A Cabinet meeting yesterday approved a draft law to address the needs of the country’s Hakka, who at 5 million people make up 21.73 percent of the population.
Should the bill pass the legislature, it will become the second basic law for a single ethnic group in the country following the passage of the Aboriginal Basic Law (原住民基本法) in 2005.
“The enactment of the basic law is not because Hakka want privileges, but to secure equal rights. The basic rights of other people will not be negatively influenced by the basic law,” Council for Hakka Affairs Minister Huang Yu-chen (黃玉振) told a press conference.
Huang said that enactment of the bill would facilitate the advancement of Hakka culture, rebuild their dignity and help establish a harmonious society in which people from different ethnic groups can co-exist.
Under the bill, the Executive Yuan would be required to convene meetings of officials from different government departments to coordinate policies in connection with Hakka affairs and hold national conferences on a regular basis to deliberate the policies.
It stipulates that the government should take into consideration the rights of Hakka and their development when it maps out regional development plans and makes public policies.
The government would be required to include exams on Hakka affairs in its national exams, the bill said.
Huang said that the bill would require the government to establish connections between Hakka in the country and the ethnic group around the world with the view to turning Taiwan into a world center of Hakka culture.
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