A member of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee recently caused a stir with his suggestion that the nation’s Aborigines should marry within their own ethnic group to preserve the purity of Aboriginal bloodlines.
The suggestion came to light when a KMT lawmaker revealed in a post on Facebook that during a committee meeting on Wednesday last week, in which Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川) gave a presentation, committee member Liao Wan-lung (廖萬隆) proposed the idea to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
According to the post, Ma, who presided over the meeting in his capacity as the KMT chairman, responded by saying that “love and marriage are personal liberties,” adding: “I’m sorry, but I cannot take the suggestion.”
Liao’s proposal has nonetheless caused a stir among some netizens, who slammed the idea as “totally ridiculous.”
Commenting on the issue, Sediq KMT Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) said he was surprised anyone would still make such a suggestion, as marriage between Aborigines and non-Aborigines helped keep the different ethnicities at peace, adding that trying to stop inter-communal marriages hinted at repression, not progress.
KMT Legislator Chien Tung-ming (簡東明), a member of the Paiwan tribe, added that it was “inhuman” to interfere in the freedom of marriage.
Protection of cultures did not necessarily need to start by avoiding marriage between Aboriginal and Han peoples, said Chien, whose view was echoed by Sun.
Other Aboriginal leaders also said it was ludicrous, laughable, an infringement of human rights and inhumane.
Independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), who is half-Atayal and represents an Aboriginal constituency, wondered why Liao still subscribed to the outdated concept of blood and racial purity.
Liao yesterday clarified that his intent had been to preserve Aboriginal languages and cultures. Such things cannot be forced and must be encouraged by policies, he added.
The central government’s policies on the preservation of Aboriginal culture are insufficient, causing their gradual assimilation and the loss of Aboriginal languages, Liao said.
“There might not be a pure-bred Aborigines anymore if this continues,” Liao said.
Government policies must protect the vulnerable and the central government should draw up regulations that encourage young Aborigines to return to their native homes to carry on their own cultures, which are an important part of Taiwan’s culture, he added.
According to the Aboriginal Identity Act (原住民身分法) amended in January 2001, people who are half Aborigine can obtain Aborigine status.
As a result, whereas the Aboriginal population was 420,000 in 2002, as of last month a total of 514,000 individuals nationwide were classified as Aborigines.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS