The Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) yesterday offered an apology to Pingpu Aborigines for calling them “homeless beggars” after a second protest by Pingpu activists, but the activists said the council missed the point and that they would not accept the apology because the CIP had not yet addressed the mentality behind the comment.
The CIP’s apology came after Pingpu activists protested twice against the language the CIP used last week to reject the Pingpu demand for official Aborigine status.
In last week’s statement, the CIP said that it was unlawful for the Pingpu to gain the official status, and that the Pingpu were like “the homeless beggar who kicked the clergy out of the temple” by claiming themselves to be Aborigines without first gaining agreement from the nation’s 490,000 officially recognized Aborigines.
The beggar analogy is commonly used in Taiwan to describe a situation in which an illegitimate person tries to get rid of and take the place of the legitimate owner of a place.
In yesterday’s apology, the CIP said: “The CIP only used the analogy to demonstrate that the Pingpu are showing no respect to Aborigines [by claiming themselves to be Aborigines without the consent of officially recognized Aborigines], and not to humiliate the Pingpu. If the use of the analogy has caused unpleasant feelings among Pingpu, we offer our apologies.”
Uma Talavan, chairwoman of the Siraya Culture Association and a leading Pingpu activist, said that the apology was unacceptable because “it’s not an apology at all” and did not address what made the Pingpu upset.
What upset the Pingpu was not the language, she said, but the thinking behind it. She said the CIP’s statement indicated that the council considers the Pingpu as distinct from Aborigines, when really the Pingpu are Aborigine. The Pingpu do not hold official Aborigine status because of an administrative error, not because they are not Aborigines, she said.
The Pingpu tribes lost their official Aboriginal status after they failed to register themselves as Aborigines with the government in the 1950s and 1960s, despite the fact the Pingpu held official Aboriginal status under the Japanese colonial government.
“I am an Aborigine because my father is an Aborigine and because my ancestors are Aborigines,” Talavan said. “This is an identity that I was born with and this Aborigine identity is a fact that’s been proven in historical documents and through academic research.”
In recent decades, Pingpu activists have launched a campaign to demand the government restore the status, but the CIP had been ambiguous in its responses to the Pingpu until last week.
The language used by the council last week not only upset the Pingpu — who demanded an apology from the council first at a news conference last week and then again at a demonstration outside the Executive Yuan yesterday — but also drew criticism from the Presidential Office and the Cabinet.
The CIP urged everyone not to take the analogy out of context, and continued to condemn the Pingpu for “unilaterally claiming themselves to be Aborigines.”
“If the Pingpu want to be part of the larger Aboriginal family, they should do so through peaceful, natural and respectful means, and not voice their demands by shooting fireworks [at the CIP], an unfriendly attitude [toward the CIP] and through illegal demonstrations,” the statement said.
To support its case, the CIP cited clauses in the Aboriginal Basic Act (原住民族基本法) related to development and construction projects within Aboriginal regions. It said such projects should get consent from local Aborigines in advance and “any individual or ethnic group should not unilaterally claim to be Aborigines without getting consent from all other Aborigines in advance.”
Talavan said: “I am a member of the Talavan family because I am born one — do I need to get consent from all members of the family before claiming myself to be one?”
Also See: Aborigines attempt to turn themselves in over protest
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS