如果BC省政党真诚对待亚裔 那就设立“亚裔党团”

【加拿大头条（ID: Canadanews）丁果撰写】省选在即，华人社区又在争议，要继续支持省自由党还是支持政党轮替，让新民主党上台执政。这是一个大问题，需要详细论证，而且社区也不会形成共识，因为凡有人群的地方，就有左中右三派。不过，有一个小问题，我觉得华人社区可以形成共识，这个问题也是超党派的，那就是主流政党——省自由党和新民主党，应该有亚裔党团，而非零星作战。亚裔党团在美国主流政党中已经存在，但由于加拿大联邦和各省采取的是政党内阁制（或者是责任内阁制），党领说了算，谁不买帐，就踢出核心团队，这对亚裔参政者非常不利。

理由很简单，虽然是党领说了算，但白人政客经营政党有年，形成了按照左右政治理念、政治利益、以及地方区域区分的“派系”，对党领形成了有效的党内制约，党领对党内的派系做不到予取予求，唯有平衡各方利益，包括政党（或者内阁）内的权力分配和内阁的权力分配，在制定政策上也是各方分配利益。

而亚裔政客，本来在政党内耕耘浅薄，无法形成“派系”，其中大部分的议员，都是政党为了族裔票而临时“征召”，变成政党的“花瓶”，党内根基几乎是零。这就使他们在党内政策制定和政治利益分配时，没有任何发言权，从而变成了只能讨好党领的“跟屁虫”。

即使是部长和厅长，表面在华人社区很风光，其实政治权限很可伶，身边的秘书基本是总理办公室或者省长办公室指定委派，且基本是白人，导致其在活动和讲话上“谨慎小心”，害怕踩了党政策的底线。我们仅以省政来看，从关慧贞厅长到黄耀华厅长，再到身兼数职的屈洁冰厅长，只有关在党内发言权稍大（曾经在要求前党领去职上发挥临门一脚作用，却由此遭到打击），其余厅长在党内政策制定上，几乎是零的影响。

而到选举等时刻，党领对亚裔政客采取的是“分而治之”的殖民地老手段，让华人打华人，让印裔与华裔斗，让菲律宾裔与华裔打，让韩裔与华裔争，从而使亚裔在政党内的政治能量累积几乎没有可能。这对亚裔社区不公平，对卑诗省的未来也不利。从根本上说，一旦社会形成排外情绪，亚裔首当其冲。除了南亚裔以外，讲老实话，多少白人能够分清楚华人、日本人、韩国人、新加坡人、菲律宾人、越南人？可见，在消除对少数族裔种族歧视的问题上，亚裔立场是一致的。

更重要的是，在卑诗省未来的发展上，与亚洲的互动会愈加密切。而亚洲各国，无论印度与中国，中国与菲律宾、越南、南韩等，都有很多的矛盾，这种情况也会反馈到卑诗省。如果主流政治领袖有意分化少数族裔政治势力，亚裔的政治影响力更加堪忧。

因此，我强烈要求主流政党（甚至包括小党如保守党等）在党内允许建立亚裔党团，凝聚亚裔政客的政治能量，消除分化亚裔政治力量的“后殖民地传统”，同时也让亚裔政客在一个“卑诗人”的平台上商讨政策，避免被亚洲各国的矛盾牵着鼻子走，甚至可以为亚洲整合注入新的观点和政治贡献，这对卑诗省未来发展至关重要，对亚裔在卑诗省的全面崛起至关重要。

新的时代已经来临，亚裔政治力量已经到了必须团结行动的时刻。

As the provincial election is around the corner, the Chinese community in BC is once again in disagreement: should we continue to support the provincial Liberal Party, or should we trust the merits of the party rotation system and give the provincial New Democratic Party our votes so they have a shot in government? This is an important question that needs detailed and vigorous debate.  Some say it might never lead to a consensus as like all communities, within the Chinese Canadian community there are three schools of political beliefs: left, centre, and right. In the meantime, there is the seemingly minor odd that if ever the Chinese community is able to come to a consensus. This question is super-partisan, and it revolves around the status of Asian-Canadian politicians of all political parties. Right now, Asian-Canadian politicians are only doing their “random fights” for issues that are of significance to their own communities as mainstream parties (the provincial Liberal Party and the provincial New Democratic Party) do not have any Asian caucus. Unlike our next door neighbour the US whose mainstream political parties already have Asian caucus as well as a Black caucus, Latino caucus.  However, the Canadian federal and provincial governments follow the cabinet system (or the responsible government system), which means the party leaders have the last say on cabinet appointments and caucus members with different viewpoints on certain issues are often not invited into the cabinet, the influence of Asian-Canadian politicians can be very limited. If an Asian caucus exists, Asian-Canadian politicians would have a larger impact as an internal force on the party’s decision-making process and outcome.

