Forumosa International Residents Association

I really think that it would be possible to establish a highly amicable and productive relationship with the government. It would be important to establish the association’s credentials, setting it up formally and electing “worthy” members of the foreign community to represent it. After its establishment, letters could be sent to the heads of all relevant government agencies informing them of its creation and purposes, and especially emphasizing one of its main purposes as working WITH the government to identify issues of concern to foreign residents and help the government to institute or promote appropriate changes and improvements. Meetings could be set up to brief them personally and develop the beginnings of good guanxi.

By presenting it as a partnership that would be helpful to achieving the government’s own aims (making Taiwan a more attractive place for high-quality foreigners to live and work, thus enabling it to better compete for the recruitment of precious international human resources, etc.), rather than a potential nuisance or an “us and them” lobbying group, I believe you could win a good reception from key ministers and senior officials.

Omni’s approach is exactly what I had in mind. And the approach of working WITH the government might help such a group succeed where other have failed. Broad representation of different nationalties and professions is also a key. I think that defining ourselves as a group for international residents and the fact that our working language is English would tend to limit our membership.

There are already a number of organizations out there that work on issues affecting migrant workers from Southeast Asia, who in my view are the victims of real discrimination amnd mistreatment in Taiwan. The reason those organizations don’t work on our behalf is that we don’t need them. We could and should take up issues that affect us ourselves, and we have the skills and resources to do it.

I personally think that once we got the International Residents Association off the ground and have succesfully worked on a few narrowly defined issues, we might consider seeing if we can do anything to help migrant workers. This is partly an ethical issue–we shouldn’t just ignore what we can plainly see. But it’s also a practical issue since many restrictions that we don’t like are actually aimed at migrant workers.

Still, we’re not going to be able to help anybody else until we show ourselves that we can help ourselves. So a very narrow focus on a few clear issues such as the ATM card issue, teacher blacklists, and PARC eligibility would be good places to start.

I think I’ll be great when as the Forumosan International Association some media outlet starts examining the content on Forumosa seriously and then starts quoting rantheman in the newspapers.

[quote=“Feiren”]
I personally think that once we got the International Residents Association off the ground and have succesfully worked on a few narrowly defined issues, we might consider seeing if we can do anything to help migrant workers. This is partly an ethical issue–we shouldn’t just ignore what we can plainly see. But it’s also a practical issue since many restrictions that we don’t like are actually aimed at migrant workers.[/quote]I agree. Just because we have less problems than they do, doesn’t mean we should ignore them. Some of the restrictions on us are likely aimed at the Chinese migrants as well. The government (probably wisely) does not want them to exercise all the rights of the citizen as soon as they hit the ground here. OTOH, they are too shy to introduce legislation that explicitly singles out Chinese. Our push for amendment to these restrictions will therefore force this difference into the open. It could be difficult because of this, and some unlikely bed fellows may result. Although several posters have shown a preference for working with the government on these issues, I think that pan-blue legislators would actually have more interest in lobbying for our aims, since they would benefit Chinese immigrants. We have to be careful who we elicit support from, for fear of our cause being hijacked.

[quote=“hsiadogah”][quote=“dreamer”]once the members have joined all the legal stuff can come together.
[/quote]Nice idea, but try getting a meeting with anyone in government without that bit of paper proving you legally exist… let alone actually getting something done.[/quote]

I’m not saying that getting the legal stuff right isn’t important. But it seems to me that we would be more likely to out of steam for internal reasons rather than causes related to registration, and so on.

Membership, agenda and starting moves to enhance ‘authority positioning’ in the media come before too much energy goes on Taiwanese regulatory housekeeping.

If you’re in the Apple Daily a few times people will meet with you even if you haven’t got the ‘bit of paper’ yet. If you’ve got the ‘bit of paper’ but no profile you still won’t get anyone to see you. It will just be another of the ‘mom and pop NGOs’ that brianlkennedy talks about.

Putting something together with the bylaws and officers we want and then being refused registration as civic group (because our officers/founders were not citizens) would itself attract some attention to the kind of thing we are presumably about.

I’m all for it, and I’ll volunteer with whatever I can (which is mostly just my Chinese ability, which a lot of people here already have). What about operating costs? What about having a team of lawyers? Are they going to do this work pro bono? Do any of our lawyers on Forumosa even have the time to do that? There are definitely a lot of things to consider …

I think for starters, perhaps Maoman and a few others could get together and draft up some kind of mission statement, by-laws, and discuss the issues of potential funding, what kind of services this organization could offer, and draft up a basic organizational structure. This could later be put to a referendum on Forumosa (a la Chen Shui Bian). In the meantime, someone could volunteer to research the procedures for applying to the government for the necessary paperwork and permits to become established as a legal non-profit organization.

