Following the Ministry of the Interior’s approval last week for Taoyuan County to be upgraded to a special municipality, several Aboriginal rights advocacy groups yesterday voiced their concern about its negative impact and urged the legislature to amend the Local Government Act (地方制度法) to ensure autonomy in Aboriginal areas.
While many people — including Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) — may be happy over the upgrade, which would entail an increase in budget and power, Atayal Aborigines are worried that the change could be a step backward in their struggle for autonomy, and questioned the legality of the decision.
“At the moment, Fusing Township (復興) in Taoyuan County is designated an Aboriginal township with a mayor and a council elected by all residents, and based on the law, the post of mayor can only be filled by an Aborigine,” Yabu Eyo, a representative from a Fusing-based Atayal Aborigines self-help organization, told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“When Taoyuan County becomes a special municipality, Fusing Township would become merely a district, with the head of the district being appointed by the mayor — and we would lose our council as well,” he said. “We are worried that the appointed district chief may not understand Atayal culture, customs and traditions.”
He questioned the legality of the decision, because, based on the Aboriginal Basic Act (原住民族基本法), Aboriginal residents must be consulted and must express their consent when a major change is to be made to a traditional Aboriginal domain.
Omi Wilang, president of the Taoyuan County Association for Sustainable Development of Atayal Communities, said that while Aboriginal residents are not satisfied with Fusing’s current status as a township in a county, “at least we have a minimal degree of autonomy.”
He also questioned the necessity of having six special municipalities in a country as small as Taiwan.
“Look, how many special municipalities are there in China? How many in Japan? Given limited budgets and resources, administrative upgrades have no major positive impact on the people, rather, it hurts our rights,” Omi said.
“We will continue to protest, along with former Aboriginal townships that have been turned into municipal districts in the last wave of administrative upgrades,” he said.
In 2010, the former Aboriginal townships of Namasiya (那瑪夏), Maolin (茂林) and Taoyuan (桃源) became municipal districts when Kaohsiung County was merged with Kaohsiung City and became the special municipality of Greater Kaohsiung. Similar changes also occurred in the current Heping District (和平) in Greater Taichung and Wulai District (烏來) in New Taipei City (新北市).
Pasang Hsiao (蕭世暉), a member of the Association for Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Policy, urged the legislature to amend the Local Government Act to either exclude Aboriginal townships from administrative upgrades, or grant special municipalities the power to create special administrative regions for former Aboriginal townships.
“With the administrative upgrade, the level of autonomy of Aboriginal townships should have been upgraded, not eliminated,” Hsiao said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉), a Sediq Aborigine, voiced his full support for the activists.
He said by telephone that had proposed amendments granting special status to Aboriginal townships, but they were not passed.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said the ministry understood the wishes of the Aborigines, but it could not make an exception that is not included in law.
“Changing Aboriginal townships to municipal districts is temporary only — until the law on Aboriginal autonomy is passed. When it’s passed, all Aboriginal areas will be granted autonomy,” Chien said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by