The Council of Indigenous Peoples’ rules delineating traditional Aboriginal lands will be subjected to a legislative review, New Power Party (NPP) lawmakers said yesterday, vowing that the NPP caucus would veto any council attempts to directly implement the rules.
The regulations were to be “filed for reference” with the Legislative Yuan, but the NPP caucus plans to force a substantive review in the Internal Administration Committee, NPP Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, an Amis, said at a news conference with protesters who have camped on Ketagalan Boulevard for more than a week.
“If we feel that an executive order could be illegal, we can ask that it be handed to a committee for possible revision,” Pacidal said.
The regulations would undermine Aboriginal culture by ruling out any right of “informed consent” for the development of private land nearby, she said.
“This is about social justice, because we are a minority and at the bottom of society, so a lot of information will not even reach us unless we are given the right of informed consent,” she said, adding that numerous hotel and resort projects are under way throughout Hualien and Taitung counties, where many Aborigines reside.
“The reality is that regulations constricting the use of private property are a matter of course in other areas, but why does that suddenly change when it comes to Aboriginal rights?” NPP Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said, adding that the council was wrong to cite concerns about restricting property rights in excluding privately owned land from the regulation’s definition of “traditional land.”
“There are all sorts of regulations that govern what can be done with private land, including environmental review, special approval for constructing housing on agricultural land and protection for historical architecture,” he said.
While the NPP has no seats on the Internal Administration Committee, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sra Kacaw, an Amis who is on the committee, said he would push for revisions, criticizing the council for revising its initial draft, which he said did not restrict the designation of “traditional land” to public land.
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