The abusive language and hostile rhetoric used by many pan-green supporters is harmful to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration's goal of forging a unified national identity for Taiwan, academics said yesterday.
At a seminar held to discuss the DPP's plan of codifying the spirit of ethnic equality in the party charter, Lee Chien-hung (李健鴻), a professor at Da Yeh University, yesterday suggested that party officials discourage its followers from using "socially exclusive language" toward Mainlanders living in Taiwan.
"The use of derogatory terms such as `Mainlander pigs go back to China' or saying someone was `selling out' Taiwan ... has caused a negative psychological impact on Mainlanders and led to their mistrust of the DPP government," Lee said.
The seminar, presided over by DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), with high-ranking party officials and academics taking part as guest speakers, was designed to come up with policy suggestions to ease the ethnic confrontations between Hoklo Taiwanese and Mainlanders in the wake of the March 20 presidential election.
Although DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (
Lee Chien-hung said that DPP authorities should take steps to prevent and discourage divisive remarks.
Chang Mao-keui (
Lee Chien-hung suggested that the DPP take concrete steps to embrace the Mainlander community and highlight the value of their contributions.
Preserving Mainlander culture and villages, as the government did for the Hakka and Aboriginal cultures, would be conducive to ethnic harmony, Lee said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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