If the DPP can rise from dangwai (
In the near term, the TSU should concentrate on securing third place among the parties. This is not hard to do, because of the People First Party's (PFP) incoherence in direction and purpose, its total retrograde in Taiwan's cause and democracy. The KMT bubble will burst once its illegal assets are spent or taken away.
The TSU can address issues such as constitutional reform. The DPP will not touch upon issues of national name, sovereignty, territory or symbols. Yet, the "Republic of China" will lead nowhere. Eventually, Taiwan's international space and commercial interests will be squeezed by China without these changes. Taiwan will be backed into a corner, and will have to fight like a trapped beast. This is where the TSU can distinguish itself. There may be no "consensus" now, but the truth will become more and more clear. Taiwan has no alternative but to face up to it.
The DPP cannot have it both ways, promoting Taiwan's independence come election time, only to drift toward the "middle of the road" after an election. "Green" voters may not have an alternative now. It is up to the TSU to provide that alternative as Taiwan's faithful opposition party.
I am looking forward to the day when the TSU becomes "the" faithful Taiwanese opposition party, and beyond.
Chen Ming-chung
Chicago, Illinois
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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