Taiwan is indeed a model democracy, but it faces several challenges. The Taiwanese must use their wisdom and power to overcome these difficulties and take control of their own destiny, or Taiwan's democracy might become a thing of the past. Taiwan is a country with a triple national identity: Taiwan, the Republic of China and China. Internally, the people in Taiwan are broadly divided into pan-green and pan-blue camps. Externally, China insists that Taiwan is a part of China, although China hasn't ruled Taiwan for a single second since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Japan ruled Taiwan for 50 years and gave up any claim to it in 1951, without specifying an inheritor. The US liberated Taiwan from Japan in 1945, and has protected Taiwan from China since the 1950s, but still talks about a paradoxical "one China" policy. The UN is helpless and hopeless.
The governing party should have a clear vision for Taiwan's future and work hard to achieve it. It should implement the laws in spite of opposition or protests. Actions are more effective than words. Corrupt officials should be fired and imprisoned.
President Chen Shui-bian (
The losing candidates should have sportsmanship. The opposition parties must be friendly, at least to the people who need security, prosperity and tranquility. Please do not boycott everything and paralyze or endanger Taiwan. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should not act like the mayor of "Chinese Taipei."
In the Dec. 3 local governments elections, voters should not accept bribery from any candidates. They must vote for candidates who can preserve democracy and freedom for Taiwan.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
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,
RSS