Ma touts international aboriginal collaboration

2014-12-03

President Ma Ying-jeou said Dec. 1 that the ROC government is committed to upholding the rights of indigenous peoples through international exchange and cooperation.

“Indigenous cultures add to the diversity and competitiveness of a nation,” Ma said. “With the status of indigenous tribes first recognized by the ROC Constitution in 1991, Taiwan has come a long way in ensuring the development of such communities on the basis of social equality.”

Since he took office in 2008, the government’s indigenous policy guidelines have been respect for differences, fairness and justice, self-governance and autonomous development, the president said.

Ma made these remarks at the 2014 International Austronesian Conference in Taipei City. This is the third consecutive year the president has attended the event, first held in 2002 by the Council of Indigenous Peoples.

In keeping with this year’s theme, “Good Governance and Indigenous Development—Its Applications and Prospects,” Ma said the government has made considerable headway in efforts to preserve and promote indigenous culture, help tribal business flourish, ensure employment, improve living conditions and enforce legal safeguards for indigenous people.

He hopes to further these initiatives through the Austronesian exchange program. “Anthropological studies indicate that Taiwan’s indigenous tribes and Austronesian communities in the Asia-Pacific are closely related. We should leverage this common ground to collaborate on indigenous people’s development across this region.”

According to the president, the economic agreement Taiwan and New Zealand signed in July last year marked the beginning of such a partnership by including provisions for indigenous cultural cooperation.

This shows that both nations hold indigenous issues in high regard and would like to see them incorporated into future international engagements. “By carrying forward such regional integration objectives, we expect to further cooperation with Austronesian communities in a wide array of areas, including the arts, communications, customs, language education, traditions and youth affairs.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=224697&CtNode=413)