Aboriginal and human rights activists yesterday protested the abolition of Aboriginal townships in counties to be administratively upgraded to special municipalities on Saturday, urging legal revisions to allow them to maintain their autonomous status.
“This is not our first time here, we’ve been here several times, making the same demands over and over, and received promise after promise from the government,” Aboriginal Action Alliance Convener Lituan Takelutuen told a press conference held at the Legislative Yuan.
“But we’ve never seen the government take any actual measures in response to our demands,” he said. “Hence, we’re here to condemn the government.”
Lituan was referring to the downgrading of Aboriginal townships to city districts when Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung counties become special municipalities on Saturday.
At present, Wulai Township (烏來) in Taipei County and -Heping Township (和平) in Taichung County, as well as Namasiya (那瑪夏), Maolin (茂林) and Taoyuan (桃源) townships in Kaohsiung County, are designated as “mountain Aboriginal townships” with elected councils and mayors — and mayoral seats in mountain Aboriginal townships can only be served by “mountain Aborigines.”
However, when these townships become districts in new special municipalities, district chiefs are to be appointed by the mayor, with no prerequisites.
“President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) gave the five mountain Aboriginal townships the loss of local autonomous status as a Christmas gift,” said former Examination Yuan member Iban Nokan, who is an Atayal.
Iban said he could not accept the Ministry of the Interior’s response to their protest that the rights of residents in mountain Aboriginal townships “would not be compromised due to the change.”
“This is very irresponsible, and is not true at all,” Iban said. “I can’t believe this would appear in an official letter issued by the ministry.”
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Tsai Chi-hsun (蔡季勳) called it a serious violation of human rights.
Tsai noted that the legislature has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights last year, and adopted a law to give these two covenants the status of domestic laws last year.
“The first article [of the ICCPR] states that ‘all peoples have the right of self-determination,’ but what the government is doing is just the opposite,” Tsai said. “If the government fails to respond positively to Aborigines’ demands, we will contact relevant international bodies or individuals, such as the UN special rapporteur on indigenous rights James Anaya, to investigate into the issue.”
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
RSS