Ethnic rights activists yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to better understand what the Aboriginal and Hakka movements were aiming for.
“Ma talked a lot about ethnic affairs during his presidential campaign, but based on what he has said, I’m worried whether he really understands that we’re fighting for ethnic and cultural decolonization, and that the issues are not just about social welfare,” Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮), a long-term Hakka and Aboriginal rights activist, told a forum in Taipei yesterday co-hosted by several social groups.
Yang said his worries came from an incident in which a group of Amis residents in Taipei County whose community was set for demolition petitioned Ma in January.
Ma at the time told the group that “if you come into the city, you are a Taipei resident. I see you as a human being. I see you as a citizen, and I will educate you well,” and that “when you come into the city, you have to play by our rules.”
Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川), a Puyuma activist, said: “Ma once said that ‘Aborigines don’t have any problem in their genes, but they have problems in getting opportunities.’”
“Of course there is no problem in our genes! It seems like Ma regards the Aboriginal movement as a social issue,” Sun said.
Sun said the next step was for Aborigines to establish their own perspectives on issues related to them to avoid then “being kidnapped by politicians and other outsiders.”
“For the past 400 years, Aboriginal history has been recorded only from non-Aboriginal perspectives — we need to construct an Aboriginal perspective on history,” Sun said.
Yang and Sun agree that there were some interior issues that need to be resolved and adjusted for the movements to continue.
“Among Aborigines, there is the issue of unequal distribution of resources,” Sun said. “For example, since the Amis are the most populous, they may get more resources than other smaller tribes and we should fix this.”
Yang suggested that social groups change their mentality.
“Before the first change of power, we considered the government our enemy, because it was an authoritarian regime,” he said.
But in a democracy, things aren’t so black and white, he said.
“We keep talking about ideologies without considering that political parties need votes, so we’ve become marginalized,” Yang said. “As members of a democratic society, we should adjust our mentality and try to enter into dialogue with the government, not just remain opposed to it.”
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
RSS