The presidential election is over, but political clouds hover over the country. The stock market has slumped as supporters of the pan-blue camp continue protesting. Anxiety is etched on the faces of many. And all this has pointlessly come about because the losing team will not accept the results of a democratic process.
Perhaps Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
But more sober observers have questions that demand answers: Why have they brought their supporters out onto the streets? Their demands -- a recount of the ballots and an investigation into Friday's shooting -- are already being carried out by the judiciary and the police anyway. And why are they continuing to stir up the emotions of these crowds? Does it befit a would-be leader to fight to the bitter end and force the entire country to pay a painful price for it?
This is not just a matter of unstable people in pan-blue crowds. Lien and Soong are trying to divert the frustrations of their supporters to protect their political careers from slipping into oblivion. They are trying to avoid a repeat of the election aftermath in 2000, in which former president Lee Teng-hui (
Public servants who campaigned for the pan-blue camp must also save face, while those aiming to run in the legislative elections at the end of the year must use this opportunity to fortify support bases. And so, they are taking to the streets in an all-out struggle to save their political lives. For them, the legislative election campaign has begun, long before the dust from the presidential election can settle.
Four years ago, President Chen Shui-bian (
The fuss over this election has taken a terrible toll on the reputation of politicians, significantly affected the lives of ordinary people and caused considerable concern among business and religious groups. This raises several worrying questions about unity and harmony within the nation. In light of this, Lien and Soong should respect the wish of all people for stability, put their trust in the legal system and cease fueling public protests.
Chen should continue to play down his victory and work towards securing harmonious relations between the political parties. The end of the election should be accompanied by an end to the bitterness that is injuring all of us.
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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