I would base my campaign strategy largely on Amnesty Internationals.
1.start informal, do not worry about legalities or the name of the organization, officers or any of that jazz.
2. Have interested parties meet in some restaurant/tavern.
3. Focus on one or two clear, seemingly solvable issues
4. Begin a two-prong letter writing campaign.
The reason for letters is it has been my experience that local government agencies simply flip emails in the electronic trash or duck phone calls. There is something about the physical presence of a letter, in english or Chinese, that demands a response.
The letters should be directed to your home government and to the involved agency in Taiwan. (see example below). The reason for this is you should include a copy of the letter you sent to your home government along with the letter you send to the Taiwanese agency and indicate to the Taiwanese agency that you have written your home government.
What the local government agencies fear more than anything is foreign government pressure.

The reason for starting this way (informal letter writing campaigns) is:

  1. It allows you to gauge the amount of commitment you can expect from your campaigners. Writing and posting letters is concrete actions, not too difficult but does require some effort. I remember well back in the AI Taiwan days, everyone was real rah, rah, go, go until you asked them to actually do something like write a half page letter and post it. Then commitment fell to about zero and the excuses flowed like water. Have a follow up meeting every quarter and see how things are going. You could use this forum to keep each other abreast of developments.
  2. Also it gets around all the hassles and potential politics of forming an organization.
  3. street protests, press conferences and all that, in my analysis, are easily ignored by the local powers that be. The reason is that they occur every other day here and the reaction is generally ho-hum.

Sample letter.
Dear Minister of the Interior,
My name is Brian Kennedy and I am a long term American resident of Taiwan. I write to you today about the process for ____________. (yack about the problem)

I should mention that I have also contacted the U.S. State Department on this matter and have enclosed a copy of that letter for your reference. I have every confidence that your government working in cooperation with my home government with input from long term residents such as myself can resolve this issue and make Taiwan a truly international place.

Sincerely (yes! You are supposed to write that!)
Brian L. Kennedy

Factitious/Satire letter to US State Dept
Dear Condi,
If you could take a minute away from your busy schedule of stripping all civil liberties away and help me out with something I would appreciate it. And I realize that the US State Departments unofficial position is any American who is dumb enough to reside abroad pays their money and takes their chances and should count on zero assistance from “State” but

I have found that faxes can be even more effective because they harbor a sense of urgency. With a Skype/ Win fax interface they are free and just as easy to produce as an email. Attach a cover letter to maximize effect.

While I agree with most of the above - although not the “for starters” bit, because I think we need to start smaller, in a fashion akin to what Brian Kennedy said - the bold part I particularly disagree with. I wholeheartedly believe that if this is to go ahead, it needs to be entirely, officially seperate and distinct from Forumosa. Forumosa could be a “supporter,” but any official business regarding the group should be kept seperate.

I can definitely go along with Brian’s suggestions. But who is going to take the initiative and get things started? Also, since Forumosa is representative of a large cross-section of foreigners in Taiwan, I don’t see why Forumosa shouldn’t play a larger role in whatever group comes out of this discussion.

When discussing foreigners in Taiwan something needs to be kept in mind. Although I am not 100% sure of my facts let me talk this anyway. I think one would find that the statistically average foreigner in Taiwan is a Filipino factory worker (working out in Hsi chu as a computer board assembly guy) or a Malaysian construction worker (working in the center of Taiwan on some freeway project); it is not a white english teacher/editor who plays computer all day (like me!).

That reality needs to be kept in mind. This associations should be better called: “The Foundation for the Protection of European and North Americans in the Upper Middle Classes Living in Taiwan Who Have Internet Access and the Luxury of Playing Around Most of the Day”.

But that is not a very catchy NGO name.
Take care,
Brian

Gonna be hard to get all of that on a T-shirt.

The acronym will certainly turn heads: FPENAUMCLTHIALPAMD.

Yep, that should do it!

Seriously, this type of an organization would be a very positive move. I strongly agree with the comment earlier to start by actually doing something to gauge real interest vs. “pub” interest.

Once the group is up and running, I’d have no problem with that, by and large, except that it would force members of the group who are not members of Forumosa to sign up here if they wanted to play a full part, which is unfair and makes no sense. And it may put people off joining if, for any reason, they have issues with Forumosa, or if they’ve been banned from here before. Also having too close a link with Forumosa could harm the group, in that it may make it look biased toward the interests of Forumosa and Forumosans rather than the whole international community - however that may be defined for the purposes of the group.

I agree with Tetsuo.

Having this group participate via Forumosa would be foolish. It should be about sensible dedicated people who want to get things done. Forumosa popular opinion is miles away from this.

My suggestion is to find a group of people willing to dedicate at least some time to get things done. Have a meeting and settle on a specific small achievable project and assign everyone tasks within a time frame. That wills sort out who is dedicated and also help identify who is going to have the time and ability to help lead the organisation. Once a primary goal has been achieved the organisation can start planning more about future goals and direction, trying to build membership and funds etc.

The first goal should be something like Brian Kennedy outlined - selecting a small issue, composing letters in English and Chinese to certain organisations and perhaps organising a press conference. The goal would be seeking clarification and/or raisign awareness on a certain issue. Actual change would be a larger goal for later when the organisation was up and running.

Brian

The government of Taiwan and the US congress are about to begin FTA negotiations.
Now would be a very good time to get started and bring a few select issues of concern to the attention of the US congress via local foreign business leaders.

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