Siraya leaders and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday called on the government to remove all barriers and opposition to the group’s fight to restore their indigenous status.
After many decades of struggle for historic justice and recognition as a distinct ethnic group, it is time for government to approve their official status and grant them collective rights under the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法), Tainan Siraya Culture Association executive member Uma Talavan told a news conference at the legislature in Taipei.
Siraya communities in Tainan and Kaohsiung have the same Austronesian roots in language, culture and traditions as the current officially recognized 16 indigenous groups of Taiwan, but throughout centuries of colonialism, due to military and political control by foreign powers, Siraya and other Pingpu lowland groups suffered from marginalization and imposed assimilation, and have been driven close to extinction, Uma Talavan said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The Constitutional Court in 2022 ruled that the government’s denial of Siraya and other Pingpu groups was unconstitutional, and they have the right to an ethnic group identity to preserve their language and culture, she said, adding that the court gave a three-year deadline to implement laws to facilitate their official recognition.
Uma Talavan and other Siraya activists said they are grateful for the support of DPP legislators Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文), Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) and Lin I-chin (林宜瑾).
The lawmakers are pushing government officials to introduce amendments to the Indigenous Peoples Status Act (原住民身分法) and the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act.
They said that support from all DPP legislators is needed to oppose a bill introduced by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sra Kacaw, an indigenous Amis, and other KMT legislators.
The bill would deny Siraya real recognition by merely recognizing the Pingpu in name only, while excluding them from being treated as equal to the current 16 recognized indigenous groups, Uma Talavan said.
“We ask legislators to reject this KMT draft bill, because it enforces discrimination against Siraya and other Pingpu groups, it further marginalizes us to deprive us of our indigenous rights and identity, and would turn us into third-class indigenous citizens,” she said.
Kuo said the KMT bill would effectively invalidate the Siraya right to political representation, preservation of culture and language, rights to education programs, and deprive them of social welfare and medical services provided to other indigenous groups.
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