The divisive issue of language reared its head in the legislature yesterday, as lawmakers argued about whether Hokkien could be used over Mandarin.
During the Organic Laws Committee (司法委員會) and the Education and Culture Committee's (教育及文化委員會) joint session yesterday morning, KMT Legislator Kwan Yuk-noan (關沃暖) interrupted DPP lawmaker Tai Chen-yao (戴振耀) -- who was speaking in Hokkien -- saying that Tai was disrespecting the Legislative Yuan by not speaking in Mandarin.
According to Kwan, the meeting's convener, the KMT's Yang Tzuo-chow (楊作洲), and some other lawmakers, including himself, did not speak the language and could not understand what Tai was talking about.
"I asked Tai to speak in Mandarin, the ROC's official language," Kwan said yesterday.
Tai, however, said that he had always spoken in Hokkien -- his mother tongue -- at the legislature, and that Kwan should respect his choice.
Tai said that he was a legislator elected by the people of Taiwan, of whom a majority are Hokkien-speakers, and that he saw nothing wrong with speaking the language in the Legislative Yuan.
The session was adjourned for five minutes due to the argument. During the break, however, DPP lawmaker Wang Shih-hsun (王世勛) scolded Kwan for not respecting others.
"If Kwan does not understand Hokkien, he should go and look for an interpreter," Wang said.
Meanwhile, DPP lawmaker Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) questioned Kwan's motives, saying that perhaps Kwan viewed Hokkien as an unworthy foreign language.
DPP lawmaker Wang Li-ping (
The argument reached a conclusion, however, when an interpreter was assigned to Kwan for the duration of Tai's speech.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS