Taiwan coalition efforts rocked by senior government official's slur on 'primitive' island population

A SENIOR Taiwanese government official has caused a major embarrassment for President Ma Ying-jeou’s efforts to build a diverse communal coalition when he said the majority population of the self-ruled island was “primitive” and suggested Beijing should use force to seize the island.

Kuo Kuan-ying, of Taiwan’s representative office in Toronto, last week described himself as “superior mainlander” – a politically explosive reference to the two million people who fled to Taiwan after the civil war in 1949, and who have dominated politics on the island of 23 million people ever since.

Until the arrival of the mainlanders in 1949, Taiwan was largely populated by native Taiwanese, whose ancestors came from the Chinese mainland in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were oppressed by Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo until Taiwan began to reform politically in 1987, when they were able to form a political party of their own.

There is broad cross-party support for greater engagement with the native Taiwanese population. Mr Ma has been trying to unite the different groups on the island behind his policy of engagement with Beijing. The remarks are an embarrassment that could cost him many votes in local elections.

Mr Kuo reportedly described the native Taiwanese as “primitives” and wrote in an essay that “China should use force to take over” Taiwan even though the island “was not qualified” to unite with Beijing.

Mr Kuo denies writing the essay, which appeared under a pen name he is known to have used, but he has been demoted and transferred back to Taipei. Parliamentarians on both sides of the normally fiercely divided legislature, as well as commentators, are calling for more stricter penalties.

"It is dumbfounding to hear the nation's highest administrative official confusing hateful language with freedom of speech. In some European countries, hate speech and Holocaust denial are criminal offences," said the Taipei Times.