Indonesia signals easing of domestic worker travel ban

Staff writer, with CNA

Jakarta is to continue allowing Indonesian domestic helpers to work overseas if there is a need for them, and if working conditions in foreign nations have improved, an Indonesian labor official said.

Jakarta last year said that it would prevent Indonesians from working abroad as domestic helpers as of this year.

However, during an interview with reporters, National Agency for the Protection and Placement of Indonesian Migrant Workers director Soes Hindarno said that if nations have a great need for Indonesian migrant workers and if there is a shortage of job opportunities in Indonesia, Jakarta would impose “a soft policy,” meaning that it would continue to allow domestic helpers to work abroad.

Separately, agency deputy director Agusdin Subiantoro said that Jakarta is planning to raise the issue of increasing monthly wages for its domestic workers in Taiwan.

Indonesian domestic caregivers in Taiwan earn an average of NT$17,000 per month, while migrant factory workers are paid about NT$21,009 in line the monthly minimum wage, which this year was increased from the previous NT$20,008, Agusdin said.

Jakarta is seeking to narrow that gap, and plans to ask Taipei to raise the monthly wage for Indonesian home helpers and domestic caregivers to NT$19,000, he said.

Indonesian officials would raise the issue later this year during a meeting with Taiwanese officials and Jakarta would adopt a firm stance, he said.

According to the Ministry of Labor, as of last year Indonesia was the largest source of migrant workers in Taiwan, accounting for 245,180 of the total of 624,768.

Committee debates delineation of Aboriginal lands

By Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Members of the Presidential Office’s Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee yesterday failed to reach a consensus on controversial guidelines on the delineation of traditional Aboriginal territories, with some calling for its suspension and others supporting its implementation.

Yesterday’s meeting was the first of its kind since the office announced the committee was to be established in August last year. Committee members are scheduled to meet every three months.

The committee consists of 29 members, including the convener — President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) — two deputy conveners, representatives from the 16 officially recognized Aboriginal groups, a Pingpu representative, representatives of government agencies and civic groups, as well as experts and academics.

The Pingpu, also known as plains Aborigines, are assimilated Aborigines who once inhabited the plains from Keelung to Pingtung before Han migrants from China and colonial powers arrived in Taiwan.

Tsai said in her opening speech that while there have been complaints that the committee is not working quickly or effectively enough, committee members must not feel discouraged because transitional justice is a social project that requires long-term efforts.

“Today we took an important step,” Tsai said, adding that the committee’s goals are to ascertain historical truth, promote social communication, put forward appropriate policy suggestions and steer the nation toward reconciliation.

The president said the committee must solemnly exchange opinions on two major issues concerning Aborigines — the delineation of traditional Aboriginal territories, and the official name and status of the Pingpu people.

She said as Aboriginal transitional justice pertains to a complex past and present perception gaps; it requires dialogue and the collective wisdom of the committee members to help assuage historical wounds and achieve social reconciliation.

The guidelines, announced by the Council of Indigenous Peoples last month, have been a magnet for controversy because they exclude all private land.

Some Aborigines have called for the inclusion of private land to grant Aboriginal communities veto power over large-scale development projects, while others have been camping outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei for nearly a month to protest against the guidelines.

At a post-meeting news conference, deputy convener Pasuya Poiconu (浦忠成) said that 17 committee members expressed their opinions on the delineation guidelines.

“Four of them called for its suspension, while nine said they should be implemented in stages and discussions be held about the delineation of private land. The other four members voiced their concerns about the guidelines,” Pasuya Poiconu said.

Deputy convener Walis Perin said as the proposed guidelines have been sent to the legislature for review, the committee would refer the members’ opinions on the matter to legislators for their reference.

After listening to members’ opinions, Pasuya Poiconu said Tsai said that it is the government’s obligation to lead the public in respecting and understanding the concept of Aborigines’ traditional territories, which does not concern actual land ownership, and is different from the idea of public and private land as defined by current laws.

Tsai also expressed her belief that the committee’s efforts would improve society’s understanding of the history of Aboriginal land rights and result in a better solution to the dilemma of the delineation of Aboriginal lands.

