Representatives of minority groups yesterday called on the incoming Cabinet of president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to protect the rights of minorities such as indigenous people, foreign spouses and foreign laborers.
They made the appeal at a forum organized by the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan, the Organization of Urban Re-s and the Community Empowering Society, Taiwan.
SOCIAL EQUALITY
Chien Yeong-Shyang (錢永祥), an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica, said that although the nation is making increasing efforts toward reconciling ethnic groups, “the rights of Aborigines, foreign spouses and foreign workers should also be emphasized.”
Lan Ki-hue (林金惠), from Vietnam, who represents the TransAsia Sisters Association, said many Taiwanese were not familiar with foreign cultures, resulting in insulting or hurtful treatment of many foreign spouses and their children.
“Inappropriate language and words used by locals to refer to foreign spouses and their children cause misunderstandings and are hurtful to children,” Lan said, adding that “the government should set up regulations to punish offenders.”
FOREIGN WORKERS
On behalf of the estimated 365,000 foreign workers nationwide, most of whom come from Southeast Asia, Ku Yu-ling (顧玉玲), chairwoman of the Taiwan International Workers’ Association, said the rights of foreign workers were infringed upon because they had no chance of applying for citizenship or voting.
Ku lamented that this sizable group had no political rights and said that their political marginalization directly resulted in deplorable working conditions, as foreign workers cannot demand their right to choose their own employers.
Their situation is a form of slavery, Ku said.
“There will be no reconciliation within Taiwanese society if this inhumane situation is not improved,” she said.
Paiwan Aboriginal poet Monanung (莫那能) said that indigenous people had been treated as subhuman for centuries. He urged Ma and his Cabinet to learn the real meaning of prioritizing disadvantaged groups to move toward social equality.
A harmonious country means ending ethnic discrimination, but also harmony between humans and nature, Monanung said, adding that the incoming administration should stop ravaging the environment for profit and seek to protect it instead.
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