Aboriginal rights campaigners yesterday condemned the government for having not carried out a promise to reinstate traditional Aboriginal territories, and they demanded that an independent agency be established to restore Aboriginal rights to land and transitional justice.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Aug. 1 last year delivered a landmark apology to Taiwan’s Aborigines for their deprivation of rights in the hundreds of years since the mass migration of Han people began.
She promised to reinstate land rights, self-determination, economic development, cultural and language preservation and other rights protection.
Photo: CNA
Tsai yesterday said the government has worked to preserve Aboriginal languages and culture by immersing Aboriginal preschoolers and students in a learning environment where their native languages are spoken.
Aboriginal campaigners who have been staging a camp-out near the Presidential Office Building in Taipei for 160 days said Tsai had failed to keep her promises to restore Aboriginal rights.
They criticized the guidelines the Cabinet released on Feb. 14 on the delineation of traditional Aboriginal territories, which would restrict the application of the “traditional area” label to government-owned land, explicitly excluding private land.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
It would reduce recognized traditional territories from 1.8 million hectares to 800,000 hectares while companies would be allowed to develop traditional Aboriginal land that is now in private hands without the consent of local Aborigines, they said.
“Tsai promised that the government would prioritize the issue of traditional territories, but it turns out it is only limited to government-owned land,” Amis activist Panai Kusui said.
Documentary filmmaker Mayaw Biho, an Amis who has been an active member of the camp-out, called on the government to legislate an Aboriginal transitional justice law and establish an agency similar to the Cabinet’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee to investigate the deprivation of Aboriginal rights.
Photo: CNA
That would be a way to achieve understanding and reconciliation, he said.
The Presidential Office’s Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee, which was established last year to understand the history of Aboriginal rights deprivation and reinstate those rights, does not have the necessary executive or investigative powers to perform its functions, Mayaw said.
“It is an irresponsible reform if the ruling party acts like it has done a lot and put in a great deal of effort in an effort to convince the public it is trying to tackle a problem,” Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fang (林飛帆) said.
Lin criticized Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Yao Jen-to (姚人多) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kolas Yotaka for saying that the protesters do not respresent the nation’s Aborigines.
“Why can a person in power [Yao] be so careless about his authority, but treat protesters in quite a different way? What is the difference between the government and the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]?” Lin said.
The Executive Yuan said that efforts are under way to provide further protection to Aboriginal languages, land and resource rights.
The president has held talks with Aboriginal delegates, and the traditional territories delineation guidelines and landmark Aboriginal Language Development Act (原住民族語言發展法) have been promulgated, while legal rulings have been made to ensure that Aborigines could practice traditional hunting, fishing and harvesting, the Executive Yuan said.
The Cabinet has also completed the preliminary investigation into a government decision to deposit nuclear waste on Orchid Island (蘭嶼, Lanyu) without the knowledge and consent of the local Tao community when Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Sun Yun-suan (孫運璿) were premier.
The Cabinet will create an institutional environment for the development of Aboriginal cultures and achieve transitional justice and harmony between ethnic groups, the Executive Yuan said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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