A volunteer explains the ballot to a voter participating in a Saisiyat Assembly election held in Wufong Township, Hsinchu County March 2. (Courtesy of Ken Chih-you)
By June Tsai
Years spent campaigning for the preservation of tribal social structures and traditions resulted in the enactment of the Aboriginal Basic Act in 2005. Since then, aboriginal groups around Taiwan have been taking the lead by setting up local assemblies to establish a working framework ahead of complete self-governance. By adopting a bicameral representative system, resolutions concerning all aspects of aboriginal society can be effectively implemented, with the functioning assemblies ensuring equal relationships exists between the country's indigenous minorities and the central government. Taiwan Journal staff writer June Tsai reports.
Members of the Saisiyat aboriginal group braved cold weather to cast ballots in their tribal village of Da-ai in Wufong Township, Hsinchu County March 2. Many of the voters were returning from faraway cities to elect representatives to the lower house of the Hsinchu Saisiyat Assembly. It was another landmark act by the tribe, coming on the heels of last year's formation of the upper house. There was still much to be done, however, before every article of the 2005 Aboriginal Basic Act was realized, autonomy activists claimed.
Concentrated in the mountainous areas of Hsinchu and in the neighboring county of Miaoli, the Saisiyat is one of the smallest of Taiwan's 14 indigenous tribes, with a population of 7,000. Up to 90 percent of eligible voters among the 1,700 Hsinchu Saisiyat--around 800 people--participated in the poll, according to Obay a awi, a Saisiyat activist.
The March election was a culmination of efforts to introduce a modern, bicameral representative system to the indigenous tribe. The upper house of the Saisiyat Assembly, established in August 2007, is comprised of elders recommended by each and every clan based on family names. These elders assume the position of speaker in a rotational system. The lower house, whose seats are allocated according to the size of each family, is made up of 35 popularly elected members, including two seats reserved for women and two for younger members of the tribe. Five extra seats are available for interested parties from the public, private and religious sectors.
Encouraged by the Hsinchu Saisiyat, the upper house of the Miaoli Saisiyat Assembly was also formed in early March, with an election scheduled to take place soon. The two assemblies will be integrated by the end of this year, said Ken Chi-you, another Hsinchu Saisiyat activist responsible for election affairs.
The groundbreaking move by the Saisiyat was made in accordance with the Aboriginal Basic Act that stated the government must safeguard the status of Taiwan's aborigines and grant self-rule to each tribe, being regarded as the best way to protect the rights and heritage of the island's indigenous peoples. It also stipulated the central government must earmark budgets for that purpose, while requiring agencies to make and amend related laws to help achieve the goal within three years of the law being enacted.
The basic act was designed to pave the way for realizing an agreement that was signed in 1999 by then-presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian to ensure an equal partnership between the Han Chinese majority and the indigenous minority. Chen reconfirmed his intention to stand by the document when elected as a president in 2000.
Since 2005, there has been limited progress regarding supplementary legislation, with the exception of a law governing the collective management of resources in aboriginal areas being enacted in December 2007. A number of draft bills have been put to the Legislature for consideration, such as those recognizing aboriginal land and sea territories and protecting traditional indigenous knowledge of biological diversity, but they are still being reviewed. However, a draft bill on the indigenous autonomous areas, which the Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples proposed in 2003, was nowhere close to being read in the Legislature. CIP Minister Icyang Parod said recently that around 10 laws needed to first be formulated or amended, and that the council was working hard to see them get through.
In reality, Taiwan's indigenous peoples seem to be already one step ahead of the state in working toward their self-rule. The Thao established its ethnic assembly in 2005, with the Pinuyumayan doing so earlier this year. The Tsou, whose leaders founded a tribal council 10 years ago, established a preparatory committee for the establishment of an assembly in 2006. Moreover, the Bunun is presently seeking advice from the Saisiyat on how to form its own representative institution. "We need to prepare ourselves for self-rule, instead of waiting for the law on indigenous autonomous areas to be materialized," Ken said.
Insufficient aboriginal representation, hence participation, in the government's policy-making system has become a concern for city-educated aboriginal members. In the Legislature, six of the 113 seats are reserved for aboriginal lawmakers: three for "plains aborigines" and three for "mountain aborigines." However, this demarcation of constituencies does not reflect the makeup or the ethnic distinctiveness of each indigenous group. According to activists, this division specifically disadvantages the Saisiyat tribe because the Hsinchu Saisiyat are categorized as "mountain aborigines" and the Miaoli Saisiyat as "plains aborigines." As a result, no Saisiyat has ever been able to win a legislative seat.
