Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Aboriginal and civic groups yesterday protest in front of the National Police Agency against what they say has been police harassment of Aborigines who participated in spraying graffiti on the facade of the Guangfu Township Office in Hualien County last month.
Photo courtesy of the Association for Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Policy

Aboriginal and civic groups yesterday accused the government of conducting a “political witch hunt” with its pursuit of activists who spray-painted the Guangfu Township (光復) Office building in Hualien County to demand the restoration of Aboriginal names to tribal areas.

Early on Oct. 19, the Fa-Ta Alliance for Attack and Defense (馬太攻守聯盟), an Aboriginal group with members from the local Fataan and Tafalong communities in Hualien, painted graffiti on the facade of the office reading: “The land is the eternal nation” and “Whose restoration [(光復, guangfu)]? Names [of places] should be left to the master of the land,” along with the Aboriginal names of the two tribes.

With 23 days to go until the Nov. 29 elections, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) appears to be banking on a strategy of polarizing pan-blue and pan-green voters. Despite general dissatisfaction with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) governance and poor polling numbers by some candidates, KMT nominees could nonetheless achieve electoral success if voters are swayed to follow traditional blue-green lines in areas where pan-blue voters predominate.

This strategy was evident in comments by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who expressed optimism over KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) chances of being elected, despite less-than-satisfactory survey results.