Protesters decry Aboriginal committee

TODAY’S THE DAY:Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Yao Jen-to said that it was not fair to judge the office’s committee before it even had a chance to meet

By Wu Po-wei and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA

Aboriginal rights campaigners, including singer Nabu Husungan Istanda, left, singer/songwriter Kimbo Hu, fourth left, and documentary filmmaker Mayaw Biho, holding microphone, hold a news conference on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei yesterday as part of their ongoing protest against the government’s definition of traditional Aborginal land and its committee for Aboriginal historic and transitional justice issues.

Photo: CNA

The Presidential Office’s committee for Aboriginal historic and transitional justice issues, which is due to hold its first meeting today, has not sufficiently researched the issues it is to discuss, an Aboriginal rights campaigners said yesterday.

There cannot be justice if the committee does not truly understand all of the facts, they said, adding that they are concerned the meeting will lead to little more than the chanting of slogans.

Criticizing the government’s failure to include private land within the scope of the legal definition of traditional Aboriginal territory, a group of campaigners has been staging a “sleepout” on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building since Feb. 23.

They yesterday reiterated their demands that the government retract the proposed Aboriginal land guidelines announced on Feb. 14 and called for the resignation of Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Icyang Parod.

Documentary filmmaker Mayaw Biho, an Amis, said the government should recognize that transitional justice is about reconciliation, adding that such reconciliation is impossible if the government has not properly investigated the issues.

The government has been idle in addressing Aboriginal issues, he said, noting that today’s meeting comes seven months after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) made an apology to the nation’s Aborigines.

“Twelve very brave committee members initially submitted proposals for discussion related to traditional Aboriginal land, but all 12 later withdrew their proposals,” Indigenous Youth Front member Savungaz Valincinan said.

Tsai emphasized her support for Aboriginal land rights while she was campaigning for the presidency, National Dong Hwa University professor Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒) said, adding that the private land excluded by the guidelines accounts for half of traditional Aboriginal land in the nation.

“The guidelines leave no room for Aborigines to even voice an opinion,” Shih said.

Biho concurred, adding: “Traditional land is very important to Aboriginal communities and with the guidelines they are going to lose a million hectares of land.”

He called on Tsai to review the issue carefully, adding that the protesters would continue their sleepout until the committee produces a more just proposal on Aboriginal land guidelines.

The committee spent four months waiting for each Aboriginal community to appoint their representatives to the committee meeting, Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Yao Jen-to (姚人多) said.

It is unfair to the committee for it to be judged as illegitimate or unrepresentative before it has the chance to meet, as well as not helpful in terms of establishing lines of communication, Yao said.

Transitional justice measures take time, Yao said.

While many have criticized the committee as being a “toothless tiger,” citing its lack of legal authority to conduct investigations, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kolas Yotaka, an Amis, yesterday said the committee’s investigation report would nevertheless have a great impact on transitional justice measures and history education.

Even though the committee does not have investigative authority that the police have, it can conduct research based on academic materials, government records and the oral history of Aboriginal communities.

Such research efforts have helped uncover 400 years of history of the Aborigines in Taiwan and would help carry out transitional justice measures related to Aboriginal communities, she said.

The results of the research should be collated and included in textbooks to tell a more inclusive history of the peoples of the nation, the lawmaker said.

Sunflower activists rally on three-year anniversary

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Chen Wei-ting, left, Lin Fei-fan, second left, and New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang, right, leaders of the 2014 Sunflower movement, attend an event marking the third anniversary of the movement in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should swiftly pass supervisory articles requiring transparency and civic participation in any negotiations with China, protesters said yesterday at a rally commemorating the three-year anniversary of the Sunflower movement.

The Sunflower movement refers to student-led protests that began on March 18, 2014, in which students occupied the legislative chamber for almost 23 days to protest a trade in services agreement with China and how it was handled by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.

More than 100 people gathered outside the Legislative Yuan for the commemoration.

