Thu, Jun 23, 2016 page3

• PFP calls for Aboriginal transitional justice

  PRE-1947 COMPLAINTS: ‘The DPP proposal very clearly targets the 228 Incident and the White Terror period, it is not excluding the nation’s Aborigines,’ an Amis lawmaker said

  • By Stacy Hsu and Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporters
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  The People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday criticized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus for not addressing the issue of transitional justice for Aborigines, saying that failing to do so would see the government’s drive to come to terms with the legacy of past abuses become little more than a political vendetta.

  The PFP caucus told a news conference that the goal of transitional justice is to heal the wounds of the past by holding perpetrators of injustice accountable, so that the nation is steered toward fairness and justice.

  “Transitional justice must not become a tool in a political vendetta. Efforts to achieve transitional justice that do not examine unfair treatment and land dispossession suffered by Aboriginal communities during the Japanese colonial era cannot achieve justice,” the PFP caucus said.

  It urged DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) to schedule all the proposed transitional justice-related draft bills for discussion.

  The PFP caucus made the remarks after Tuan, the convener of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, put the DPP’s draft transitional justice promotion bill on the agenda for a legislative committee review yesterday.

  Tuan said the rationale for his decision was that draft bills addressing injustices perpetrated during the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime’s authoritarian rule should be separated from those aiming to tackle land justice and rights recovery for Aborigines, an issue that could date back 400 years, and which Tuan said has been used by the KMT caucus to block the DPP’s draft transitional justice promotion act.

  The PFP caucus said a ruling party that is truly determined to push for transitional justice would not carve history into periods, focus only on seeking vengeance, neglect the hardship and suffering of Aborigines, and forgot about the injustices committed before 1947.

  “Tuan’s decision to only include the DPP’s draft transitional justice promotion act for committee review and exclude other draft transitional justice bills that cover Aboriginal issues, is tantamount to turning the injustices of a violent authoritarian regime into procedural injustice, caused by the DPP’s tyranny of the majority in the legislature,” the PFP caucus said.

  DPP lawmakers said that its drive toward transitional justice should be separated from the efforts aimed at transitional justice for Aborigines, as they are different issues.

  “The bill for transitional justice that the DPP proposed goes beyond ethnic boundaries,” said Kolas Yotaka, a DPP legislator of the Amis Aboriginal community. “The DPP proposal very clearly targets the 228 Incident and the White Terror period, it is not excluding the nation’s Aborigines, because the victims of political persecution during the era included people of all ethnicities.”

  Kolas said that, as an Amis, she certainly agrees that the government should do something to make up for its past violation of Aboriginal rights, such as forced seizure of Aboriginal lands, the failure to protect Aboriginal hunting rights, and the loss of Aboriginal languages and cultures, “but it is a bigger and more complicated issue to deal with, and should be taken care of separately.”

  Kolas added that Premier Lin Chuan (林全) promised her during a legislative meeting that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would create a truth and reconciliation committee under the purview of the Presidential Office to come up with policies to deal with the Aboriginal rights issue, and the conclusions of the committee would become government policy directions.

  “For me, this was a very acceptable answer and I look forward to it,” she said.

  DPP Caucus Director-General Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said: “We’re not ignoring the Aboriginal issue, we certainly will deal with it, but the two things should be handled separately.”
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