A Cabinet meeting yesterday approved a draft law to address the needs of the country’s Hakka, who at 5 million people make up 21.73 percent of the population.
Should the bill pass the legislature, it will become the second basic law for a single ethnic group in the country following the passage of the Aboriginal Basic Law (原住民基本法) in 2005.
“The enactment of the basic law is not because Hakka want privileges, but to secure equal rights. The basic rights of other people will not be negatively influenced by the basic law,” Council for Hakka Affairs Minister Huang Yu-chen (黃玉振) told a press conference.
Huang said that enactment of the bill would facilitate the advancement of Hakka culture, rebuild their dignity and help establish a harmonious society in which people from different ethnic groups can co-exist.
Under the bill, the Executive Yuan would be required to convene meetings of officials from different government departments to coordinate policies in connection with Hakka affairs and hold national conferences on a regular basis to deliberate the policies.
It stipulates that the government should take into consideration the rights of Hakka and their development when it maps out regional development plans and makes public policies.
The government would be required to include exams on Hakka affairs in its national exams, the bill said.
Huang said that the bill would require the government to establish connections between Hakka in the country and the ethnic group around the world with the view to turning Taiwan into a world center of Hakka culture.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man