A remark Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) made yesterday implying that Han people are smarter than Aborigines has sparked criticism from Aboriginal activists.
Wang made the remark at a seminar on human rights protection hosted by the Control Yuan. He was speaking about how the Control Yuan can help to protect Aboriginal rights.
He started by accusing the government of not doing enough to enhance Aboriginal rights, and said the Control Yuan would take punitive steps against government agencies that do not work hard enough to improve Aboriginal rights.
However, when discussing why Aborigines are in a disadvantaged position in local society, Wang said part of the reason was because Han people could easily outsmart Aborigines.
Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川), who was present at the conference, defended Wang’s statement.
“If you put what he [Wang] said in context, he actually meant that the Aborigines are more trusting and more honest, so Aborigines are more likely to be deceived by Han people,” Sun said. “I think that’s quite true, according to my own experience.”
However, Sun’s defense did not convince Aboriginal activists.
“As the Control Yuan president, Wang should be more careful when talking,” convener of the Preparatory Committee for Saisiat Autonomy, Obay a Awi, told the Taipei Times by telephone. “No matter how you try to defend the remark, it’s just not something that an educated person and a high-ranking government official like Wang should have said.”
Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of Aboriginal Affairs director Icyang Parod said Wang’s statement was “very inappropriate.”
“[Wang made] a very discriminatory remark out of very typical Han chauvinism,” Icyang said. “He has the traditional Chinese mentality that all ethnic minorities are backward peoples.”
“It’s very inappropriate,” he added.
Wang sparked controversy earlier this week when he praised President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in an interview with the Chinese-language China Times, saying that Ma is an excellent person in many aspects.
Wang said in the interview that Ma was not only a knowledgeable person with a good command of a foreign language, but was also young and healthy and could run and swim.
He said Ma is a person with principles, and thus would not “take off his pants right on the street” to please the public.
The comments drew criticism from politicians from both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the DPP, who accused him of “brown-nosing” while serving as the head of an entity that is supposed to monitor government policies and actions.
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