The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Organization Act of the Council of Indigenous Peoples (原住民族委員會組織法) stipulating that the head of the Council of Indigenous Peoples would rotate between members of lowland and mountain indigenous groups while committee members from all indigenous groups would no longer be paid wages.
The amendments also state that two of the three deputy ministers must be from lowland and mountain indigenous groups.
The council should have between 19 and 29 members serving a term of two years, and they would be allowed to serve consecutive terms, the amendments say.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The amendments also state that the positions would be unpaid.
The Council of Indigenous Peoples yesterday said the amendments severely undercut indigenous people’s rights, adding that it plans to contest the amendments or ask for the Constitutional Court for an interpretation.
The appointment of a minister to the council should be based on ability, and a policy forcing the rotation of such a position would prevent talented people from being selected, it said.
The amendments are at risk of legal overreach as they infringe on the premier’s right to appoint personnel, which contravenes Article 53 of the Constitution and Constitutional Interpretation No. 613, it added.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Saidhai Tahovecahe (伍麗華) said that separating lowland and mountain indigenous groups was an antiquated relic of colonialism and that the amendment contravened the Constitution.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sra Kacaw (鄭天財), one of the people who proposed the amendment, rebutted the accusation that the distinction was a relic of colonialism, citing how the distinction has been maintained by all iterations of the Local Government Act (地方制度法) throughout the years.
The amendment was a move to support indigenous peoples’ right to politics, he said.
Independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), co-author of the amendment, said that Saidhai Tahovecahe and others stood to benefit from the current system, adding that if every member of the council represented their people, 14 out of 16 would be DPP supporters.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) said that it was wrong for the DPP to place their supporters in the council and be paid by the state.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS