President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday unexpectedly visited a group of Aboriginal rights activists staging a protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, personally answering their questions and promising to help Aborigines to “be themselves.”
At a tent set up by the protesters the president sat down with the activists at about 3:30pm and chatted with them.
Mayaw Wutaw of the Amis, who traveled to Taipei from Pingtung County on foot and collected the thoughts of Aboriginal elders along the way, said that he did so because he wanted the president to know that the government’s repression of Aborigines is still ongoing, even though it may not be visible.
Photo: CNA
For example, many Aboriginal communities are banned from staying in their traditional domains and are penalized when trying to utilize resources in those domains, he said.
Amis singer-activist Panai Kusui told Tsai that the nation should embrace diversity.
“Those who live in the mountains should know the mountains and those who live by the ocean should know the ocean, but our education has trained us to become Han Chinese, we learned the Han culture and language, and lost our roots. We are standing up because we want to become who we are,” she said.
Responding to the complaints, Tsai said that perhaps her apology did not satisfy everyone, but she urged the activists to believe in her government’s determination.
Answering calls for the commission on Aboriginal transitional justice to have investigative powers, Tsai said that she would first set up the commission and then make amendments as required.
On calls for Aboriginal issues to be included in the bill on transitional justice, Tsai said that since there are many issues unique to Aborigines, it would not be suitable for that bill to include Aboriginal issues.
“I think we can only deal with Aboriginal issues when we have a separate law specifically targeting transitional justice issues for Aborigines,” Tsai said.
The conversation lasted for about half an hour and after the meeting Panai Kusui said that she felt Tsai was sincere, but she and her fellow activists would continue to monitor the government’s actions.
Mayaw Biho, former director of Taiwan Indigenous Peoples TV and an Amis activist, said that it is acceptable to have two separate laws on transitional justice, but the two mechanisms must operate simultaneously.
“Unless there is a passage of transitional justice legislation for Aborigines granting investigative powers to the commission, her apology is just fake,” he said at a news conference on Ketagalan Boulevard in the morning.
While Tsai has promised to personally head the commission, activists questioned her administration’s resolve to publicize past abuses and provide compensation, citing differences between the proposed Aboriginal transitional justice commission and a proposed transitional justice commission targeting Martial Law-era abuses.
Salone Ishahavut, a professor of indigenous development at National Chi Nan University and member of the Bunun, said that true transitional justice for Aborigines would require an official government investigation into past injustices to provide a foundation for affixing responsibility and settling accounts, including providing compensation and passing institutional reforms.
“Not only will the transitional justice commission [for Martial Law-era abuses] have a formal legal foundation, it will have a fixed budget, while the Aboriginal transitional justice commission’s budget will have to be appropriated ad hoc from existing budgetary items,” she said.
Aboriginal transitional justice commission members would work only part-time and without pay, while the Martial Law-era transitional justice commission would be full-time and paid, she added.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
RSS