Following President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) closely watched apology to Aborigines in August, the Council of Indigenous Peoples announced plans to publish a full text of the apology in 18 languages, including 16 officially recognized Aboriginal languages, as well as English and Japanese.
Council Minister Icyang Parod told a news conference in New Taipei City on Wednesday that Tsai’s apology, made on behalf of the government for the discrimination and neglect of Aborigines over the past 400 years, was not only the first step toward reconciliation and peace, but also the first time any head of state in the Asian region has offered an apology to Aborigines, adding that it was historically significant for Indigenous peoples.
The apology, made on Aug. 1, Indigenous People’s Day, was given in Mandarin after a ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, if front of representatives of Taiwan’s 16 recognized Aboriginal communities.
Photo: Wu Po-wei, Taipei Times
The council assembled a team of 48 translators and linguistic experts to translate the text into 16 Aboriginal languages so that more people could understand the content of the apology.
This took four months to complete, Parod said.
The translated scripts are given with the original text in each version, with pictures of Aboriginal representatives, as well as pictures from the event featuring Tsai, Parod said.
“We plan to publish them soon, which is not only a step toward implementing historical justice and transitional justice for Aborigines, but could also elevate the status of the Aboriginal languages,” Parod said.
It is also the first time that the nation has published an important government document in Aboriginal languages, Parod said, adding that the documents show that the government wants to conserve and advance Aboriginal languages.
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
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.
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
‘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