By
Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Apr 04, 2009, Page 3
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄)
on March 24 announced a plan to draft an ethnic equality act
amid uproar caused by former Toronto-based Government
Information Office staffer Kuo Kuan-ying’s (郭冠英)
articles defaming Taiwan and Taiwanese.
However, analysts disagree on whether such legislation would
be necessary.
Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒),
dean of the College of Indigenous Studies at National Dong
Hwa University, said such an act would be significant even
though it would be impossible for the act to root out
discrimination in the country.
“At least such an act would be able to curb provocative
remarks,” Shih said, adding that countries in the West had
enacted similar laws in the 1970s and 1980s.
Shih said the proposed legislation should clearly list
behavior considered discriminatory, although he said it
would be difficult to detail every potential discriminatory
act. He also supported introducing severe criminal
punishment in the act, saying it would be the most effective
way to sanction those who discriminate against people from
different ethnic backgrounds.
Chiou Chang-tay (丘昌泰),
a professor at the Department of Public Administration and
Policy at National Taipei University, disagreed, saying that
legislation should be “the last resort” in attempts to curb
discrimination.
“We are too confident that enacting a law would be the
solution to everything,” said Chiou, former chairman of the
Graduate Institute of Hakka Politics and Economics at
National Central University. “Many countries rely on moral
education instead [when pursuing ethnic harmony] ...
Respecting each other should be a very basic everyday
attitude.”
Chiou said that including more ethnic education in the
elementary school curriculum would be a more suitable
approach.
Legislative records show that the idea of an ethnic equality
act was first proposed by then-Taiwan Solidarity Union
legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明)
and eight other lawmakers across party lines on April 2,
2003, in a bid to reinforce the Constitution’s
anti-discrimination spirit and promote ethnic harmony.
However, the bill did not clear the legislative floor
because lawmakers failed to reach a consensus on the
proposal.
Different versions of an ethnic equality act were proposed
by caucuses during the next few sessions, but none of them
were approved by the legislature.
On Sept. 22, 2004, then-People First Party legislators Lin
Cheng-yi (林政義)
and Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧)
proposed an anti-ethnic discrimination act that sought to
punish anyone who discriminated against a specific ethnic
group with hostile, humiliating, offensive or threatening
language, pictures or behavior to a maximum of five years in
prison and/or a maximum fine of NT$500,000 (US$15,000).
However, the legislature also failed to pass this bill
before the end of the fall legislative session in 2004.
An ethnic equality act proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party
(KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕)
and six other KMT legislators on Oct. 22 last year is
currently awaiting preliminary review by the Internal
Administration Committee.
The proposal defines an ethnic community as a group or
community that is aware that they have a different history,
origin, culture and living environment from other groups.
It defines discrimination as any act of exclusion,
harassment, restriction or preferential treatment based on
ethnic differences that is intended to or that results in
hurting or eliminating political, economic, social, cultural
or civil rights.
The bill proposes that different government branches
establish their own ethnic equality committees composed of
academics and experts from different ethnic groups and
authorize the committees to investigate allegations of
racial discrimination.
The bill stipulates that anyone has the right to request an
end to and compensation for discriminatory language, news
reports, advertisements, political talk show content or any
other form of intentional discrimination.
Unlike previous proposals, the bill introduces a two-year
jail term or a NT$1,000 fine for those who “fuel
discrimination.”
Although Liu had indicated his determination to push through
the bill, Chiou said he was concerned whether the government
would be able to actually carry out the proposed
regulations.
“First of all, it would be difficult for people
investigating a racial discrimination case to reach a
consensus because of their different ethnic backgrounds,”
Chiou said.
Without thorough planning, the proposal could end up being
almost impossible to carry out, like the Political Donation
Act (政治獻金法)
or the Lobby Act (遊說法),
Chiou said.
Association of Mainlander Taiwanese chief executive Huang
Luo-fei (黃洛斐)
voiced similar views.
“There are many historical and cultural factors behind the
problem of ethnic inequality [in Taiwan]. It would be
difficult to resolve ethnic issues by enacting a law,” Huang
said.
She said that it would be tough to draw boundaries between
different ethnic groups and that she favored an
anti-discrimination act aimed at tackling discrimination
based on factors such as gender.
She was also concerned about the KMT’s proposed punishment
for those who “fuel discrimination” as it remained unclear
in the bill what constituted the provocation of
discrimination.
“For example, the language [used by politicians] to mobilize
supporters of a certain ethnic community to vote for them
... Should it be considered discrimination?” she said.
“There could be controversy regarding what remarks or
behavior should be considered discriminatory because it
involves the second party’s feelings,” she said.
Huang was also against the KMT’s proposal that would allow
different government branches to set up their own ethnic
equality committees.
The government should integrate the functions and power of
the committees and establish a national human rights
commission, she said.
“The government should not hastily enact the law in response
to Kuo’s case ... [without proper legislation], as we might
see a lot of ethnic lawsuits and this would not help ensure
peace between different ethnic communities [in Taiwan],” she
said.
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