An Aboriginal legislator yesterday said the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) legislative caucus was excluding Aboriginal rights from legislative discussions.
“I feel strongly about the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee not inviting the Council of Indigenous Peoples,” Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) said at a meeting of the Internal Administration Committee.
Chin said the council was the only Cabinet-level agency that had not been invited to send a representative to the hearing on draft legislation to promote transitional justice, adding that the omission reflected a wider absence of Aboriginal rights in discussions over transitional justice, with the DPP focusing primarily on rectifying abuses committed during the Martial Law period.
“When we talk about the Chinese National Party’s [KMT] assets, should we not also talk about how Aborigines lost their land during Japanese colonial rule? If we do not talk about that set of issues and do not even invite the Council of Indigenous Peoples to express an opinion, what kind of transitional justice is this?” she said.
Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Mayaw Dongi (林江義) said that any discussion of transitional justice should include at least the issue of Aboriginal land rights, citing a 1895 order by the Japanese colonial government that asserted control over any land not covered by a written contract, effectively confiscating vast swathes of undeveloped land occupied by Aborigines.
Association for Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Policies chairman Oto Micyang, an Amis, agreed with Kao, adding that she should be responsible for proposing alternative legislation.
“If you separate out transitional justice for Aborigines, its content will be narrowed and our justice will end up getting marginalized,” Mycyang said. “Aborigines can not be excluded from discussions of traditional justice, because we also have important historical claims.”
He added that the apology to Aborigines that president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has promised to issue after taking office would only be meaningful if it directly addressed land rights, adding that while many apologies had been issued in the past, they were “worthless,” because no action was taken to rectify injustices.
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