We may have to wait for a few days before the winner of the US presidential election is officially announced; a situation that brings back memories of 2000's interminable wrangling. However, the ending of the controversy between George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000 made us confident in US democracy in that the losing side had the grace to accept that loss as part of the process of the rule of law and abide by it, controversial though it was.
Today, the Taiwan High Court will deliver its verdict in the lawsuit challenging the results of our own presidential election. On the eve of the verdict, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
But let's leave Lien's insanity aside. The reason the whole world paid attention to the outcome of the US election is that the US is the only remaining super-power and that it still assumes the role of policing the world. The re-elected Bush will thus influence global conflict and instability over the next four years. Allies of the US have high hopes for the Bush administration in its second term, while its enemies are watching it with covetous eyes. Given the US' position as the world's perceived democratic benchmark, dictatorships across the globe must to a certain extent view the election as a joke and hope that something will go wrong -- such as civil unrest, irregularities or vote rigging. Such scenarios would make every criticism directed at democracy by the world's dictators seem legitimate.
Regardless of what happens, the US is one of the world's oldest democracies. The lesson the world can learn from election lies in its electoral culture; how a stable, mature two-party political system works, the media's role in the electoral process and the accuracy of opinion polls and voter behavior. Research into these issues will become the foundation of political science theory around the world.
As an ally of the US, Taiwan is surely interested in the re-election of Bush. We are not concerned about the possibility of the Bush administration shifting its Taiwan policy. After all, the US is already a mature democracy. Taiwan-US relations have steadily developed on the basis of a long-term friendship. Although there were some ups and downs in the past, Taiwan-US relations are unlikely to alter unless a drastic change takes place across the Taiwan Strait.
We are concerned about the election because Taiwan-US relations are complex. We hope that post-election legal squabbling will not damage the image of US democracy. An incident-free outcome will help Taiwan and the US continue to boost their bilateral exchanges. Taipei needs to get on with talking to Washington about the proposed arms procurement plan, as well as our efforts to enter the World Health Organization and other international bodies.
As vote counting trickled in yesterday, people in this country were on edge -- as if we are participating in the election ourselves -- because Taiwan and the US are partners.
Finally, we hope that the blue camp and Beijing will be inspired by the democratic spirit of this election. If they can be inspired, the value of democratic elections will be impervious to criticism.
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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