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Shame on Taipei City's disrespect of Aborigines

Since Taiwan's Aborigines startedetheir name rectification campaign, a series of social reform projects aimed at decolonization and stronger self awareness have been initiated. Campaigns have begun to restore tribal names, revive native languages, return land ownership and re-establish self rule.

When the government responded to the name restoration campaign by changing the name of Chiehshou Road (介壽路) to Ketagalan Boulevard on March 21, 1996, it was the first symbolic act of good will by a Han Chinese-dominated government.

A few days ago, however, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) forced a decision through the Taipei City Council to change the name of Ketagalan Boulevard -- the first road in an urban area of Taiwan to be named after an Aboriginal tribe -- to Anti-Corruption Democracy Square.

In addition to strongly opposing this act of spiritual violence and neglect of Aboriginal dignity, we demand that the Taipei City Government immediately rescind this measure and apologize to all Taiwan's Aborigines. We also express regret that the Taipei City Government's Indigenous Peoples' Commission did not oppose this violation of Aboriginal dignity during the City Council meeting.

The Ketagalan tribe lives in the Taipei basin. Despite the fact that Ketagalan families still live in many of the old tribal areas, they have been forgotten or ignored by successive colonial governments since the Japanese era.

The new rulers that arrived after World War II perpetuated the colonial policies of the Japanese government and gave the land Chinese names. In Aboriginal areas, the government was influenced by Chinese ideology while naming places, and Aboriginal townships were given names based on old Chinese moral standards, such as benevolence and love in Jenai Township (仁愛鄉), trust and righteousness in Hsinyi Township (信義鄉), harmony and peace in Hoping Township (和平鄉) or the ideal Confucian commonwealth in Tatung Township (大同鄉).

Other names were based on the Three Principles of the People, such as nationalism in Mintsu Village (民族村), democracy in Minchuan Village (民權村) and livelihood in Minsheng Village (民生村), all in Sanmin Township (三民鄉), or on restoration as in Fuhsing Township (復興鄉) and retrocession in Kuangfu Township (光復鄉), self-strengthening and so on, thus attempting to bury the old names forever.

Today's government under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has failed to implement transitional justice and to restore the old names of these places. The party has not implemented Article Four of the "New Partnership Between the Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Taiwan" signed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) when he was the DPP's presidential candidate in 1999. That article pledges to restore the traditional names to tribal areas, mountains and rivers.

The name change from Chiehshou to the name of a Taipei-based Aboriginal tribe, the Ketagalan, was a symbol of respect for the status of Taiwan's Aborigines and a good beginning on the road toward ethnic conciliation. A heavy shadow, however, has been cast over this very important symbol by Hau through his politically motivated move aimed at the pan-green camp.

This move shatters the symbolic significance of using the Ketagalan name. Not only does it show a deep ignorance of Taiwan's past, but it is also the most idiotic move in Taiwanese ethnic politics of recent years.

We strongly condemn this use of Aboriginal dignity as a pawn on the political battlefield of the Han Chinese people and sacrifice of the Ketagalan in the name of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).

Isak Afo is spokesperson of the Taiwan Indigenous Association.

Translated by Perry Svensson
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