Academics and activists attending a discussion held in Taipei yesterday said that the rights of Taiwan's Aborigines have been harmed since President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) administration came to power.
Critics pointed to several indicators such as the high unemployment rate of 7.31 percent for the country's Aboriginal workers and the numerous delays in drafting Aboriginal self-governance laws to protect Aboriginal rights as proof that the Ma administration has done more harm than good for the country's Aborigines.
Tsai Chih-wei (蔡志偉), assistant professor at National Taitung University's Institute of Austronesian Studies, was one of the speakers at the forum hosted by the New Frontier Foundation.
He said the government had turned a blind eye to Aborigines’ right to self-government.
“When [government officials] were discussing the Aboriginal Basic Act [原住民基本法], did they examine the methods with which Aboriginal communities wanted to govern themselves?” he asked.
Tsai said the treatment of the country's Aborigines is a political issue, not a legal one, because the government and the Aboriginal community are equals, rather than government officials giving Aboriginals few options to choose from if they want to opt for self-government.
“If the government does not understand the needs and wants of Aboriginal people and create laws to force Aboriginal people to obey, then it creates a top-down government rather than an equal and fair system of self-governance,” he said.
Icyang Parod, director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Department of Aboriginal Affairs and former minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples, also expressed doubts that the president had been sincere about improving the protection of Aboriginal rights.
Icyang emphasized that protection of Aboriginal rights is not only enshrined in the Constitution, but is also stipulated in the UN international covenants that were ratified in the legislature last year.
“Even though [Ma] signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights last year, he said that it was not mandatory,” Icyang said. “So it's clear that he is not even sincere about implementing it.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
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