The Siraya people are to file an administrative suit with the High Administrative Court regarding their official indigenous status, and will be accompanied by Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德).
The Greater Tainan City Government has been helping the group “right their name” and regain their indigenous status, holding a forum on the recognition of the group and an information meeting about the administrative lawsuit at the Tainan Siraya Cultural Hall yesterday, in which the Siraya people announced a recognition declaration and academics made speeches.
Lai said the Siraya people are “Taiwanese plains Aborigines,” who had been recognized by the former Tainan County Government as a “county-recognized indigenous group,” and have continued to be acknowledged by the special municipality as a “city-recognized indigenous group” after the merger of Tainan County and Tainan City.
Photo: Lin Meng-ting, Taipei Times
However, the Siraya people have not been officially recognized on a national level, Lai said.
“People without human rights are as if they have no souls,” Siraya Cultural Association head Wan Cheng-hsiung (萬正雄) said.
The Siraya people have been living on this land for more than 400 years, but the Sirayan culture has been repressed and destroyed by a series of foreign regimes, Wan said, adding that the Siraya people were hoping to achieve “historical justice” and secure their human rights through the recognition movement.
Tainan Ethnic Affairs Commission (EAC) director Wang Chi-min (汪志敏) said the recognition of a person’s identity is a natural right that they cannot be deprived of.
By making great efforts and progress on cultural restoration, including the preservation of the group’s music and traditional rituals, and the reconstruction of tribes, the Siraya people have rebuilt their self-identity, Wang said.
However, petitioning attempts in recent years to urge the government to have the Siraya people officially listed as one of the nation’s recognized Aboriginal groups have been repeatedly rejected by the Executive Yuan, EAC Preparation Committee of the Siraya People Affairs executive secretary Wan Shu-chuan (萬淑娟) said.
Appeals lodged against the decisions have also been turned down, she added.
The recognition movement has now entered the judicial stage and the Siraya people plan to arrive in Taipei on Wednesday to file an administrative lawsuit with the High Administrative Court.
Saying that he would be accompanying the group to Taipei, Lai expressed his hope that the case could be resolved during his term, adding that bringing the case to the Constitutional Court, if needed, is an option.
Additional reporting by CNA
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
New Taipei City prosecutors have indicted a cram school teacher in Sinjhuang District (新莊) for allegedly soliciting sexual acts from female students under the age of 18 three times in exchange for cash payments. The man, surnamed Su (蘇), committed two offenses in 2023 and one last year, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. The office in recent days indicted Su for contraventions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which prohibits "engaging in sexual intercourse or lewd acts with a minor over the age of 16, but under the age of 18 in exchange for
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
RSS