The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) mayoral candidate in Tainan, Kao Su-po (高思博), has complained that the city is the only special municipality without a Hakka Affairs Council.
He said that although the Hakka community make up 6 percent of Tainan’s population and Aborigines make up only 0.4 percent, 44.5 percent of the city’s Ethnic Affairs Commission budget — NT$27.74 million (US$907,277) — goes to indigenous communities, while Hakka get only 19.8 percent, or NT$12.34 million.
Kao said this contravenes the proportionality principle.
Taiwan’s indigenous communities have long been politically, economically and culturally disadvantaged. Following hundreds of years of foreign rule and colonialism, it has been difficult for them to overturn the many injustices — despite calls in recent years for transitional justice and ethnic diversity entering the mainstream — the most serious of which is the “data management chauvinism” that the government resorts to at every turn.
The government’s seemingly scientific viewpoint that “indigenous people only make up 2 percent of the population, so they will not get this, that or the other” — a manipulative trick used as elections approach — reinforces the public’s misunderstanding of the “data approach,” making people even less able to analyze and understand justice, and even decontextualize it.
The special municipality created with the merger of Tainan city and county in 2011 is the only one that does not have a dedicated authority to handle indigenous affairs as required by the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法).
For eight years, I and others have used every possible channel to lobby for the creation of this body. The legally stipulated staff, resources and budget would have a great effect on resources and support for Tainan’s indigenous people, as can be easily gauged by looking at budgets and staff allocations in the other five special municipalities.
Although the Hakka Basic Act (客家基本法) does not stipulate the establishment of a dedicated authority to handle Hakka affairs, I have expressed my approval of such an authority working for the promotion and protection of Hakka culture, rights and interests.
However, Kao does not make an attempt to increase the pie as the starting point of his election pledges. Instead, he attacks other ethnicities and makes an issue out of the commission’s budget allocations.
Not to make any baseless assumptions about this being about populations and votes, but if Kao is comparing the Aboriginal population to the Hakka population and abandons the smaller group, would he also abandon the Hakka for a larger group?
If he were to encounter small, disadvantaged groups in City Hall, would his support be based on the same approach?
Furthermore, not all the budget allocations come from the Tainan City Government: It also includes central government allocations.
Kao, who has served as a legislator, should not be a stranger to how budget allocations work.
In addition, the commission’s allocations include a budget for a planning department whose main task should be to initiate and reinvigorate policies for Tainan’s Siraya community. Why was that left out? Could it be another case of considering populations?
Politicians should show their concern for society and take a long, hard look at the true meaning of fairness and justice, especially as transitional justice for indigenous people is being widely discussed.
Politicians must not use ethnic issues to promote their electoral prospects in a pretense of righteousness. The public and the nation’s best interests are served by having politicians who have values and use reason.
Ingay Tali is an Amis Aborigine living in Tainan.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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