wfn.org | TCN: Organizations protest against government elimination of Taiwanese certification

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2975 Edition

>March 2~8, 2009

Organizations protest against government elimination of Taiwanese  certification

>Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong

>Written by Lydia Ma

Organizations opposed to the elimination of funds from the national  budget for Taiwanese certification formed an alliance and staged a  protest on the afternoon of February 27, 2009 outside of the Legislative  Yuan building. Members of the alliance protested that the elimination of  $40 million NTD from the national budget set aside for Taiwanese  certification programs amounted to slaughtering a national language, a  gesture reminiscent of government oppression that led to the 228  massacre.

The protest was sponsored by several organizations, including Taiwanese  Romanization Association, BONG Magazine, Taiwan Languages and Literature  Society in Tainan City, Taiwan Mother Language Education Association,  Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) Committee on Mother Tongues, and  more. Participating organizations urged anyone who cared about the  development of mother tongues in Taiwan to support their cause.

PCT Committee on Mother Tongues committee member Rev. Sing ‘Olam,  who is also the Associate General Secretary of the PCT, said: “We  will not stand by and acquiesce to political meddling in the natural  development of a language. Even though the budget for Taiwanese  certification has been slashed, the Presbyterian Church’s support  and promotion of Taiwanese language will continue.”

The alliance chose five representatives to accompany Democratic  Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chen Ting-fei into the Legislative  Yuan building and meet with Ministry of Education Minister Cheng  Jei-cheng to plead for their cause. Chen is also a committee member of  the Legislative Yuan Education and Culture Committee,

When Chen came out of the building, she was accompanied by fellow DPP  legislator Lai Ching-te and both legislators bowed before the crowd  first to apologize for the DPP’s inability to stop such decisions  from taking place in the national legislature. They also admitted that  the DPP lacked leverage in the legislature.

Lai then told the crowd that the Education Minister was also very  concerned about mother languages in Taiwan. Worried that certification  funds might be slashed from the budget, the Education Minister had  negotiated with fellow KMT legislators on this issue several times  without avail. However, he promised to keep communicating with KMT  legislators or seek other channels to restore funding for Taiwanese  language certification.