Moreover, the influence of the greater political environment also pushed the Saisiyat toward setting up its own assembly. The country's two major parties concentrate so much time on partisan interests that autonomy-related bills are progressing very slowly through the Legislature. Yet, what worried Obay a awi more was the fact that partisanship had even infiltrated tribal politics and created divisions. Those concerns prompted a younger generation of urban intelligentsia to communicate with village elders and community members about self-rule. It was hoped that the process of founding the assembly could help people transcend the existing partisanship and put the Saisiyat community first.
"In fact, self-rule has been a reality for the Saisiyat for several hundred years," Ken said. The activist, who has spent 13 years documenting development in Taiwan's various aboriginal communities, went on to explain that many tribes had preserved their specific social structures, rituals, social norms and ways of life despite living under numerous regimes over the years. "The same is true for even the Amis, who are thought to be the tribe that has assimilated the most into Taiwanese society."
However, the impact of different ruling bodies in Taiwan's history, from the colonial Japanese to the Nationalist government, and society's rapid modernization has put enormous pressure on aboriginal groups striving to preserve their cultures and heritages in this modern age. "We are therefore aiming to make use of today's democratic techniques to help preserve our traditional social structure and to meet the democratic institution of the government halfway," Ken said.
Having studied parliamentary systems in various Western countries, these Saisiyat activists believed the bicameral system could serve their purpose well. The upper house of the Saisiyat Assembly is thus designed to keep in line with the long-standing collective decision-making process of clan elders within the community. The lower house, on the other hand, is set to facilitate communication between the whole community and the government on policies and matters concerning the people.
Resolutions proposed by the lower house need to be approved by the upper house before the secretary office of the lower house can put them into practice. The lower house implements decisions made by the upper house as well as carrying out all civic affairs concerning the tribe, such as education, social welfare, land management, development of tribal industry and maintaining effective communication channels with the government and other indigenous peoples. The upper house is mainly responsible for ceremonial affairs, including the biennial Pasta'ai ceremony.
"Examining all the aboriginal policies made by the central government, I must say they are quite progressive. The problem lies in their implementation," Ken pointed out. "From Taipei to the tribal villages, the way is long enough to dilute whatever inherent good there was in the policy," he added, referring to the amount of bureaucracy involved. "The government cannot expect immediate feedback on policies from the village-based aborigines, and we in our turn have no way to express what we need," he said. "Active participation of the aboriginal assembly will help prevent the government at any level from running into difficulties when it comes to policy implementation, therefore avoiding resources being wasted."
Speaking to Miaoli tribespeople March 30 about the Hsinchu Saisiyat's experiences, Obay a awi said: "You will have doubts about the success of such a project, just as I often did. But, let's pose our questions and let everyone discuss them. Each conclusion or resolution we reach will eventually turn into self-power. Once our power is demonstrated, the government cannot ignore our opinions while making policies," he said, explaining what the assembly could do to enhance the tribe's interests and help achieve eventual self-rule. "By setting up the assembly, we are unifying among ourselves to make a position."
Fighting to gain the right to their traditional territory and to the use of its resources is a realistic issue for the Saisiyat and other aborigines, as the land issue has much to do with the development, even survival, of an indigenous group. The Saisiyat people hope to establish a far-reaching partnership, via the representative body, with the government as a way to achieve mutual benefits. The tribe has already succeeded in signing the first-ever cooperative agreement with a government agency, setting up a collective management mechanism with the Shei-Pa National Park Administration in November 2006.
"Aboriginal rights movements now take place within the tribe, not on the street," Ken asserted, referring to the bottom-up crafting of the self-ruling representative system as a way to negotiate with the government.
The activist went on to cite the case of the Cree of the Eeyou Istchee in Canada as a model. For 30 years, the Cree fought in courts and made pleas to international organizations regarding the Quebec government's hydroelectric power project within the tribe's traditional territory.
In the end, the Cree succeeded in signing an agreement concerning a new relationship with the Government of Quebec in 2002, and in February 2008, with the Government of Canada. Under the agreement, a dispute-settling mechanism was set up, and the Canadian government was also required to earmark a total of 1.4 billion Canadian dollars to assist in development of self-rule for the tribe. Ken stated that this was the way the Saisiyat could also follow.
As regards to funding, any money needed for the establishment of the Saisiyat Assembly has so far only come from the tribe itself. The tribe had little choice but to finance the costs itself, as laws under the basic act have yet to be amended to permit financial assistance from the government, according to Ken. "Nonetheless, we will show our determination to the greater society and the government by helping ourselves first," he said.
"This road [to self-rule] is long and winding, and it is very difficult to walk on. Yet we have to do it for the long-term development of the Saisiyat people."
This article is published in Taiwan Journal May 1, 2008.
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