“How many times have legislative committee meetings been held to review supervisory articles? Zero,” Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice convener Aman Wu (吳濬彥) said, leading the crowd in chanting “we want an answer” as to when the review would begin.

“The DPP has not been willing to put political capital behind the supervisory articles, but instead has been putting them on the back-burner,” said Taipei Society president Chiou Wen-tsong (邱文聰), who drafted the “civil society version” of the supervisory articles, the passage of which was a key demand of Sunflower activists.

Swift passage is crucial to create a framework before negotiations, he said.

“If we wait until China extends an olive branch, passage at that time will end up being read as a hostile gesture,” he said. “We have to make China give up unrealistic dreams and realize that unification will happen only on a democratic foundation.”

“The crucial issue is not whether the DPP would be willing to sell out, the issue is that they are likely to face enormous pressure from corporations and even the US,” Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.

“I once hoped that the DPP would realize its promise and we should give them more time. However, giving the party more time has not seen a sincere effort made on their part, it has been a series of broken promises and excuses,” Lin wrote on Facebook, questioning the sincerity of KMT Legislator William Tseng’s (曾銘宗) decision to initiate a review at the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee next week.

New Power Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said his party would not support next week’s review, calling instead for cross-caucus negotiations to initiate a cross-committee review.

DPP spokesman Chang Chih-hao (張志豪) said that the party has included the supervisory articles in a list of priority legislation for the current legislative session.

The DPP caucus version represents the party and responds to the public’s demands, he said.

Additional reporting by Su Fang-ho

Lawmakers call for measures to help migrant workers

IGNORED:Employment brokers are required to help in case a foreign worker falls seriously ill, but laws do not cover those who are fired from their jobs due to illness

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen, second left, speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

Lawmakers yesterday said that the government must establish a mechanism to help migrant workers who have fallen seriously ill due to non-occupational diseases.

An Indonesian domestic caregiver named Shinta fell seriously ill after coming to Taiwan in 2014 and was paralyzed due to a disease in her spine, and has been hospitalized in Hsinchu since then, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) told a news conference.

Shinta’s employer covered her medical expenses for the first six months and bought plane tickets for her aunt to visit her in hospital, Chen said, adding: “However, as their own family needed care as well, the employer terminated Shinta’s job contract and hired another domestic caregiver.”

Shinta’s employer still visits her in hospital and her medical bills are “recorded to her account by the hospital,” Chen added.

According to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法), contracts signed between employers and employment brokers to hire foreigners in “marine fishing/netting work, household assistance and nursing work and work in national major construction projects or economic/social development needs” require that the brokers help the employers send back the workers if they fall seriously ill or transport their remains and personal belongings should they die.

However, Chen said the law does not regulate cases where migrant workers lose their jobs as a result of a serious illness.

Migrant workers sustaining job-related injuries are covered by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and the Civil Code, which also apply to domestic caregivers and would have their employers shoulder the costs, Ministry of Labor official Chen Chang-bang (陳昌邦) said.

The ministry has an emergency fund to pay up to NT$100,000 in case a worker falls critically ill due to a non-occupational disease, Chen Chang-bang said, adding that the ministry in October last year paid Shinta the maximum amount.

“Migrant workers are enrolled in the National Health Insurance [NHI] upon their arrival in Taiwan,” Chen Chang-bang said, adding that Shinta’s insurance would not be canceled as long as she holds a valid residency certificate, but “her medical costs have exceeded the NHI’s coverage.”

Cambodia-born KMT Legislator Lin Li-chan (林麗嬋) said that the government must initiate a cross-ministerial discussion and transform the short-term fund into a long-term plan for the care of migrant workers, as it is not merely a “one-time case,” but an issue that requires attention with the rising number of migrant workers in the nation.

There are more than 624,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, of whom 240,000 are domestic caregivers, according to the ministry.

Shinta’s residency certificate is to expire on Monday and National Immigration Agency official Lee Ming-fang (李明芳) said the ministry is helping her extend her permit by two months in accordance with the regulations, adding that the extension can be repeated.

