Several Aboriginal activists yesterday condemned remarks President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) made on Wednesday, when he said that complete autonomy for Aborigines would only bring isolation, and that Aborigines should be valued for their talent in sports and music.
“We Aborigines cannot agree at all with the discriminatory remarks that Ma made against the country’s Aborigines during a Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday,” Indigenous Peoples’ Action Coalition of Taiwan (IPACT) convener Omi Wilang told a news conference in Taipei. “We strongly condemn the remarks. He should apologize for them.”
Other activists at the press conference supported Omi’s call, and shouted in unison for Ma to apologize.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“This is not the first time that Ma has made discriminatory remarks against Aborigines,” Assembly of the Atayal Nation -secretary-general Utux Lbak said. “As it becomes a universal value around the world to respect indigenous peoples’ rights to the land and autonomy, the president is falling far behind the global trend.”
The activists were “livid” because Ma, in his capacity as KMT chairman, told the KMT Central Standing Committee meeting that “ceding territories” to Aborigines to create autonomous regions is not what was best for Aborigines, since it could isolate them.
He also said the public should value the talents of Aborigines more, such as in sports or in music, and that Aborigines may need “some degree of protection.”
“How is [the government] ‘ceding territories’ if autonomous regions are created? Aboriginal traditional domains are all our territories, it’s the several foreign regimes [that ruled Taiwan over the course of history] that took our lands,” Utux said. “We’re not asking [the government] to cede territories, we are only asking for our basic rights.”
Former Examination Yuan member Iban Nokan, on the other hand, criticized the Aboriginal autonomy bill drafted by the Executive Yuan, which incorporated Ma’s ideas about Aboriginal autonomy.
“The Executive Yuan’s draft autonomy bill is more about creating Aboriginal cultural preservation areas under current local government systems than creating authentic autonomous regions,” Iban said. “We Aborigines want our own autonomy, not Han people’s version of Aboriginal autonomy.”
As long as Ma does not change his Han-centric and Han supremacist mentality, “I don’t have any expectations for the Executive Yuan’s version of the autonomy bill,” he said.
However, KMT Legislator Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) of the Amis tribe, who is also a member of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, defended Ma’s remarks and the government’s version of Aboriginal autonomy.
“Ma was elaborating on his Aboriginal policies and he was very sincere about implementing autonomy, as he promised during the presidential campaign [in 2008],” Liao said, adding that there was no need to pay so much attention to Ma’s choice of words.
Liao said he supports Ma’s idea of implementing autonomy on a trial basis in the initial stage.
“If you try to pour too much stuff into the autonomy bill, it will become chaotic,” he said. “I think it’s a better idea to have a basic framework first, and then amend the law as necessary later on.”
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
SELF-SUFFICIENCY: The project would only be the beginning, as Taiwan needs at least 120 satellites to ensure uninterrupted communication, Wu Tsung-tsong said The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) yesterday said it plans to launch six low Earth orbit satellites starting in 2026 as part of the government’s plan to boost the resilience of the nation’s communications. The development of the technology gained attention after Ukrainians were able to access the Internet through Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service, despite their infrastructure being severely damaged in the war with Russia. Two of the satellites would be built by the government, while four would involve cooperation between TASA and private contractors. “Over the past 30 years, the satellite technology in Taiwan has
PLAN: Nations would receive US$5m a year if they could advance Taiwan’s international participation, diversify supply chains away from China or counter Beijing’s influence The US House of Representatives Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the US and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Friday introduced a bill that would approve US$120 million to be spent on supporting Taiwan’s international space and tackling coercion by China. The bipartisan legislation — the Taiwan Allies Fund Act — was proposed ahead of the inauguration of president-elect William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on May 20. The committee said in a statement that the bill “strengthens Taiwan’s global network of friends by authorizing [US]$120 million over three years for the State Department and USAID [US Agency