Aboriginal activists yesterday urged lawmakers to withdraw a proposed revision of the Act for the Utilization and Transfer of Reserved Mountainous Land (山坡地保育利用條例), which would alter a pending period that currently allows Aborigines to secure the ownership of reserve lands, warning that the planned change could accelerate the loss of Aboriginal lands to developers.
Article 37 of the law stipulates that Aborigines may obtain the right to farm or rent reserved mountainous lands and if an Aborigine legally uses the plot of land for five consecutive years he or she may be granted ownership of the land.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jeng Tian-tsair (鄭天財) of the Amis tribe has proposed deleting the five-year pending period from the article, causing many people to be concerned.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“If the proposed revision is passed, it would be a disaster for us, because it would make it easier for large developers to get hold of Aboriginal reserve land by borrowing Aboriginal names,” said Liu Mei-ling (劉美玲), an Atayal Aborigine from Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西).
“There are a lot of large-scale development projects in Atayal undertaken by non-Aborigines; there are hot spring resorts, coffee shops and hotels, but Aborigines can only work there as janitors, making between NT$18,000 and NT$20,000 a month,” Lin said.
Lin Chang-mau (林長茂), of the Green Formosa Front, said he has witnessed numerous cases in which Aborigines lent their identity to non-Aboriginal developers for between NT$200,000 anmd NT$300,000 so developers can then use the land as collateral for loans worth tens of millions of NT dollars.
“Many Aborigines became indebted because of this. Some ended up becoming homeless because they are too afraid to go home and some have even committed suicide,” Lin said.
Hoyi Ciku, an Atayal pastor from Renai Township (仁愛) in Nantou County, urged all Aborigines to protect their lands and called on the government to actively launch a probe into the illegal use of Aboriginal lands.
“Instead of proposing a relaxation to the restriction now, Aboriginal lawmakers should pass subordinate laws to the Aboriginal Basic Act (原住民族基本法) to better protect Aboriginal lands,” Hoyi said.
Jeng, the amendment’s leading advocate, said he made the proposal because he believed it is not fair that there is no five-year restriction for non-Aborigines, but there is one for Aborigines.
KMT Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) of the Seediq tribe agreed.
“Actually, I also support the activists’ idea that non-Aboriginal developers should not get hold of Aboriginal lands, but restricting Aboriginal rights to land ownership is not the way to solve the issue,” Kung said. “The target should be developers, not Aboriginal landowners.”
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS