For the last two days we have discussed President Chen Shui-bian's (
Everyone can talk the talk, but the real question is: Can Chen walk the walk?
The situation, hopefully, will not degenerate into something similar to what inspired former president Lee Teng-hui (
By all means, kudos should be extended to Chen for his reiteration of the principle of sovereignty, the DPP's core values and adopting a more aggressive position on cross-strait economic policy (albeit with cumbersome slogans): moving from an "active opening, effective management" approach to "active management, effective opening."
People are no fools, however. No matter how eloquent or grating a politician's speech may be, the public knows all too well what games are being played.
Rather than indulging in flowery word games and coining catchy slogans to get their supporters' blood racing, what Taiwanese really care about is what the government can do to ensure that they can maintain a better standard of living.
What a struggling father of three in some remote countryside cares about is whether he will have enough money in his account to pay for his kids' tuition in the coming semester. What a working single mom cares about is whether she can count on arriving home safely after doing her night shift at a factory.
In other words, practical stuff. What about the new pension plan that Chen spoke of before the local government elections, which he pledged would replace the 18 percent preferential interest rate that he said had been unfairly benefiting retired teachers, military personnel and civil servants? Who knows?
Then there are other social issues, such as the growing suicide rate among young people, which could do with a bit more conspicuous attention. The impression that the average person receives, however, is that, more often than not, government officials and lawmakers would rather appear busy locking horns than solving real problems.
The power awarded to political representatives by the people is not a plaything for fame or license to engage in a bitter war of words or to court media deference in the next day's papers.
Social issues, as minor as any single issue may seem, are what touch people's hearts, earn the government respect and therefore earn this nation respect as a democratic country.
While policies relating to cross-strait relations, economics, defense and foreign affairs are critical and have a direct bearing on national security, the "little things" can add up in a surprisingly damaging way for those politicians who neglect them.
As another year begins, this country is surely looking forward to a government that can attend to not only the bigger picture but also -- through more substantial acts involving subtle problems -- start reconnecting and touching people's hearts.
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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