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Activists, academics accuse president of
neglecting the rights of Aborigines
By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, May 12, 2010, Page 2
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.”
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