Gao Jin Sumei’s accusation of “returning my ancestral spirit” was smeared! He angrily said: Ancestor spirits are not a shield for politicians

Non-party legislator Gao Jin Sumei said on the 11th that the "Return My Ancestor Spirits" movement she launched nearly 20 years ago had been "smeared" as harming national security. In this regard, Du Yijin, founder of the Taiwan Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, emphasized that ancestral spirits are the sacred beliefs of indigenous peoples and should not be used as a tool to divert the focus when politicians are questioned. He bluntly said that the dignity of indigenous peoples deserves to be protected, but the words and deeds of politicians must also be tested, and the two should not be confused.

Media reports indicate that since 2002, non-party legislator Ko Jin Sumei has gone to Japan's Yasukuni Shrine several times to protest, shouting "Return the souls of my ancestors", which has become one of the high-profile incidents in her political career. Kolas Yotaka, the former spokesperson of the presidential office who is an Aboriginal person, said earlier that Gao Jin’s Yasukuni Shrine operation is part of China’s overseas demonstrations against Japan, but it is deliberately packaged as respecting the ancestral spirits of Taiwan’s Aboriginal people.

Du Yijin posted on Facebook on the 12th that ancestral spirits are the sacred beliefs of indigenous peoples and are not a shield used by politicians to divert the focus when they are questioned.

He emphasized that to truly respect ancestral spirits, we should not use them as tools for political offense and defense. Ancestral spirits belong to the common cultural and spiritual heritage of the indigenous peoples and do not belong to any political figure, nor should they be used to endorse a personal political stance.

Du Yijin further pointed out that the dignity of indigenous peoples deserves to be protected, and the words and deeds of politicians must also be subject to external inspection. These are two different things and should not be confused.

Finally, Du Yijin emphasized that what aboriginal people should defend is their own dignity and the sanctity of their ancestral beliefs; what Taiwan should defend is the people's hard-won freedom and democracy, as well as fairness and justice that does not differentiate based on identity.