To counteract the Democratic Progressive Party's accusations that the opposition's threatened boycott of the March 20 referendum is really an objection to Taiwan's democratic consolidation, the pan-blue camp has changed its position from "not opposing the referendum" to "questioning the legality and necessity of President Chen Shui-bian's (
Led by Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Article 17 of the Referendum Law (
In this regard, whether the handling of the referendum meets the criteria set by the article is up to the president's political judgment. The voters will have the final say about it.
The opposition's claim that Chen has violated the Referendum Law is by no means logical. Moreover, to portray Chen's move as an attempt to abuse Article 17 is also without legitimate grounds. Remember, it was the opposition, which dominates the Legislative Yuan, that passed the Law.
The Chen administration has repeatedly reminded Taiwanese people and the international community of the inherent danger of China's missile deployment and military expansion. This is a fact not only faced by Taiwan but also widely recognized by others, including the US.
The main concern from the pan-blue camp centers on the extent to which the threat has become "a clear and present danger" that meets the criteria for holding a defensive referendum. While Ma and his colleagues argue that the country has been under military threat from China for half a century but has never been in a state of emergency, they overlook that fact that there was no legal basis for holding a referendum in the past.
Taiwan simply cannot wait until external threats become imminent. Therefore, the pan-blue camp's ignorance of China's military threat displays a huge lack of responsibility.
When it comes to the second condition -- whether national sovereignty is under threat -- the pan-blue camp should take more responsibility for failing to deter China's international saber-rattling on Taiwan's statehood.
The KMT's long-term adherence to its "one China" fantasy has resulted in the Republic of China's (ROC) exclusion from the UN and other key international organizations. When the world community confused the ROC with the People's Republic of China and gradually started to treat Taiwan as part of China, shouldn't we have been worried about Taiwan's sovereignty being sabotaged?
In the face of Taiwanese leaders' push for a democratic referendum, Beijing has incorporated a new strategy of uniting its allies to isolate the Chen administration. What are they aiming for?
Can't anyone from the pan-blue camp see the scheme in the Chinese leaders' minds? Beijing's strategy is to create an international image that Taiwan' affairs are China's internal affairs.
To show a firm determination to safeguard Taiwan's national interests, Lien and the pan-blue camp owe the voters a fair explanation of why they intend to block the March referendum.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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