Leaders from local Hakka groups yesterday slammed former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) for calling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) a “pseudo-Hakka” and demanded that the KMT apologize for what they called its past policy of “linguistic genocide.”
Representatives from various groups and two DPP legislative candidates in Hakka constituencies demanded that Wu — a Hakka — and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as KMT chairman, apologize for the party’s suppression of languages other than Mandarin during the Martial Law era.
They also called for the establishment of a native language monument to remind Taiwanese of the long period of suppression in Taiwan.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Ma and Wu should be ashamed of themselves for being accomplices of the suppression, a serious crime against humanity,” Taiwan Hakka Society chairman Chang Yeh-shen (張葉森) said.
The leaders held the press conference in response to comments by Wu, who told a rally in support of Ma’s re-election campaign on Sunday that Tsai was a “pseudo- Hakka” because she could not speak Hakka and had not spoken it in more than 50 years.
Many people are not able to speak their mother tongue, such as Hakka, Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) or any of the Aboriginal languages because the KMT only promoted Mandarin and prohibited the use of other languages for decades, Chang said.
In 1988, Wu, who served as minister of the interior and was regarded as a top Hakka politician at the time, and then-Cabinet member Ma did nothing to assist a Hakka awareness movement that had emerged that year and did not stop the KMT from the “Nazi-like” suppression of native languages and cultures, Chang said.
“It is ironic that now Wu is accusing people of not speaking fluent Hakka and Ma is busy telling people that he is Hakka, when he is not,” Chang said.
What really matters to Hakka, the second-largest ethnic group in Taiwan behind Hoklo, is whether a candidate is committed to promoting Hakka culture rather than his or her language proficiency, said Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), a DPP legislative candidate in Miaoli County.
“Ma, Wu and the KMT should look themselves in the mirror and think hard about why [Taiwan] was able to preserve Hakka and Hoklo during the Japanese colonial period [from 1895 to 1945], but it almost failed to survive the Martial Law period,” he said.
Huang Jen-shu (黃仁杼), a DPP legislative candidate in Taoyuan County, said several factors could contribute to or impair one’s Hakka proficiency, adding that lack of language proficiency should never be regarded as a “cardinal sin.”
Huang said that if Wu failed to apologize for his comments, he did not rule out organizing a protest in front of KMT headquarters.
The KMT would be the last political party to brag about its contribution to Hakka people, Taiwanese Hakka Association of the World chairman Peter Lo (羅能平) said.
“From what I’ve seen, the DPP established the Council for Hakka Affairs and the Hakka Television Service and it was committed to promoting cultural diversity during its eight years in power, while the KMT has done nothing in the past six decades,” Lo said.
BUSY DAY: The same day the USS ‘Barry’ passed through the Strait, Taiwan was ending its Han Kuang military exercises, while China said it conducted an exercise near Taiwan A US Navy ship on Friday sailed through the Taiwan Strait, marking the ninth time a US military vessel has transited the Strait since US President Joe Biden took office in January. The USS Barry, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, conducted a “routine” transit through the Strait, the US Navy said in a statement, adding that the journey through international waters was conducted “in accordance with international law.” “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the US Navy said. “The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows.” The Ministry
CLOSED FOR DISINFECTION: Two of the three local cases were linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten, while the other case works at a McDonald’s restaurant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths. The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release. Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman. He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have
BIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force
WELCOME BACK: Foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese can now directly apply for a visa with representative offices overseas, the CECC said Regulations on applications for entry to the nation by foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese have been relaxed effective immediately, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported two new local and three imported cases of COVID-19. Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center, said the relaxation meant that such applications would be treated as general cases, instead of special ones that are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. “Considering the recent local COVID-19 situation and the needs of foreign spouses and children to visit their family in Taiwan, we are allowing Taiwan’s
RSS