Worldwide Faith News is a database of full text official news releases and other documents, including policy statements, from the news offices of national and world faith groups. This collection indexes more than 45,000 documents.
Aborigines plan protest to highlight plight after Typhoon Morakot
Taiwan Church News
3048 Edition
July 26~August 1, 2010
Aborigines plan protest to highlight plight after Typhoon Morakot
Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong
Written by Lydia Ma
On August 8, 2009, a strong typhoon ravaged southern and eastern Taiwan,
causing severe
landslides and destroying many Aborigine reservations. Typhoon Morakot
left 1,623 houses in
tatters and killed or maimed 724 people in its wake.
Now, almost one year later, as the nation commemorates the 1st
anniversary of the typhoon
and reflects on government rescue, relief, and resettlement efforts, the
question on many
people’s minds is how rebuilding efforts are progressing, especially the
Ma administration’s
“Special Statute for Reconstruction for Post-Typhoon Morakot Disaster”
According to Indigenous Peoples Action Coalition of Taiwan (IPACT), areas
hit by Typhoon
Morakot remain desolate and the government’s arrogance towards Aborigines
and its
disregard for the preservation of Aborigine culture throughout rescue and
rebuilding efforts
has been disheartening to say the least.
In response, Aborigines have decided to assemble on Ketagalan Boulevard
near the
Presidential Palace on the evening of August 6, 2010, to protest against
the government’s
willful destruction of Aborigine culture, identity, and lifestyle. IPACT
will also unveil a progress
report on reconstruction efforts to date.
IPACT convened a meeting on July 20, 2010, at PCT headquarter office in
Taipei and leaders
from various Aborigine movements agreed that they’d camp overnight on
Ketagalan
Boulevard to protest the Ma administration’s policies on post-Morakot
reconstruction.
One of the organizers of this overnight protest is PCT Indigenous
Ministry Committee
Secretary Rev. Omi Wilang. He underscored that the government’s attitude
had been rather
brusque from the policy planning stage to the policy implementation stage
of rebuilding efforts.
He also said the Ma administration had not only lacked empathy on the
plight of Aborigines
but had also distributed resources arbitrarily and unfairly, resulting in
strife, confusion, and
division among Aborigines.
Rev. Omi Wilang added that many Aborigines are emotionally spent after
living through this
ordeal for months and their weariness has made them vulnerable against
those who seek to
take advantage of them since they are no longer fighting for their rights
as ardently as they
used to in the past.
But he pointed out that Aborigines’ silence and weariness also stem from
long-standing
policies concerning Aborigines and their land rights and rights to
self-rule. These policies are
full of restrictions and traps seeking to take away Aborigines’ rights
and lands.
As an expert on Aborigine movements, Rev. Omi Wilang commented that
studying the
barrage of new challenges facing Aborigines was at times overwhelming for
him. One can
only imagine how an average Aborigine without higher education might feel
when attempting
to fight for basic rights. “The silence we sense from Aborigines living
in affected areas is
essentially a silent accusation and protest against their oppressors!” he
said.
He is convinced that Aborigines ultimately need autonomy, but the issue
of granting self-rule to
them is a hot potato for both the pan-blue and the pan-green camps and a
topic the
mainstream media avoids at all costs. They are afraid that granting
sell-rule to Aborigines
would translate into losing a lot of land, resources, and power.
Rev. Omi Wilang argued that such fears are really much ado about nothing
because giving
Aborigines more autonomy will actually boost Taiwan’s profile in the eyes
of the international
community, which will in turn be a good thing for the country’s economy
as well.
Hence, he urged all citizens who are concerned for the rights of
Aborigines to join protestors
on the night of August 6 and take part in this overnight protest to
support Aborigines.
In related news, Aborigines living somewhere other than their registered
permanent places of
residence, which have been destroyed by Typhoon Morakot, will not be
eligible to apply and
move into permanent housing units.
For Aborigines, this clause included in the “Special Statute for
Reconstruction for Post-
Typhoon Morakot Disaster” runs against the ROC Constitution with regards
to freedom of
residence.
Because of this clause, a group of Rukai Aborigines living in Taipei
whose permanent places
of residence in Pingtung were destroyed by Typhoon Morakot will not be
eligible to transfer
their permanent places of residence to newly-built permanent housing
units.
In response to this unfair treatment, which has been likened to “one
country, two systems”,
Rukai Aborigines residing in Taipei have formed an alliance to take on
the Ma administration,
rectify this injustice, and protect Aborigine culture and legacy so that
every Aborigine can have
a place to call home.
********************
Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local languages.
You may translate and re-use our articles online only if you acknowledge
the source as
"Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter and writer.
Contact us before reprinting any of our articles for print publications.
Direct comments and questions about this article to: enews@pctpress.org
Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/ (English)
http://www.pctpress.org (Chinese)
********************