Ethnic rights activists yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to better understand what the Aboriginal and Hakka movements were aiming for.
“Ma talked a lot about ethnic affairs during his presidential campaign, but based on what he has said, I’m worried whether he really understands that we’re fighting for ethnic and cultural decolonization, and that the issues are not just about social welfare,” Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮), a long-term Hakka and Aboriginal rights activist, told a forum in Taipei yesterday co-hosted by several social groups.
Yang said his worries came from an incident in which a group of Amis residents in Taipei County whose community was set for demolition petitioned Ma in January.
Ma at the time told the group that “if you come into the city, you are a Taipei resident. I see you as a human being. I see you as a citizen, and I will educate you well,” and that “when you come into the city, you have to play by our rules.”
Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川), a Puyuma activist, said: “Ma once said that ‘Aborigines don’t have any problem in their genes, but they have problems in getting opportunities.’”
“Of course there is no problem in our genes! It seems like Ma regards the Aboriginal movement as a social issue,” Sun said.
Sun said the next step was for Aborigines to establish their own perspectives on issues related to them to avoid then “being kidnapped by politicians and other outsiders.”
“For the past 400 years, Aboriginal history has been recorded only from non-Aboriginal perspectives — we need to construct an Aboriginal perspective on history,” Sun said.
Yang and Sun agree that there were some interior issues that need to be resolved and adjusted for the movements to continue.
“Among Aborigines, there is the issue of unequal distribution of resources,” Sun said. “For example, since the Amis are the most populous, they may get more resources than other smaller tribes and we should fix this.”
Yang suggested that social groups change their mentality.
“Before the first change of power, we considered the government our enemy, because it was an authoritarian regime,” he said.
But in a democracy, things aren’t so black and white, he said.
“We keep talking about ideologies without considering that political parties need votes, so we’ve become marginalized,” Yang said. “As members of a democratic society, we should adjust our mentality and try to enter into dialogue with the government, not just remain opposed to it.”
‘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 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
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
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
RSS