Aboriginal and civic groups yesterday accused the government of conducting a “political witch hunt” with its pursuit of activists who spray-painted the Guangfu Township (光復) Office building in Hualien County to demand the restoration of Aboriginal names to tribal areas.
Early on Oct. 19, the Fa-Ta Alliance for Attack and Defense (馬太攻守聯盟), an Aboriginal group with members from the local Fataan and Tafalong communities in Hualien, painted graffiti on the facade of the office reading: “The land is the eternal nation” and “Whose restoration [(光復, guangfu)]? Names [of places] should be left to the master of the land,” along with the Aboriginal names of the two tribes.
Guangfu literally means “glorious restoration” or “glorious retrocession,” and is used by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime to refer to the takeover of Taiwan from the Japanese after World War II.
Photo courtesy of the Association for Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Policy
However, the Association for Taiwan Indigenous People’s Policy that organized yesterday’s rally said that local police and prosecutors have since that day been harassing members of the alliance, their supporters and other Aborigines with telephone calls and verbal threats, causing great stress to their families and friends.
The association and more than half a dozen civic groups at the protest in front of the National Police Agency office in Taipei accused the government of “state violence.”
Chen I-chen (陳以箴), an Aboriginal rights advocate from the Makatao community who participated in the spray-painting protest, apologized to her people for “failing to tear down the township office’s name plaque all together.”
Association executive chief Yapasuyongu Akuyana said that giving places their rightful Aboriginal names is a “duty” of the state, not a “favor.”
“Rectification of names of traditional Aboriginal regions is the first step toward transitional justice for Taiwanese Aborigines,” Yapasuyongu Akuyana said.
“The spray-painting action is not an individual case; it is a product of history, an action by Aborigines in pursuit of self-identity and to right their names in history,” association president Oto Micyang said.
Echoing Omi Wilang, secretary-general of the Indigenous Peoples’ Action Coalition Taiwan, who said that the name Guangfu was assigned to the town without a full discussion with local Aborigines, Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice (臺左維新) chief executive Lin Yu-lun (林于倫) called the protest “an act of cleansing, rather than vandalizing; to clean off the pollution generated by 60 years of state colonization.”
Taiwan Referendum Alliance convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) “confessed his sins” at the news conference, saying that as a non-Aboriginal Taiwanese, he is “an accomplice to the crime if name rectification is considered one.”
He added that in Canada, Aborigines are referred to as First Nations and Taiwan has from the outset belonged to Aborigines.
“This is not a crime of vandalism, but one of state officials’ dereliction of duty, for the Republic of China officials have failed to abide by the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民基本法),” he said.
Article 11 of the law stipulates that the government “shall restore the traditional names of indigenous tribes, rivers and mountains in indigenous peoples’ regions in accordance with the will of indigenous peoples.”
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS