The decades-long struggle of Siraya and other Pingpu (plains indigenous) people to be recognized as official indigenous groups saw a major breakthrough last week, as the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously in their favor.
Unanimous rulings are quite rare, and the government has three years to facilitate their recognition. The Pingpu groups have suffered heavy cultural and population loss due to their proximity to Han settlers over the centuries, compared with the 16 recognized indigenous groups who mostly occupied mountainous areas that were technically off-limits to the Han until the late 1800s.
The criteria include Austronesian peoples who have historical documentation (especially from the Japanese colonial era) and retain their culture, language and collective ethnic identity, Chief Justice Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) said.
The language part is tricky, as it has been the most devastated part of cultural erosion for all ethnic groups in Taiwan due to the draconian policies of the Martial Law era. Most Pingpu languages have been dormant for even longer, but many are under revival, and are being learned and taught once again. Many recognized indigenous languages are severely endangered. Do they lose their status if their people stop speaking it?
The ruling merely affirms their right to be recognized as indigenous. The exact determination and mechanism of their recognition and the organizational structures they will fall under are yet to be determined. Although it is a victory for the Pingpu, there is still a long road to go, as the nation has witnessed in the drawn-out ordeal after the same-sex marriage ruling in 2015.
The current recognized indigenous groups and the Council of Indigenous People have long opposed the inclusion of the Pingpu. Council Minister Icyang Parod said after the ruling that their inclusion would adversely affect the rights of those already recognized. In June, he said that there are about 980,000 Pingpu descendants who might be eligible, which is nearly twice the number of the current estimated 580,000 recognized indigenous people.
Although it is an understandable concern, Siraya advocate Alak Akatuang has said the council provided the most liberal number possible to drum up fears. Not all 980,000 would be eligible or willing to register, he said, adding that the actual number was about 200,000. How the government will handle registration, allocate resources and restructure political representation will need to be worked out carefully so that the rights of indigenous groups are ensured.
What is more alarming is indigenous politicians turning the issue into a contest of indigeneity. In June, Taitung County Council Deputy Speaker Lin Tsung-han (林琮翰) said that existing indigenous cultures and lifestyles would be “obliterated” if the “Sinicized” Pingpu groups were integrated into indigenous groups. This sentiment is divisive and unfair, all indigenous groups in Taiwan have suffered discrimination and cultural loss under Han settlement and government policy.
While it is true that many younger Siraya had not even heard of the term “Siraya” until the Pingpu cultural reawakening movement in the 1990s, many communities still maintained certain practices such as the worship of Alid, their collective ancestral spirit, and have put great effort into reviving and preserving their traditions since then. The Taokas of Miaoli remembered enough of the language to compile a 500-word phrasebook and revive their Kantian festival in 2002 after a nearly 50-year absence. Despite this, they cannot teach the language in school due to them not being an officially recognized group.
Including them is unlikely to accelerate assimilation and the loss of indigenous culture, but instead increase the numbers of those vested in indigenous cultural revival and preservation.
US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named US Representative Mike Waltz, a vocal supporter of arms sales to Taiwan who has called China an “existential threat,” as his national security advisor, and on Thursday named US Senator Marco Rubio, founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China — a global, cross-party alliance to address the challenges that China poses to the rules-based order — as his secretary of state. Trump’s appointments, including US Representative Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, who has been a strong supporter of Taiwan in the US Congress, and Robert Lighthizer as US trade
A nation has several pillars of national defense, among them are military strength, energy and food security, and national unity. Military strength is very much on the forefront of the debate, while several recent editorials have dealt with energy security. National unity and a sense of shared purpose — especially while a powerful, hostile state is becoming increasingly menacing — are problematic, and would continue to be until the nation’s schizophrenia is properly managed. The controversy over the past few days over former navy lieutenant commander Lu Li-shih’s (呂禮詩) usage of the term “our China” during an interview about his attendance
Following the BRICS summit held in Kazan, Russia, last month, media outlets circulated familiar narratives about Russia and China’s plans to dethrone the US dollar and build a BRICS-led global order. Each summit brings renewed buzz about a BRICS cross-border payment system designed to replace the SWIFT payment system, allowing members to trade without using US dollars. Articles often highlight the appeal of this concept to BRICS members — bypassing sanctions, reducing US dollar dependence and escaping US influence. They say that, if widely adopted, the US dollar could lose its global currency status. However, none of these articles provide
Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), the son of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee Politburo member and former Chongqing Municipal Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai (薄熙來), used his British passport to make a low-key entry into Taiwan on a flight originating in Canada. He is set to marry the granddaughter of former political heavyweight Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政), the founder of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東). Bo Xilai is a former high-ranking CCP official who was once a challenger to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the chairmanship of the CCP. That makes Bo Guagua a bona fide “third-generation red”
RSS