The recent riot involving discontented Thai laborers working on the construction of Kaohsiung City's mass rapid transit system has cast a shadow over Taiwan's human rights record.
It has also been an embarrassment for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which has long claimed human rights to be a preeminent concern.
Experts say the gap between the DPP's words and the actions it appears to condone is the result of the government's giving preference to the concerns of the business community and Taiwan society's strong bias against people of lower social and economic status, which results in the immature treatment of guest workers.
Before the establishment of the DPP in 1986, some political dissidents were oppressed cruelly by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) as a result of their activities advocating universal values such as democracy, human rights, and social equality. At that time, some of Taiwan's democratic pioneers, including Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu, who now convenes the Presidential Office's Human Rights Advisory Committee, said immediately after last week's riot that the accident had tarnished Taiwan's human-rights record and damaged the nation's image.
Last week, Lu apologized to mistreated Thai workers twice in public.
Even the Presidential Office officially released a statement expressing its looking forward to a probe of the incident because "the incident has had a negative impact on public safety and the nation's image."
Lee Mei-hsien (李美賢), an associate professor at the Graduate School of Southeast Asian Studies of National Chi Nan University, told the Taipei Times that riots involving guest workers in Taiwan could be attributed to policymakers' giving in to pressure from business interests, and the lack of education of society at large.
"Labor brokers in both Thailand and Taiwan know clearly that the weaknesses of the Taiwan government. Unreasonable brokerage terms for guest workers, who are already in a lower social and economic status in Thailand, could be a key factor jeopardizing bilateral relations," Lee said.
Lee said that related regulations set by Taiwan are based on patriarchal concepts.
She also said that the government has no determination to tackle existing management problems involving the violation of labor laws.
"Here in Taiwan, we can tell from advertisements that guest workers are basically seen as working machines rather than valued as human beings. When management abuses workers' human rights, such as keeping their passports, our government does nothing to correct such illegality," she said.
The mass media also smears the image of foreign workers and delivers a great deal of false information, Lee said.
On top of this there is a wealth gap between Taiwanese and foreign workers, most of whom live in poverty on the minimum wage minus extensive deductions.
"In Taiwan, the lack of face-to-face communication opportunities between local people and foreign workers also leads to greater misunderstanding, which hampers management willingness to improve living and working conditions for workers," Lee said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RSS