The recent riot involving discontented Thai laborers working on the construction of Kaohsiung City's mass rapid transit system has cast a shadow over Taiwan's human rights record.
It has also been an embarrassment for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which has long claimed human rights to be a preeminent concern.
Experts say the gap between the DPP's words and the actions it appears to condone is the result of the government's giving preference to the concerns of the business community and Taiwan society's strong bias against people of lower social and economic status, which results in the immature treatment of guest workers.
Before the establishment of the DPP in 1986, some political dissidents were oppressed cruelly by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) as a result of their activities advocating universal values such as democracy, human rights, and social equality. At that time, some of Taiwan's democratic pioneers, including Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu, who now convenes the Presidential Office's Human Rights Advisory Committee, said immediately after last week's riot that the accident had tarnished Taiwan's human-rights record and damaged the nation's image.
Last week, Lu apologized to mistreated Thai workers twice in public.
Even the Presidential Office officially released a statement expressing its looking forward to a probe of the incident because "the incident has had a negative impact on public safety and the nation's image."
Lee Mei-hsien (李美賢), an associate professor at the Graduate School of Southeast Asian Studies of National Chi Nan University, told the Taipei Times that riots involving guest workers in Taiwan could be attributed to policymakers' giving in to pressure from business interests, and the lack of education of society at large.
"Labor brokers in both Thailand and Taiwan know clearly that the weaknesses of the Taiwan government. Unreasonable brokerage terms for guest workers, who are already in a lower social and economic status in Thailand, could be a key factor jeopardizing bilateral relations," Lee said.
Lee said that related regulations set by Taiwan are based on patriarchal concepts.
She also said that the government has no determination to tackle existing management problems involving the violation of labor laws.
"Here in Taiwan, we can tell from advertisements that guest workers are basically seen as working machines rather than valued as human beings. When management abuses workers' human rights, such as keeping their passports, our government does nothing to correct such illegality," she said.
The mass media also smears the image of foreign workers and delivers a great deal of false information, Lee said.
On top of this there is a wealth gap between Taiwanese and foreign workers, most of whom live in poverty on the minimum wage minus extensive deductions.
"In Taiwan, the lack of face-to-face communication opportunities between local people and foreign workers also leads to greater misunderstanding, which hampers management willingness to improve living and working conditions for workers," Lee said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS