Last week, preacher Yohani Isqaqavut, an Aboriginal activist and former Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) minister, assumed office as Taiwan’s representative to Fiji, making him the country’s first Aboriginal ambassador.
Before departing for Fiji on May 3, Yohani gave an exclusive interview to the Taipei Times at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Taipei.
“I was very surprised last year when I was first told, unofficially, that I would likely be the new representative to Fiji,” Yohani said.
PHOTO: LOA IOK-SIN, TAIPEI TIMES
“I’d actually heard the talk about the foreign ministry looking for an Aborigine to serve as representative to Fiji, but I didn’t think it would be me,” he said.
Although the news came as a surprise, it wasn’t an accident that the MOFA picked him for the job.
“We find Yohani to be an excellent candidate for the position,” ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) told the Taipei Times at a separate venue.
“First of all, indigenous peoples in the South Pacific region share a similar cultural heritage. Being an Aborigine, Yohani is culturally more connected to the Fijians,” she said.
“Second, he has served as CIP minister, which means that he’s familiar with how government administration functions,” Yeh said. “And most importantly — Yohani has represented Taiwan’s Aborigines at many UN indigenous conferences, so he’s not unfamiliar with international affairs.”
After being unofficially informed that he was the preferred candidate, Yohani began to seriously consider whether to accept.
“I felt it’s a great responsibility, and I needed to think whether I could do the job well,” he said. “And accepting the responsibility would mean that I have to alter the path of my life — and I needed some time to think.”
Yohani has changed paths several times already.
Beginning his career as a preacher at the Presbyterian Church in a Bunun Aboriginal community in the mountains of Nantou County, his love for his people turned him into an Aboriginal rights activist in the 1980s and 1990s.
When the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidency in 2000, Yohani was named the first CIP minister.
After stepping down from the position in 2002, Yohani resumed his church career in Nantou and remained active in Aboriginal affairs.
After months of thinking, Yohani decided to accept the assignment as representative to Fiji.
“I accepted the assignment because I felt that it’s time for Aborigines to take part in all areas of public affairs — not just Aboriginal affairs,” he said.
Yohani believes his Austronesian cultural background will give him an advantage in developing closer relationships with Fijian officials.
“There’s a trick that I always use to instantly boost relations with people from other Austronesian countries,” Yohani said.
“When I had dinner with the Fijian representative in Taiwan last week, I asked him to count from one to 10 in the indigenous Fijian language, and I counted from one to 10 in Bunun,” Yohani said with a big smile on his face. “And we found that we pronounce at least five numbers the same way, and instantly, a feeling of brotherhood arose.”
Yohani then recounted that once when he visited New Zealand and had dinner with Taiwan’s diplomats in the country, “two Maori ministers showed up and partied with us.”
“They told us that they usually wouldn’t attend events held by Taiwan’s diplomatic mission because of pressure from China, but they wanted to come that night because there were Taiwanese Aborigines and they felt there was a special tie between us,” Yohani said.
Meanwhile, Yohani also thinks that his religious background could help in his new job.
“Fiji is a country where Christianity is the dominant religion,” he said. “So, being a preacher, I would naturally have more opportunities to meet local religious leaders — many of whom are also political leaders — through church events.”
“With such a heavy responsibility and the expectations of the Taiwanese people on my shoulders, I will certainly do my best to perform well at the job,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS