Activists demand Hoklo exams
　

PRESERVATION: Demonstrators questioned why the government has the money for proficiency tests in Hakka, Aboriginal languages and English but not for Hoklo
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Feb 28, 2009, Page 2

Local language preservation activists demonstrated outside the legislature yesterday, criticizing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for deleting a NT$40 million (US$1.1 million) budget for proficiency tests in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) earlier this month.

“Hakka and Aboriginal languages are in a critical situation at this moment, and Hoklo is not far from it either — so we need to save it now,” said Tainan City Councilor Lee Wen-cheng (李文正) of the Democratic Progressive Party, who led the demonstration.

“What the KMT is doing right now is trying to murder our language and destroy our culture,” he told the crowd.

KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) initiated the motion to delete the NT$40 million budget submitted by the Ministry of Education to hold Hoklo proficiency tests this year. The motion was backed by the KMT caucus and quickly passed. Hung said at the time that she was only trying to save taxpayers’ money.

“I’m not against preserving languages, but the education ministry has other budgets related to languages and cultures,” she said. “Besides, we don’t have enough good teachers and there are too many different versions of materials.”

The legislators’ move upset local language preservation activists.

“There are language proficiency tests for Aboriginal and Hakka languages — we even have an English proficiency test in this country, where English is not a native language,” Taiwan Romanization Association chairman Ho Sin-han (何信翰) said yesterday. “Why can’t we have a Hoklo proficiency test?”

The Council of Indigenous Peoples spent more than NT$110 million on Aboriginal language proficiency tests, Ho said.

“Is NT$40 million really too much for KMT?” he said.

Tiunn Hak-khiam (張學謙), a professor of Chinese language and literature at National Taitung University, agreed with Ho.

“If saving money is really so important, why does the government want to spend more than NT$1 billion to change the Romanization on road signs to Hanyu Pinyin? We could just use 10 percent of that NT$1 billion for the Hoklo proficiency tests,” he said.

Li Khin-huann (李勤岸), a cofounder of the Global Coalition for Taiwanese Languages, said he was concerned about the quality of Hoklo language education without the proficiency tests.

“If we want a well-established Hoklo language education, we need certified teachers, and a proficiency test would be a good measurement for the teachers,” Li said.

“I’m worried how far a quality Hoklo language education can go without a well-established proficiency test,” Li said.

The ministry originally planned to require all Hoklo teachers to pass the proficiency test by 2011.

No one from the KMT caucus came out to take the demonstrators’ petition.

However, Deputy Minister of Education Wu Tsai-shun (吳財順) met with them and promised the ministry would still try to organize a Hoklo proficiency test on a smaller scale by getting money from different departments.

Ma dismisses DVD allegations as media speculation
　

By Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Feb 28, 2009, Page 3

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday dismissed speculation over the existence of a DVD alleged to show Ma and former ICRT DJ Charles Mack having intimate relations, saying the media should disregard groundless rumors.

“It’s incredible that media outlets allow themselves to be hoodwinked by such a ridiculous story. It’s a groundless rumor and there’s nothing to it,” Ma said yesterday during an interview with Era TV.

Ma made the remarks in response to an accusation in court on Monday by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that Special Investigation Panel Prosecutor Wu Wen-chung (吳文忠) had prevented a scandal during last year’s presidential election by suppressing the DVD.

Chen said the DVD belonged to Mack’s wife, Chang Wei-chin (張瑋津), who said she was a good friend of Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍). Chen said Chang had intended to use the DVD to ruin Ma’s presidential prospects last year, but the prosecutor prevented her from publicizing it.

Ma said he and his campaign team had heard the rumor at the time, adding that “we thought it was a stupid rumor.”

“Such a rumor would lower the tone of the presidential campaign ... and I feel very sorry that it has been brought up again one year after the election,” he said.

At a separate setting yesterday, Ma’s sexual orientation was a central topic on the legislature’s “state affairs forum,” during which Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) called on Ma to come out of the closet if he is indeed gay.

When asked by reporters for comment on Thursday, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), Ma’s opponent in last year’s presidential election, refused to say anything to safeguard the president’s dignity.

Johnny Neihu's News Watch: Terminator 228: Rise of the Clones
　

By Johnny Neihu 強尼內湖
Saturday, Feb 28, 2009, Page 8

In case you weren’t aware, today is Feb. 28 — or 228 to those in the know. The day when it’s acceptable to abuse the president in public.

But there’ll be no flying shoes from me, dear reader; I’ll be commemorating this sad day in the usual fashion by traveling down to the humble abode of my buddy “Knuckles” Chiang in Chiayi for our annual chugging of a crate of Taiwan Beer and a “deface a Peanut statue” contest.

Some people in Knuckles’ extended family, you see, were among the brave men involved in the bloody standoff at Chiayi’s Shuishang Airport, in which student militia and local Aborigines surrounded and contained a group of murderous Nationalist troops.

They don’t talk about it much anymore down there, but for his part, there’s nothing Knuckles likes better than to take out a few frustrations on bronzes of the old dictator — if he can find them.

Matsu only knows what Knuckles would do if he ever happened across the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) Statue Park in Taoyuan. All I can say is that it’s a good thing that he never ventures north of Baguashan (八卦山) — except to be cleaned out at mahjong by yours truly.

As I have no direct family involvement in the tragedy (us Neihus were a circumspect bunch), I’m more open to the complexity of it all and now prefer to say “Let history be the judge” when pressed by more emotional people for a judgment — providing such people are allowed access to the historical record and not force-fed Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) bullshit and atrocity apologia.

Talking of judgment, there were a few things this week that called into question the intellectual sophistication of some of our great nation’s politicians.

No, really, there were.

First there was that bastion of bad taste, KMT Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文), who often looks as if he borrows his clothes from a Yunlin County scarecrow.

Following stir-crazy former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) insane outburst in court on Monday, in which he alleged a DVD exists with footage of commander-in-chief Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) getting it on with a testosterone-packing former ICRT DJ, Chang leapt to Ma’s defense, telling reporters that this was not possible because the president was “too masculine” (in Chinese: “很man”).

Now I’m not going to comment on these irresponsible allegations, but as far as Chang’s assessment of Ma’s machismo goes, I’ve seen far more on show at Gin Gin’s bookstore.

Chang’s comment illustrates the lack of communication between the Presidential Office and the legislature: Quite clearly, Chang has no idea who Ma is. Either that or he is as shellshocked as he looks.

What other pearls of wisdom can we expect from Chang in the near future? That KMT honorary quisling Lien Chan (連戰) is a model statesman, or that Token Taiwanese Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) is an economic miracle worker?

On the subject of our former prez, just when you thought that irrational displays of hatred of all things A-bian had reached their peak, KMT Kaohsiung City Councilor Wang Ling-chiao (王齡嬌) scaled new heights last week when she organized a petition against the former president’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), who has moved to Kaohsiung.

Whether she plans to turn her petition into a referendum remains to be seen, but don’t hold your breath considering her party’s record on plebiscites.

I have to say that this is the first time that Ms Wang has come to my attention. But I couldn’t help noticing her bordering-on-hysteria resemblance to several other middle-aged KMT battleaxe harridan terminators, such as legislators Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) and Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), to name a few. And there are many, many other look-a-likes at the city and county councilor level, believe me.

This got me wondering. Did the KMT have a factory somewhere in southern Taiwan (it would have moved to China by now) that churned out fembot clones of Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱)?

A worrying thought, indeed.

Meanwhile, another politico whose judgment should be called into question is Nantou County Commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿), who on Monday announced that the county government was getting ready to begin construction of an 8km cable car system to the summit of Hohuanshan (合歡山), one of the nation’s highest peaks.

Now I know Nantou is a long way from Taipei, but surely Lee and his cohorts down there in central Taiwan are aware of the fate of the last and only other “cable car system in Taiwan to be built completely in a mountain area” — the Maokong Gondola.

I have riffed before on the sheer stupidity of Taipei City’s decision to build a cable car in a place that experiences frequent earthquakes, thunderstorms, typhoons and landslides — with the benefit of hindsight, naturally. But it seems, to their detriment, that Nantou County Government officials do not read my column.

Add to this Hohuanshan’s location near the Central Cross-Island Highway, a road notorious for seismic activity and being blocked by landslides after typhoons, and you have to question the motivation for the project.

But then, it appears as if Lee lost his marbles long ago. Later, when touting the benefits of the project, he claimed that the cable car would help “reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”

So would keeping his mouth shut, methinks.

The plan, as the Central News Agency so eloquently put it, is to turn the county’s Renai Township (仁愛) into a “world famous scenic destination.”

Considering Taiwan’s record of self-promotion as an international tourist mecca, the only way Renai Township will achieve global renown is if camcorder footage of a typhoon-lashed cable car system being washed down a mountainside is broadcast on CNN.

Another example that highlights the folly of construction and overdevelopment in mountainous regions, and one that Lee ought to know all too well, is Lushan (廬山), also in Renai Township. It’s only been six months since Typhoon Sinlaku wreaked havoc there, washing a couple of hotels down the river, collapsing tunnels and killing more than a dozen people in the process.

Is Lee really that oblivious, or are there other, indirectly lucrative reasons why he is persisting with the NT$2.35 billion (US$67.9 million) project?

Or maybe he is planning a presidential run, because having a record that includes construction of several costly, but ultimately useless “mosquito halls” (蚊子館) seems to be a prerequisite for a stab at the nation’s top job.

Got something to tell Johnny? Go on, get it off your chest. Write to dearjohnny@taipeitimes.com, but be sure to put “Dear Johnny” in the subject line or he’ll mark your bouquets and brickbats as spam.

Goodwill over 228 dissipated so quickly
　

By Su Tseng-chang 蘇貞昌
Saturday, Feb 28, 2009, Page 8

I was born in 1947, the year of the 228 Incident. In those days of silent disappearances and killings, my pregnant mother had to climb over walls just to visit the doctor for a check-up.

One story I often heard as a child was the public execution of Pingtung Assembly Council deputy speaker Yeh Chiu-mu (葉秋木). After shooting him, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) did not allow his family to collect his body, which was left on display for three days to intimidate the public. Having heard such stories since childhood, I felt strong sympathy for the victims and their families.

As Pingtung County commissioner, I submitted a special budget, which was approved by the county council, to erect Taiwan’s first officially sponsored 228 memorial. Later, as premier, I approved an order for flags throughout Taiwan to be flown at half-mast on Feb. 28.

I allocated NT$1.5 billion (US$43 million) over five years so the 228 Memorial Foundation could do its work, and commissioned the Report on Responsibility for the 228 Incident.

A building on Nanhai Road in Taipei that once housed the Taiwan Provincial Assembly Council was chosen for the new National 228 Memorial Museum. We allocated a generous budget for refurbishing the building, and the museum was inaugurated on the 60th anniversary of the 228 Incident. That day, a stamp was released with the image of the museum — the first stamp to bear the words “Taiwan Post.”

As someone who was born in 1947, who moved from the south to the north and then went from county commissioner to premier, I saw the truth about the 228 Incident gradually come to light. I was gratified to see Taiwan gradually face its history. It is better to deal with the past honestly, and I sincerely hoped that Taiwan could get over the scars of history and look forward to a brighter future.

Before he was elected president, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) often took part in 228 memorial events, visited relatives of victims and bowed his head in mourning at the graves of those who died. He admitted the KMT was at fault and apologized on the party’s behalf. He wrote articles and made speeches in Hoklo, saying he was deeply pained about the events of 1947 and that they would remain forever engraved in his heart.

He twice voiced his approval for establishing the 228 Memorial Museum, and when I ordered flags to be flown at half-mast on 228 Memorial Day, he approved and said it would be reasonable to treat the anniversary as a national day of mourning.

Many said Ma was putting on a show to win support for his election bid, but I preferred to take his words at face value.

Although the KMT treated Taiwan and its people brutally, the kind-hearted Taiwanese have chosen to forgive and put their trust in the party. But what have they got in return?

Just 23 days into Ma’s presidency, the Ministry of Education ordered the 228 Memorial Foundation to remove a 228 Incident exhibition from the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. Earlier this year, the KMT legislative caucus annulled the budgets for the 228 Memorial Foundation and construction of the 228 Memorial Museum. Work on the museum was halted even before that, and remains in limbo.

Just days ago, Ma’s protege, KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), suggested in his bill on memorial days and festivals that Feb. 28 should be a day of remembrance, but not a holiday.

I call upon President Ma to undo the hurtful things that have been done since he took office. This would comfort the families of victims, assuage anger and help unite everyone in Taiwan as a people with a common fate.

Doing so would not just point to Ma’s personal credibility; it is his responsibility and duty as head of state.

Su Tseng-chang is a former premier.