While Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) and Nantou County Commissioner Lin Tseng-nan (林宗男) celebrated a public-private enterprise partnership at a contract-signing ceremony with Sun Moon Lake Cable Car Corp last week, an Aboriginal tribe in danger of dying out was once again forced to fight against losing its land and right to live for the sake of economic, tourism and cultural developments.
In the name of promoting sightseeing in Nantou County and making Sun Moon Lake and Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village international tourism spots, the government joined efforts with private companies to install sightseeing cable cars and build resorts around the lake.
With a population of merely around 300, the Thao Tribe is the smallest ethnic group in Taiwan. The original inhabitants of the Sun Moon Lake area since the Qing Dynasty, the tribe has been forced to give up their land, move around and -- under the Japanese colonial government and the then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) -- finally settled in Barawbaw at Buji Hill which today is Dehua community's Riyue Village.
Compared to the government's enthusiasm for the installation of the 1,825m-long cable-car network and establishing resorts around the lake, both the endangered tribe and Aboriginal-rights advocates responded negatively to the plan, expressing serious doubt that the developments would benefit the tribe in any way.
"The cable-car system will definitely boost the local economy. However, most of the profits will go to private enterprises and the government. Once again, we will be the only victims of the development, and have to sacrifice our lands for nothing," said Panu Chiapanunu, president of the Thao Cultural Development Association.
Echoing Panu's opinion, Yang Yin-jun (楊英俊), a member of the International Thao Friend Organization, accused the Nantou County Government for shelving plans for the 150-hectare Puzi Thao People Culture Protection Area and damaging the environment by establishing resorts around the lake.
"The protection area is actually situated against a steep slope, which makes it almost impossible to build any houses. Failing to provide Thao with better places of residence, the county further ignored a suggestion by the Control Yuan to make the Thao Settlement Community a common memorial and collective living site," Yang told the Taipei Times.
Democratic Progressive Party Aboriginal Legislator Chen Yin (
Chen said the government recognized the Thao Tribe as an important national asset, and previously promised to return their land with the development of a cultural restoration site in 2001.
"The two joint-venture projects to establish cable cars and resorts, however, are nothing but a breach of the government's promise that the land would be used to develop the Aboriginal culture industry when it asked the Thao people for the land in 1973," Chen said.
The Aboriginal Basic Law (原住民族基本法), which passed its third reading in the Legislative Yuan last year, protects Aboriginal land rights and stipulated that governments at all levels consult with Aboriginal tribes before making any plans for developing their land.
In response to this criticism, the Nantou County Government insisted that the Build-Own-Transfer (BOT)-based resorts construction project will boost the local tourism industry and raise the employment rate among the Thao people.
"In addition to the construction of the resorts, we plan to establish the protection area at the same time. We believe it is a wonderful combination of economic development for the county and cultural restoration for the tribe," the Bureau of Aboriginal Affairs at the Nantou County Government said in a written statement.
The promise of a better tomorrow by the government, however, will not earn the trust of a group of people who has become all too familiar with empty promises.
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