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.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS