當代寮國族群關係發展之探析

Ethnic Relations Development in Contemporary Laos

寮國因其「多波次移民」（multi-waves）的社會特質，導致寮國自封建王朝時期即存在強勢族群壓迫弱勢族群間的現象；甚至，在各移民族群的攻防中，還經常與外部的政治勢力結盟來增強自身的力量，導致這些介入寮國的外來政治勢力在其歷史發展過程中扮演極為關鍵的角色。不過，自1975年寮共取得政權後，對於少數族群乃採取強勢的同化政策，企圖透過寮族化的途徑來塑造穩固的族群認同以作為其統治正當性的基礎。在此情形下，寮國作為一個多族群國家，表面上並未如同印尼、菲律賓及泰國等東南亞國家，內部存在嚴重的族群衝突問題。然而，在全球化與區域化兩大浪潮的交互影響下，隨著寮國改革開放的幅度擴大及參與區域整合的程度日漸深化，以往在歷史發展過程中所被積壓的族群衝突將逐漸浮現。依此，本文認為只有從時間（歷史演進）與空間（疆界變動）所構成的係絡中，才能正確理解當代寮國族群關係的發展過程，並由此歸納出當代寮國族群問題的根源所在

Historically, as a multiple-wave migrant and multiethnic nation, Laotian society has characterized by the phenomenon which is ethnic minorities oppressed by ethnic majorities because ethnic majorities which is so-called Lao Loum (the lowland Lao of Tai-Lao) always dominated political and economic affairs. Even Laotians began their struggle for independence from the French during World War Two, also led by lowland Lao nationalists and supported by Vietnamese nationalists. During the Cold War era, because its geographic and strategic location, Laos has been involved in the strategic struggle between US and USSR. Hereafter, Laotian politics was polarized between royalists, supported by US and Western power, and leftists (Pathet Lao, PL), supported by the Vietnamese and the USSR. With the Pathet Lao victory in 1975, new government implemented the assimilation policy (Laoization of minorities) as a means to emphasize national unity. As a result of assimilation policy, the historic ethnic differences have been ignored, and even though ethnic conflict didn't arise apparently in the development process of Laoization. However, with interacting deeply between Laos and neighboring countries because of regional economic cooperation programmes, especially the Greater Mekong Sub-region Programme (GMS), the identity of ethnic minorities would be affected. For this reason, this paper wants to illustrate the following sections: firstly, what type of the ethnic conflict is and how the external forces affect the development of national identity in Laos. Secondly, how the government deals with the identity crisis resulted from close cooperation with neighboring countries.