Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and the producer of a Web commercial paid by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) yesterday apologized over an offensive remark about Aborigines.
“I am truly sorry about this. I did not mean to hurt anybody,” producer Tsai A-ga (蔡阿嘎) said, adding that the contents had been changed and he would apologize again to Aborigines on his Facebook account and blog.
In the foundation-sponsored commercial, Tsai used the term pa-nga (榜仔) when referring to Aborigines, a term Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩) said could mean “penis” or “loose women” for Amis Aborigines.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Straits Exchange Foundation Deputy Secretary-General Maa Shaw-chang (馬紹章) said the foundation had voluntarily removed the term after it found that the usage was inappropriate.
Maa said the ad was meant to encourage more people to participate in an event celebrating the foundation’s 20th anniversary.
The public relations firm in charge of the event had hired Tsai to produce a short online video to promote the event, and the video had been reviewed by both the firm and the foundation.
“We have removed offensive remarks,” Maa said. “But we thought the term pa-nga was like a nickname used among close friends or family members. We didn’t know [what it means in] the Amis language. That’s why we did not take it out in the first place.”
Maa said Tsai posted the video on his Facebook account and his blog on Feb. 23. The foundation discovered a series of online discussions over the use of pa-nga the same day and asked the public relations firm to remove the term from the video. The foundation also immediately suspended the broadcast of the video online.
Tsai closed his Facebook account and had removed the video from his blog by 12am last Thursday, he said.
Addressing the legislature, Wu also apologized to Aborigines on behalf of the government and confirmed that the offensive material had been removed.
In related news, about 50 Aborigines protested in front of the Taoyuan County Police Department yesterday after a policeman was accused of making derogatory remarks about Aborigines.
A resident of Dasi Township (大溪), Taoyuan County, said he was stopped by the policeman and asked to take a breathalyzer test. The man, surnamed Lee (李), said his request to take a drink of water before the test was refused.
Later, a Taoyuan County councilor surnamed Hong (洪) came to help settle the dispute. Lee was allowed some water and the test showed that Lee did not have alcohol in his system.
Lee said the policeman was still angry and after he finished his shift, the officer drove by his house and yelled “bloody barbarians” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) using the loudspeaker in his police car.
Officials said the officer had been transferred to another unit.
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