The Structure and Meaning of Indigenous Public Servants: The Case of Indigenous Public Servants in 2011
Chung-Chen Pu *
Abstract
The legal systems of this country as well as other countries call for maintaining the rights of the indigenous peoples to participate in national affairs and civil service. Those with civil servant qualifications and professional abilities will be the main representatives of an indigenous community’s direct involvement in national affairs.
The quality of civil servants has a direct bearing on administrative effectiveness and directly affects people’s quality of life. Public employees from indigenous communities usually have to handle matters of special
concerns as the laws dealing with the communities’ affairs are somewhat different from the laws governing other communities.
Key elements in the structure of indigenous civil servants include the channels through which they are recruited, the changes in their numbers, gender differences, educational backgrounds and rankings, and gaps in the numbers of populations of different tribes. Some of these elements can be seen in the overall structure of the nation’s civil servants, such as the overall educational level of indigenous communities, which is somewhat below the
national level. Other factors can be explained from the cultural backgrounds of the indigenous communities and the mainstream society, such as the number of female government employees, why there are more male senior civil servants than female ones, and why a certain ethnic group has more civil servants than others.
According to surveys done by the Ministry of Examination,
government agencies have given positive comments on the eligibility, adaptation to the working environment and the overall performance of indigenous civil servants. However, just over 40 percent of the surveyed agencies gave an “acceptable” evaluation to indigenous civil servants who
have passed civil service exams, an indication that their professional knowledge and ability need to be strengthened. This paper recommends that tests on professional abilities be emphasized in future civil service exams for the indigenous people.
Keywords: indigenous, civil servant, structure, culture
* Minister without Portfolio of Examination Yuan; Part-time Professor, Graduate Institute of
Taiwan Literature in National Chung Cheng University.
http://www.exam.gov.tw/public/Data/28311723871.pdf