Aborigines yesterday supported Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka for her comments on the government not being involved in a ceremony dedicated to Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功) and called on members of the Cheng family to respect others’ historical views.
Cheng, also known as Koxinga, was a Ming Dynasty general who drove Dutch colonists out of Taiwan in 1662.
Kolas on Sunday said on Facebook that the government should not be involved in the ceremony to honor Cheng as such worship legitimizes “colonial thought and behavior.”
Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Taipei Times
Cheng was, to Aborigines, no better than Columbus because he killed and pillaged the local population, Kolas said, adding that such practices should never again be repeated.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) canceled the practice of government officials attending the ceremony when she took office in 2016, turning the duties over to the Tainan City Government.
Kolas said in the post that she was speaking for herself and not for the government.
The Cheng family had protested Kolas’ comments as inappropriate and demanded her resignation.
The Central Taiwan Pingpu Indigenous Groups Youth Alliance yesterday held a news conference to support Kolas’ comments.
Alliance director-general Kaisanan Ahuan said the government should not take the lead in worshiping Cheng, who was a symbol of authoritarian power; that it should give Aborigines’ version of history due attention; and implement Aboriginal transitional justice.
The Cheng family’s protest is akin to rubbing salt in the wounds of the descendants of Cheng’s victims, Kaisanan said, adding that his people, the Taokas, were such victims.
Representative of the Papora people As Li-i Mali said it was well-documented in historian Lien Heng’s (連橫) The General History of Taiwan (台灣通史) that Cheng invaded and slaughtered the ancestors of the Pingpu, driving them off their land and into the mountains.
One incident almost wiped out the entire village of Shalu (沙轆) and there were only six survivors, As Li-i said.
Taiwan should be accepting of diverse opinions and all of its people should face up to history together, she added.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods