President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) apology to Aborigines yesterday was met with disappointment by Aboriginal rights advocates for failing to explicitly acknowledge Aboriginal sovereignty, with scattered protests outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.
“The problem is that [Tsai] has chosen not to return to [former president] Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) New Partnership quasi-state relationship, not even mentioning it in her remarks,” said Association for Taiwan Indigenous People’s Policy president Yapasuyongu Akuyana, who is a Tsou.
Chen, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in 2002 signed a New Partnership Accord promising autonomy and partnership through state-to-state relationships with Aborigines, but the accord was ignored by the government of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Tsai yesterday promised an “equal relationship” and “equal talks” with Aborigines as part of a historic and transitional justice commission that she is to head, but stopped short of explicitly affirming Aboriginal sovereignty.
Akuyana said that both the site of the apology and Tsai’s chosen audience showed a disregard for Aboriginal sovereignty.
“The site she chose for the apology used to be the office of the Japanese colonial administration’s governor-general — as if [Aboriginal representatives] were coming for an audience with a monarch,” he said, adding that Tsai should have chosen a neutral setting or an Aboriginal village to show respect.
He also said Tsai mainly invited elected Aboriginal officials — rather than traditional leaders — to observe the event, adding that Republic of China administrative units were a key cause of division and social disruption in Aboriginal communities.
“How could [she] choose to apologize in front of the very people who are responsible for damaging the values and structure of traditional society?” he said, comparing Tsai’s action to “asking a ghost to get your medicine” (請鬼抓藥單).
While Tsai’s promise to establish a new legal service center for Aborigines was positive, her promise to address penalties for hunting non-protected animals ignored the fact that all convictions of Aboriginal hunters have been for hunting “protected” animals, he said.
Aboriginal rights advocates argue that Aboriginal sovereignty should entitle the hunters to exceptions from wildlife protection rules.
“What I saw today was a political show that was put on in an extremely bureaucratic fashion,” said Aboriginal Transitional Justice Alliance president Kumu Hacyo, an independent Tainan city councilor who caucuses with the DPP.
Tsai’s promises to further Aboriginal rights “lacked sincerity” and were “evasive,” because they were not backed up by concrete policy stances, with the president ignoring calls to pass legislation to provide a legal foundation for a proposed Aboriginal justice commission, Hacyo said.
She added that there was a substantial amount of “low-lying fruit” to pick from if Tsai wanted to demonstrate her resolve and spark a national conversation.
Kumu Hacyo cited eliminating state-sponsored sacrifices to Koxinga (鄭成功), whose 17th-century invasion marked the beginning of Chinese rule.
“You should not just talk and apologize to Aborigines — you should also focus on making mainstream society tune in and engage in soul-searching,” she said.
She added that Tsai should also have chosen to immediately recognize members of historic Pingpu (平埔) Aboriginal communities, which have been largely assimilated after centuries of pressure from neighboring Chinese settlers.
Tsai said the government would conduct a review of related legal issues by the end of next month to award Pingpu Aborigines their “rightful” status.
“This issue has been under discussion for a long time — so she should have given a concrete response. Saying you will conduct a review is just being evasive,” Hacyo said.
Meanwhile, more than 30 Aboriginal protesters, led by members of the Pangcah Defense Alliance, clashed with throngs of police who encircled them outside the Presidential Office Building following an overnight vigil.
“We only have one demand — that this flag that has traveled more than 700km be sent into the Presidential Office Building,” said alliance member Kaing Lipay, an Amis.
Protesters early last month began a march from Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) along the nation’s east coast to the capital, carrying a flag calling for historical truth and justice for a ritual Paiwan spear.
They repeatedly pushed against the encircling police cordon, eventually reaching the road in front of the Presidential Office Building, before retreating to a tent defiantly erected in the middle of the preceding intersection, circling the tent with a long black banner calling for justice.
“Why is it that the DPP is willing to discuss ‘illicit party assets,’ but will not talk about how it plans to address ‘illicit national assets’ that were plundered from traditional Aboriginal territories?” said Aboriginal singer Panai Kusui, who performed at Tsai’s inauguration, calling the party’s policies “disgraceful.”
A separate group of more than 30 protesters from the Indigenous Peoples’ Long-term Care Alliance marched from the Legislative Yuan to the Presidential Office Building to present a petition, calling for Aboriginal participation in the design of expected long-term care reforms, including the loosening of restrictions on the establishment of long-term care centers in Aboriginal villages, and the allowing of joint management of the centers by villages and the government.
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Taiwan is hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) for the first time, welcoming more than 400 young linguists from 43 nations to National Taiwan University (NTU). Deputy Minister of Education Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said at the opening ceremony yesterday that language passes down knowledge and culture, and influences the way humankind thinks and understands the world. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual nation, with Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, 16 indigenous languages and Taiwan Sign Language all used, Chu said. In addition, Taiwan promotes multilingual education, emphasizes the cultural significance of languages and supports the international mother language movement, he said. Taiwan has long participated
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a