The abusive language and hostile rhetoric used by many pan-green supporters is harmful to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration's goal of forging a unified national identity for Taiwan, academics said yesterday.
At a seminar held to discuss the DPP's plan of codifying the spirit of ethnic equality in the party charter, Lee Chien-hung (李健鴻), a professor at Da Yeh University, yesterday suggested that party officials discourage its followers from using "socially exclusive language" toward Mainlanders living in Taiwan.
"The use of derogatory terms such as `Mainlander pigs go back to China' or saying someone was `selling out' Taiwan ... has caused a negative psychological impact on Mainlanders and led to their mistrust of the DPP government," Lee said.
The seminar, presided over by DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), with high-ranking party officials and academics taking part as guest speakers, was designed to come up with policy suggestions to ease the ethnic confrontations between Hoklo Taiwanese and Mainlanders in the wake of the March 20 presidential election.
Although DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (
Lee Chien-hung said that DPP authorities should take steps to prevent and discourage divisive remarks.
Chang Mao-keui (
Lee Chien-hung suggested that the DPP take concrete steps to embrace the Mainlander community and highlight the value of their contributions.
Preserving Mainlander culture and villages, as the government did for the Hakka and Aboriginal cultures, would be conducive to ethnic harmony, Lee said.
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