right in the U.S. and among its European friends, none (save, to some extent, British-ruled Bermuda) of us was willing to do as the holy books mandate in this situation. Far from mocking Palauans as money-hungry savages, we should think about what we might learn from our allies in Micronesia.

Perhaps this is a good time for us to take a hard, honest look at who we are and who we want to be.

Update: There are some diverse opinions about Uighur resettlement in Palau on the Palauan blog "Okedyulabeluu." Some of this information is rumor and directly conflicts what what I have learned from officials while I have been here, but in any case, it is worth exploring.