President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited Taiwan’s diplomatic ally Swaziland and attended a ceremony marking its 50th anniversary of independence from British colonization, during which King Mswati III changed the name of his country to the Kingdom of Eswatini.
During the ceremony, he said: “Now it is time to return the name of the nation to the people.”
The nation’s former name, “Swaziland,” is a combination of the local Swazi language and the colonizer’s language, English, so it bears a strong implication of colonization.
Meaning “land of the Swazi,” Eswatini was what the country was called prior to colonization.
After the country’s name is rectified, similar rectifying processes will soon be applied to the Swazi constitution, police force, military and universities. Tsai is certainly no stranger to the issue of rectification of names.
Over the past few years, many rectification campaigns have been launched in Taiwan, aiming to rectify the name of the nation, place names, as well as the name of the nation’s team at international sports events.
These campaigns are now blossoming in Taiwan’s civic society, particularly since the last power transition, and are now riding on the waves of decolonization and transitional justice.
The ongoing rectification campaigns are essentially attempts to complete Taiwan’s decolonization. In addition to the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s long-term advocacy of rectifying the nation’s name and drawing up a new constitution, the Formosa Alliance is also proposing an independence referendum and urging the nation to join the UN under the rectified name “Taiwan.”
There is a rectification campaign led by pro-independence advocates who have launched a referendum about changing the nation’s name from “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan” at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Aborigines are fighting for their traditional territories, and their proposals and philosophical discussions tell stories of the native land and culture.
These efforts exemplify the core values of the decolonization process and the transitional justice being undertaken in Taiwan. However, the campaigns do not appear to be receiving much support from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
The pace of rectifying the nation’s name to Taiwan and drawing up a Taiwanese constitution is extremely slow; the Referendum Act (公投法) — once called a “bird cage” law on account of its extremely high thresholds for initiating, seconding and passing referendums — became a “birdless cage” after being amended; and there is no relevant law governing the issue of sovereignty.
When it comes to changing the name of the national sports team, the government appears to be muddleheaded and passive.
With regard to the delineation of Aboriginal “traditional territories,” the government was intimidated by enterprises and came up with an incomplete act that excludes privately owned land from such territories.
The DPP government has made the public wonder whether it is really determined to normalize the nation.
Remnants of the colonizing regime remain, even if the power of that regime is in decline. Pushing for decolonization and restoring the national identity are historical responsibilities of the present government.
This land is our land, just as the Kingdom of Eswatini is the land of the Swazi.
It was an honor for our president to attend and participate in the rectifying ceremony of a diplomatic ally, and hopefully the experience will spur Tsai to lead the government in implementing transitional justice.
Chen Chia-lin is director of the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s policy department.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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