Chen Chang-bang said migrant workers with non-occupational illnesses would have to shoulder the medical costs if not stated otherwise in their employment contract, and their employers could ask for assistance from local governments if the workers are not able to do so.

“The representative offices of migrant workers’ home nations could also be contacted for help,” he added.

He said bilateral talks will be held this year with four nations that regularly send workers to Taiwan — Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

“We will propose that they set up emergency funds or require migrant workers to enroll in insurance programs that cover critical illnesses,” Chen Chang-bang said.

‘Minority’ is desinicizing Taiwan: former minister

By Su Fang-ho and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

A “minority of people are pushing desinicization” in Taiwan, former minister of culture Hung Meng-chi (洪孟啟) said at Peking University’s Zhonghua Cultural Forum in November last year.

Hung, who served as culture minister under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and became head of the Ministry of Culture-affiliated Cultural Taiwan Foundation after stepping down in May last year, said that “such acts will cause our children to be culturally rootless and lead to future Taiwanese being unable to write their own history.”

He also said Hong Kong’s Occupy Central protests were “stupid.”

Hung’s comments echoed those of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), who said at the forum that Taiwan’s desinicization was ignorant and turning its back on its ancestry.

Certain factions in Taiwan have attempted to promote desinicization to weaken and eventually break the continuation of the Zhonghua (Chinese) culture (中華文化) across the Taiwan Strait, Zhang said, adding that such acts would only harm Taiwanese.

There are those in Taiwan who think that Taiwanese culture is unique and not Zhonghua culture, but such thoughts are stupid, Hung was quoted as saying by the Chinese-language Chinese Review News.

The Zhonghua culture is like a great tree, and while the branches might have their own unique attributes, they are still part of the tree, he said.

Individuals espousing desinicization want to learn from Japanese culture, which has its roots in Chinese culture dating back to the Tang Dynasty, Hung said.

Desinicization would be equivalent to giving up their roots, and nothing can grow without roots, he said, adding that, in his mind, Taiwanese culture is certainly a part of the Zhonghua culture.

Professor publishes research of Martial Law-era writings

Professor publishes research of Martial Law-era writings

By Yang Yuan-ting and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

A National Taiwan Normal University professor has published the results of five years of research into Martial Law-era translations of international works whose authorship was wrongly attributed due to their origins in China, while some famous works contained political additions.

Sharon Lai (賴慈芸) said her book, The Office of Translation Detective Work (翻譯偵探事務所), restores the “true face” of 50 translated works whose authors were not recognized in Taiwan due to a prohibition of books from China at the time they were published.

Following the retreat of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to Taiwan in 1949 there was a shortage of academics capable of translating works from foreign languages into Chinese, Lai said, adding that publishers looked to China, where many translated works were readily available.

To get these works past censors, publishers often listed the writers under pseudonyms such as Wu Ming-shih (吳明實), a homophonic play on the Chinese expression for “anonymous” (無名氏).

“The translations were in such high demand that in 1953 the government changed the regulations allowing [books from China if the] names of authors and translators were altered,” Lai said.

The change in regulations resulted in a chaotic situation in which it became impossible to ascertain who translated what works, Lai said, adding that hundreds of academic articles from the period contain inaccuracies due to incorrect attribution.

It even became difficult to trace the origins of the original foreign-language works, Lai said.

Lai said she uncovered the identities of the translators by looking at the timeline of examples the writers provided, as well as writing styles.

“Every book provided some clues for me to work with,” Lai said.

In the process of her research Lai made numerous trips to libraries in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, where she pored over collections of modern translations. Her work uncovered 1,500 examples of recopied translations and 400 pseudonyms.

Lai said she also uncovered many examples of alterations or additions made to translations used in Taiwan, with political rhetoric injected into the text.

Lai cited a 1956 translation of the Greek collection Aesop’s Fables in which the tale of the donkey and the grasshopper contained the added lines: “The communists are like the grasshopper who tricks the donkey. Only those who are as foolish as the donkey will believe the communists.”

Similarly a rendition of the book Streams in the Desert (荒漠甘泉) contained the added line: “Forge ahead to recapture the rivers and mountains” of China.