Amis singer Panai Kusui has won her appeal against fines from the Taipei City Government over her protests in 228 Peace Memorial Park, but she and her allies are more focused on their long-running fight against the central government’s Aboriginal lands policy.
The Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office last year fined Panai NT$7,200 for contravening Article 13 of the Taipei City Park Management Ordinance (臺北市公園管理自治條例) on July 16, 18 and 19 by setting up tables, chairs, boxes, cabinets and structures at the park without permission.
Panai lost her initial court battle over the fines, and an appeal in February, but the Taipei District Court on July 27 ruled in favor of Panai, saying that she was exercising her freedom of speech without hindering public passage through the park or damaging its facilities.
Panai and her colleagues were back at the park on Sunday to continue their protest on the land issue and their fight for “Indigenous Transformative Justice.”
Panai declined to comment on the court verdict, saying she was not feeling well and was still working on strategies with her lawyer.
She and her allies are fighting a regulation enacted by the Council of Indigenous Peoples in February 2017 that defines and zones what can be classified as indigenous “traditional territories and lands,” following President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Aug. 1, 2016, promise to delineate traditional Aboriginal territories and lands.
Panai and others held a news conference in front of the Presidential Office Building on Feb. 23, 2017, to criticize the regulation, saying it excluded privately held lands, thereby limiting where Aborigines could hold traditional activities, and call for its amendment.
The council said that including private lands in traditional Aboriginal territories would violate the right of property under the Constitution, and it was not authorized by the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law (原住民族基本法) to include private lands in the regulation.
Panai and other advocates set up a protest site on Ketagalan Boulevard in May that year, before moving it to the nearby National Taiwan University Hospital MRT Station on June 4 under pressure from Taipei officials.
The city tore down displays, tents and traditional painted stones placed around the station in March 2018 and January last year, saying they were harming Taipei’s cityscape, which led the group to move to its current location in the park on Jan. 24 last year.
The city has yet to say whether it plans to appeal last month’s court ruling.
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS