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Aborigines slam draft
autonomy act, mull lawsuits
ANGER: Aborigines questioned how they could have
meaningful autonomy under an act that did not grant them their own land and kept
them under local districts
By Rich Chang / Staff Reporter
Indigenous Peoples Action
Coalition of Taiwan secretary-general Omi Wilang, left, and other Aboriginal
activists yesterday hold a press conference in Taipei to protest the
government’s draft bill of an Aboriginal peoples’ autonomy act.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Aboriginal groups and law experts
yesterday slammed the Cabinet’s draft autonomy act, saying lawsuits would be
filed domestically and internationally if the legislature approved it in the
current legislative session.
The Indigenous Peoples Action Coalition of Taiwan yesterday released a statement
saying the Cabinet’s proposal was disrespectful, unconstitutional and violated
the Aboriginal Basic Act (原住民基本法).
The statement said the Aboriginal autonomous act proposed by President Ma Ying-jeou’s
(馬英九) administration was a backward bill that violated the Constitution and the
current global trend of respecting Aborigines’ rights.
Representatives from the coalition called on legislators to boycott the bill and
also urged Aborigines not to vote for Ma and the -Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
in the election Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections.
Describing the bill as an “empty shell,” National Dong Hwa University College of
Indigenous Studies director Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒) said the bill did not grant
Aborigines their own land.
This being so, Shih asked how Aborigines could establish their autonomous
regions.
He said the bill stipulated that Aborigines could establish offices and councils
in their respective tribes, but it did not abolish current administrative
districts. This means that any executive decisions made by tribal regions would
have to negotiate with township and county governments, which means they would
be likely to go nowhere.
Amis representative Konon Panay (古孟巴奈) said the central government did not
define and grant Aboriginal lands, but it has been depriving Aborigines of their
lands in the name of development.
The Eastern Development Act (東部發展條例) was approved in June by the legislature and
aims to develop land in Hualien and Taitung counties, allowing big developers to
destroy land traditionally owned by Aborigines and threatening to ruin the lives
of Amis Aborigines, Panay said.
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