Several Aboriginal activists yesterday condemned remarks President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) made on Wednesday, when he said that complete autonomy for Aborigines would only bring isolation, and that Aborigines should be valued for their talent in sports and music.
“We Aborigines cannot agree at all with the discriminatory remarks that Ma made against the country’s Aborigines during a Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday,” Indigenous Peoples’ Action Coalition of Taiwan (IPACT) convener Omi Wilang told a news conference in Taipei. “We strongly condemn the remarks. He should apologize for them.”
Other activists at the press conference supported Omi’s call, and shouted in unison for Ma to apologize.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“This is not the first time that Ma has made discriminatory remarks against Aborigines,” Assembly of the Atayal Nation -secretary-general Utux Lbak said. “As it becomes a universal value around the world to respect indigenous peoples’ rights to the land and autonomy, the president is falling far behind the global trend.”
The activists were “livid” because Ma, in his capacity as KMT chairman, told the KMT Central Standing Committee meeting that “ceding territories” to Aborigines to create autonomous regions is not what was best for Aborigines, since it could isolate them.
He also said the public should value the talents of Aborigines more, such as in sports or in music, and that Aborigines may need “some degree of protection.”
“How is [the government] ‘ceding territories’ if autonomous regions are created? Aboriginal traditional domains are all our territories, it’s the several foreign regimes [that ruled Taiwan over the course of history] that took our lands,” Utux said. “We’re not asking [the government] to cede territories, we are only asking for our basic rights.”
Former Examination Yuan member Iban Nokan, on the other hand, criticized the Aboriginal autonomy bill drafted by the Executive Yuan, which incorporated Ma’s ideas about Aboriginal autonomy.
“The Executive Yuan’s draft autonomy bill is more about creating Aboriginal cultural preservation areas under current local government systems than creating authentic autonomous regions,” Iban said. “We Aborigines want our own autonomy, not Han people’s version of Aboriginal autonomy.”
As long as Ma does not change his Han-centric and Han supremacist mentality, “I don’t have any expectations for the Executive Yuan’s version of the autonomy bill,” he said.
However, KMT Legislator Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) of the Amis tribe, who is also a member of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, defended Ma’s remarks and the government’s version of Aboriginal autonomy.
“Ma was elaborating on his Aboriginal policies and he was very sincere about implementing autonomy, as he promised during the presidential campaign [in 2008],” Liao said, adding that there was no need to pay so much attention to Ma’s choice of words.
Liao said he supports Ma’s idea of implementing autonomy on a trial basis in the initial stage.
“If you try to pour too much stuff into the autonomy bill, it will become chaotic,” he said. “I think it’s a better idea to have a basic framework first, and then amend the law as necessary later on.”
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS