TSU lawmakers say they will petition the Legislative Yuan to make Hokkien Taiwan's second official language alongside Mandarin.
They plan to make the proposal next week at the legislature and if successful in their venture, demand the Ministry of Education to adjust school syllabuses to increase the number of hours that youngsters would be required to spend studying Hokkien.
They said the initiative is not intended to exacerbate ethnic tensions, but rather to ease strain between different ethnic groups by acknowledging that Taiwan is a multi-cultural society.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING,TAIPEI TIMES
The idea, however, has drawn flak from opposition parties, who called upon the TSU to stop raising politically sensitive issues.
Just two weeks after the beginning of the legislative session, the pro-Taiwan political group has whipped up a media frenzy by championing highly controversial policies.
The language issue comes hot on the heels of TSU proposals to halve the number of legislative seats and to require presidential candidates to be born in Taiwan.
However, TSU legislators deflected accusations that they harbor extreme political ideologies.
"Many democratic nations have long accepted the notion that a country does not necessarily need to have just one official language. Multiple-language policy has been adopted in many countries," TSU lawmaker Cheng Chen-lung (
Singapore, Finland and Canada all have two official languages, whereas Switzerland has four, according to Cheng.
Cheng said in light of the fact that more than 75 percent of people in Taiwan speak Hokkien fluently, there is no reason why Hokkien can't be designated as an official language.
The lawmaker stated that his proposal will pacify, not inflame the ethnic tension in Taiwan if everybody speaks the same language because "the cultural gap will instantly vanish."
The lawmaker also pointed out that learning native languages for just four hours a week at the elementary-school level is insufficient. He said teaching hours should be extended for students to achieve a greater level of language ability.
Students of grades one through six are currently required to select at least one language, either Hokkien, Hakka or one of the numerous Aboriginal languages. The language course only accounts for one-tenth of the entire weekly learning hours.
Cheng's initiative won endorsement from his party's allied DPP lawmakers, but the motion was attacked by opposition parties.
Throwing his weight behind the initiative, lawmaker Wang Tuoh (王拓), a DPP caucus leader, said there is "nothing outrageous in officially designating Hokkien as the second national language," given that the language is prevalently used in society.
"This matter can be discussed, it is not sensitive anymore. It is unnecessary to politicize the issue," Wang said.
He added that officially recognizing diverse languages will benefit the government showing that Taiwan is a democratic and open society.
KMT legislator Apollo Chen (
He said the TSU's initiative favors only Hokkien. "What about other native languages such as Hakka or the Aboriginal languages?" he asked.
PFP lawmaker Diane Lee (李慶安) said there is no need to further burden already-overworked students by prolonging hours set aside for for native-language study.
"Our students already shoulder too much stress from school studies. The proposal will further burden students merely to satisfy adults' [political] considerations," she said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,