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.
‘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