Comments by Richard Lawless, a deputy undersecretary at the US Department of Defense, regarding the controversial NT$610.8 billion (US$18 billion) budget for arms from the US, stirred up debate this week. Unfortunately, the reaction of most opposition politicians reflects the immaturity of this nation's democracy: National security continues to be subservient to the interests of political parties.
Lawless indicated that a failure to approve the budget would give China reason to believe that military intimidation is an effective means in bringing about unification, and would also turn Taiwan into a "liability rather than a partner" in the eyes of its friends. While some people feel that such talk is less than diplomatic, it is unfortunately an understatement of the cruel predicament this country faces.
Bluntly put, Taiwan should shoulder responsibility for its defense to the best of its ability. Otherwise, before long, no one will take its need for defense seriously.
The opposition camp's reaction to these comments was sadly predictable. The most vulgar example was People First Party (PFP) Legislator Sun Ta-chien (
For his part, PFP Chairman James Soong's (
Soong's remarks were, of course, at odds with the position held by the rest of the world -- that China is a threat not only to peace in the Taiwan Strait but to the entire region. He is daydreaming if he thinks that the removal of the DPP government would result in China withdrawing its hundreds of missiles aimed at this country.
He also said that the US' Taiwan Relations Act requires the US to "provide" rather than "sell" arms to Taiwan -- whatever that means. While the US government is no "mafia boss," it is certainly no charitable organization either.
The problem with the pan-blue camp is that it feels it has to oppose whatever the government proposes to make the government look bad in the minds of voters. In other words, it is completely incapable of transcending petty party rivalries in dealing with the issue of national security. To make matters worse, members of the opposition are incapable of separating their personal hatred of the DPP from debate on critical issues. These days, it's strictly personal.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
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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