Things are not looking good for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) these days in the run-up to next month's local government elections. In the past, the party was known for its ability to generate debate topics and formulate and execute well-planned campaign strategies. However, in the campaign for mayoral and county commissioner seats, the DPP seems to be completely on the defensive. Even its offense seems weak and missing the point. With less than a month left until election day, DPP has little time to turn things around.
The two biggest indicators of the DPP's predicament are perhaps the races for the Taipei County commissioner and Ilan County commissioner. Both counties currently have DPP commissioners, which ought to be advantageous to the party's candidates for these posts. Both DPP candidates, Luo Wen-jia (
Theoretically both men should have been able to win their races with their eyes closed. However, in recent opinion polls, Luo is in a virtual tie with his main opponent, while Chen is trailing closely behind his biggest rival.
All would agree that the alleged corruption scandal involving former deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office, Chen Che-nan (
Another problem is that the debate topics pitched by the DPP so far in this campaign have been largely non-starters. For example, while almost all voters would agree that the ill-gotten assets of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are a major problem that has to be addressed, the DPP has failed to offer a practical solution to the problem, given the KMT's intransigence and thick skin.
In contrast, the scandal involving Chen Che-nan had been manipulated in a sensational manner that is almost soap-operatic, with new "findings" produced almost every day. Perhaps months from now, evidence will show that many of the allegations were unsupportable or that individuals named were innocent. But in the meantime the general public remains wrapped up in the saga.
On the other hand, from a legal standpoint, the scrutiny over TVBS' ownership is justified in every sense. If the station has violated media-ownership laws, then it should be dealt with in accordance with the law, with no questions asked. But the timing of the scrutiny -- coming after the station released several stories detailing Chen Che-nan's alleged misconduct -- may hurt the government more than the station. It gives TVBS a chance to claim that the government is threatening the freedom of the press at a highly sensitive point in the election campaign.
Last week, when Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (
The sad thing in Taiwan is that while the DPP may not have performed up to expectation, the KMT and the People's First Party (PFP) are even worse. On the other hand, if that is all the DPP is counting on to win the party, then no wonder many people are becoming disillusioned by politics.
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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