The response of Sanchong Mayor Lee Chien-lung (李乾龍) to the central government's order to fly flags at half mast in remembrance of the 228 Incident ("Remembering 228: Poor timing leads to flag-flying blunder," March 1, page 4) is sadly typical of a party that still feels it committed no error in slaughtering thousands of Taiwanese, no matter what its pop-star leader might say. It is typical of their determination to avoid looking at the past, because it is colored with the blood of the Taiwanese they had so contemptuously co-opted into their narrow political agenda for 40 years.
Should we also not remember the Holocaust because it is a "sad memory" for so many? Perhaps we should also not remember the Japanese actions in Nanjing, the Serbian actions in Kosovo, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the British in India and South Africa?
It is not surprising that many pan-blue camp members and supporters don't want the Taiwanese to remember the history of this country, since it sheds such a bad light on their capability for ruthlessness, selfishness and opportunism. Not only are we instructed not to remember "sad" memories (and thereby not learn from them either), but we are also instructed to not hope for a future in which Taiwanese determine their own affairs. According to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma (Mao?) Ying-jeou (
So much for democracy.
But, as the 228 Incident illustrates, that was and is not something that the KMT considers important or beneficial. Reconciliation is an honest and needed process, but how can that begin when the KMT still can't face its own actions? It would rather we all developed amnesia. It also hopes we can all develop Alzheimer's as well so that we won't be able to see the utterly cowardly and shamefaced way it intends to sell out Taiwan as soon as it regains power.
Perhaps we should demand that Ma must recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan before he is even allowed to stand for the office of president. But, knowing him, he'll find a slippery way to say it without meaning it.
Well done, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), on abolishing the National Unification Council and unification guidelines. Now is the time to embed this great country's independence and sovereignty before the people are fear-mongered into a really bad decision in 2008.
Ben Goren
Taipei
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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