The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of trying to shield the Council of Agriculture from answering a call by KMT lawmakers to present a special report on imports of food products from Japan’s radiation-affected regions.
The caucus also slammed DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) for using a term widely considered offensive by Aborigines to describe KMT lawmakers during a verbal spat.
KMT lawmakers asked the legislature’s Economics Committee to call on the council to prepare a special report in today’s committee meeting on government measures relating to its plan to lift the ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures that were affected by the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant meltdown in 2011.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The proposal was vetoed by their DPP counterparts, who said that the committee meetings held yesterday and today are for reviewing the council’s budget and that the schedule is tight.
KMT Legislator and committee member Chang Li-shan (張麗善) told a news conference later yesterday that the KMT had made the request because the public hearings called by the government had failed to do their job.
“Ten public hearings in three days is not what an issue of such importance deserves. We hope the council takes this issue seriously, as the imported goods will mostly be manufactured from agricultural products, and the report should not wait until the review of its budget is completed,” Chang said.
KMT caucus whip Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) then lashed out at Chiu, accusing her of using a “discriminatory term for Aboriginal people that was directed either at me or another [Aboriginal] KMT legislator, Yosi Takun (孔文吉)” during the meeting.
“I did not actually hear her say the word, but the media and our office did,” he said, playing a recording of Chiu’s remarks several times at the news conference.
The term Chiu used was huan-a (番仔, uncivilized person) in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese).
Chiu was heard saying it was “no use talking to these huan-a.”
Sufin Siluko said that the KMT caucus is recommending that Chiu be referred to the Discipline Committee for disciplinary review.
Yosi Takun demanded that Chiu apologize to the nation’s Aborigines.
“The country formally changed the official name of the group from the [discriminatory] ‘mountain people’ to ‘Indigenous people’ as early as 1991. I cannot believe that a DPP lawmaker just used the word in the legislature,” he said.
In response to the criticism, Chiu asked the KMT lawmakers to “look it up in the Wikipedia, as the term means ‘unreasonable people,’ and what the KMT lawmakers did in the committee was just that.”
She said she does not understand why she should be sent to the Discipline Committee for using that word.
“They are being paranoid,” Chiu added.
New Power Party Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, an Amis Aborigine, said in a statement that insofar as Aborigines are still an underprivileged group in Taiwanese society, the word is, in its historical and social context, a pejorative term that was used to refer to Aboriginal people.
“It is definitely not Aboriginal people being ‘paranoid’ when they react strongly to the term; it is part of their real life experience,” she said.
Additional Reporting by CNA
MONITORED BY JETS: Chinese aircraft included Y-20 aerial refueling aircraft, suggesting that China refueled its short-range jets during flight The air force scrambled again yesterday to warn away 27 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the Ministry of National Defense said, the latest increase in tensions across the sensitive Taiwan Strait. Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China’s air force near the nation, often in the southwestern part of its ADIZ, close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). Over a four-day period beginning on Oct. 1, when China marked its national day, Taiwan said that nearly 150 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military aircraft entered its ADIZ, not territorial
The boyfriend of Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜) was yesterday questioned by prosecutors after Kao on Tuesday reported that he had abused her. Raphael Lin (林秉樞) was taken in for questioning at the Grand Forward Hotel in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) yesterday morning, and police confiscated his mobile phone, iPad and a data storage device, prosecutors said, adding that they have applied to place Lin in judicial detention. Lin, who does not reside at his registered address, might attempt to flee or tamper with evidence, they said, adding that he has allegedly threatened victims in earlier abuse cases
PAST CATCHING UP: Raphael Lin was last year convicted of intimidating his girlfriend at the time, and in 2015 allegedly confined his parents and assaulted his mother Doctoral student and media commentator Raphael Lin (林秉樞) is in detention and has had his communication rights limited after he was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly subjecting Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜) to two days of violence in a hotel room, the New Taipei District Court said yesterday. The New Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office had filed a request to detain Lin — who was Kao’s boyfriend at the time of the incident — with the court approving the request early yesterday. The prosecutors’ office said that it is likely to charge Lin with seven offenses: assault causing bodily harm, violating
Italian Representative to Taiwan Davide Giglio has praised the nation as a “silent giant” of the global supply chain, saying he is looking forward to establishing closer cooperation with Taiwan’s world-leading semiconductor sector. “Taiwan’s role in global production chains has largely gone unnoticed until recently. This may have to do with the fact that Taiwanese companies do not always enjoy strong brand power,” Giglio said in an interview with the Central News Agency. However, a global chip shortage has brought to light Taiwan’s strength in such a strategically important sector, he said. Italy, a leader in the automotive sector, was quick to realize
RSS