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Editorial: Exam language rule a mistake

The Examination Yuan has come up with "four noes" as guidelines for the setting of national-level exams. About three of these noes, no political ideology in questions, no racial or sexual discrimination and no classical Chinese literature, we have no complaint. But given the importance of building a Taiwan-centered consciousness, not only among the public at large but in the bureaucracy -- which since 1945 has been a redoubt of an ethnic group with very mixed loyalties -- the fourth no can only be regarded as a huge mistake.

We refer, of course, to the decision that exams are not to be based on any "dialects that have not been accepted by the general public." This weasel phrase actually means languages spoken by the people of Taiwan, such as Hoklo, Hakka or Aboriginal tongues.

So what language is to be used for exams? Well, the very one which almost no native used in Taiwan until it was imposed upon Taiwanese by their foreign overlords in 1945 and ruthlessly promoted during the decades of colonial government that followed -- namely, Mandarin Chinese. So amid efforts to raise a national consciousness, exams for the civil service must be taken in the language of Taiwan's former oppressors and current enemies. It is hard to think of anything more crass.

The reason why Mandarin Chinese has been chosen as the only medium for national exams is that it is the one language that everybody who has been through the education system -- which presumably includes all those likely to sit for civil service exams -- can be guaranteed to speak, so well did the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) do its work. So by adopting the Mandarin-only rule, examiners can ensure that no ethnic group is left out.

But Taiwan needs civil servants who identify with Taiwan, and it would seem reasonable to expect that someone born and educated here who identifies with the country might -- in fact should -- be expected to speak one of its languages. So some kind of local language component in the exams should be a priority and all exams should have a local-language component.

This could be a simply an extra paper testing candidates' ability in a local language. Or this paper could be dropped for those who choose take a paper in any other subject using a local language. The idea is a simple one. Have exams mainly in Mandarin if you wish, but make sure that all candidates are fluent in at least one of the island's languages as well. And, of course, it should be up to the candidates to choose which local language they wish to be tested in.

One problem about such a system is that it will make the Examination Yuan's task significantly harder; it will have to set and mark exams not only in Mandarin but also Hoklo, Hakka and any of the 12 recognized Aboriginal languages. Who in the Examination Yuan is capable of setting or marking an exam in the Tao language spoken on Orchid Island? On the other hand, this is a wonderful chance to bring one of the stuffiest of Taiwan's bureaucracies into contact with a wonderful range of linguistic and cultural diversity.

One group is sure to complain about such an arrangement, and that is the small number of Mainlander Mandarin monoglots who monopolized Taiwan's bureaucracy for half a century. They will protest about a "linguistic apartheid." Yet of course it is they who practiced linguistic apartheid, and the system we propose which could bring this to an end. Nothing prevents Mainlanders from learning a local language, as People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) have notably shown.

What Taiwan needs is an exam system in tune with both its cultural and ethnic diversity and responsive to the nation's needs. The Examination Yuan's new language rule is exactly the opposite.
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