Currently, although it seems that the party leader has the final say, Caucasian-descent politicians have been in the political party for a much longer time and have formed their own alliance based on political concepts, interests, and regional specifics. These factions have since formed an effective internal party balancing mechanism. With such mechanism in place, the party leaders cannot do whatever they wish. Decision-making can only be done if interests of all factions are factored in and balanced. The same goes for the distribution of power between political parties and the Cabinet. Every political party has to take the allocation of faction interests into account when formulating policies that have wide-ranging impact.

Asian-Canadian politicians are not afforded the historic lineage in the political system, hence cannot form a “faction” to be taken seriously.  Most Asian-Canadian politicians are recruited with the cynical goal of attracting ethnic votes in provincial elections. They therefore become the party’s tokenism, having little power and influence inside the party. That being said, Asian-Canadian MLAs and MPs barely have any impact in the formulation of policies or the distribution of political interests. Their only way for survival in the party is to become a stooge and follow the party leader blindly.

As for Asian-Canadian ministers, although they seem to be quite influential within in their respective communities, they in fact have very little political authority of substance. Their secretaries are usually appointed directly by the prime minister’s office or the provincial premier’s office, and are mostly of Caucasian descent that are not as close to the communities as they need to be. That being said, Asian-Canadian politicians have to be cautious in their actions and speech, as they cannot afford to appear to be in odd with the party’s official position. Case in point: let’s look at the recent history in BC provincial government and legislature as an example, from ex-MLA (now MP) Jenny Kwan to ex-MLA Patrick Wong, to Minister Teresa Wat (who plays a variety of different roles insider the BC Liberal party and government), only Ms. Kwan had considerable influence inside the BC NDP (she played a crucial role in asking the former party leader to step down but paid a hefty political price since), the rest of the Asian-Canadian politicians in their parties has little to no impact in policy development.

When it comes to provincial elections, the party leader often treats Asian politicians with tactics learned from the colonial past: let them fight each other out; let the South Asian community run head to head to the Chinese community; let the Filipino community take on the Chinese community; let the Korean community have a go at the Chinese community etc. As a result, it is nearly impossible for Asian-Canadian politicians to organize and yield real political power. This is unfair to the Asian Canadian communities and to the future of BC. Fundamentally speaking, once a society becomes xenophobic, Asian-Canadians have been immediately picked on as the scapegoat. In reality, many of our fellow citizens of Caucasian descents still can’t tell us apart or know much about our respective heritage.  At best they can distinguish people of South Asian origin from the rest of us. Hence, as far as the discrimination against ethnic minorities is concerned, Asians should and need to stay together to be stronger.

More importantly, BC provincial government is likely to have a much closer relationship with Asia in the future. The conflicts on the other side of the world, such as those between India and China, China and the Philippines, China and Vietnam, China and South Korea, etc., will eventually ripple back to BC. If mainstream party leaders deliberately isolate ethnic minorities and cause frictions amongst their political forces, the political influence of Asian politicians would be an even more worrying picture in the future.

Therefore, I strongly urge mainstream political parties and small parties such as the Conservative Party of BC to accept and encourage the establishment of an Asian caucus inside their parties. An Asian caucus will consolidate the political power of Asian-Canadian politicians, eliminate the post-colonial tradition of Divide and Rule, and allow Asian-Canadian politicians to negotiate policies on equal footing as true British Columbians. In this way, the Asian-Canadian community will stop being passive and become proactive, and can even inject new perspectives and political contributions into the integration of BC into Asia Pacific, the largest economic area in the world. This is crucial to the future development of British Columbia, and it is even more essential to the equality of British Columbians of Asian descent.

A new era in upon us already. Now is the time for Asian-Canadian political forces to band together.