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.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
RSS