Once again, the pan-blue dominated Procedure Committee blocked the arms procurement bill from being placed on the legislative agenda.
At the meeting Tuesday in advance of the new legislative session starting next week, the committee also stonewalled on the confirmation of President Chen Shui-bian's (
This replay of the same stale scene at the Procedure Committee leads one to wonder whether the opposition will ever realize what it means to be the "loyal opposition," and whether it can prioritize the national interest.
A glance at the US Senate's recent response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster puts Taiwan's opposition to shame. The Senate last Thursday night convened an emergency session to approve an US$10.5 billion emergency budget request from the Bush administration for relief for victims of the disaster. The emergency money was unanimously approved.
In comparison, the pan-blue camp consisting of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) having continuously blocked policy initiatives launched by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government regardless of their urgency. They seem to enjoy their slim majority in the 225-seat legislature and use it to serve their party interests rather than serving the public, whose votes sent them to the Legislature Yuan in the first place.
In the face of China's rise, especially its military expansion, Taiwan must beef up its self-defense capabilities.
Yet, due to the opposition from the pan-blue camp, the budget for arms procurement has been blocked for two consecutive legislative sessions, on 26 separate occasions, according to President Chen.
In a goodwill gesture to the opposition parties, the government has adjusted the arms bill by funding the Patriot anti-missile batteries from the regular budget instead of from the special budget, as originally proposed.
But the opposition continues to be hogtied by political gamesmanship, and lets party interests push it as far as to sabotage Taiwan's national defense in the face of Beijing's growing military threats.
KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
After their meeting yesterday at KMT headquarters in Taipei, Ma and PFP Chairman James Soong (
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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