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.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
ALL QUIET: The Philippine foreign secretary told senators she would not respond to questions about whether Lin Chia-lung was in the country The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a business delegation is visiting the Philippines, but declined to say whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) is part of the group, as Philippine lawmakers raised questions over Lin’s reported visit. The group is being led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-chin (黃昭欽), Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) vice president Lotta Danielsson, the ministry said in a statement. However, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lin is leading the delegation of 70 people. Filinvest New Clark City Innovation Park
DEFENSIVE EDGE: The liaison officer would work with Taiwan on drones and military applications for other civilian-developed technologies, a source said A Pentagon unit tasked with facilitating the US military’s adoption of new technology is soon to deploy officials to dozens of friendly nations, including Taiwan, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is to send a representative to collaborate with Taiwan on drones and military applications from the semiconductor industry by the end of the year, the British daily reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “Drones will certainly be a focus, but they will also be looking at connecting to the broader civilian and dual-use ecosystem, including the tech sector,” one source was