Last Saturday, at the opening ceremony of the President's Cup sports meet for central government civil servants, President Chen Shui-bian (
Unlike other nations, singing the national anthem in Taiwan often gives rise to embarrassment, for the lyrics are an adaptation of a speech originally given by Sun Yat-sen (
As a declaration of loyalty to the party-state, the anthem was sung at all public functions. Even before the founding of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), there had already been a strong movement rejecting it. Before the abolition of martial law in 1987, then Ilan County commissioner and later minister of justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) abolished the requirement that the anthem be sung at cinemas, a move that infuriated the central government. With such a history, it is no surprise that many people either refuse to sing the anthem, or only mutter it under their breath.
The current national anthem also rubs China up the wrong way. Taiwanese pop diva A-Mei (
The fact that the anthem's lyrics are associated with the KMT is not really a serious issue. Most national anthems date back many years and they do not always reflect contemporary reality. But if there is a common attachment to the song, it does not undermine a nation's sense of identity. Americans sing The Star-Spangled Banner, the French the Marseillaise and the Japanese the Kimigayo, and these anthems do not interfere with their sense of identity, or their loyalty to the national anthem and the national flag. But Taiwan's national anthem is a reflection of the divisions in Taiwan's sense of identity, and it is pulling the nation apart rather than conferring any solidarity.
If the public cannot identify with the national anthem and it is divisive, then it is a failure. No wonder US President George W. Bush did not support a Spanish version of The Star-Spangled Banner. In an era of party politics, using the KMT's party anthem as the national anthem is inappropriate. Changing the lyrics should be an easier process -- unlike the national flag, the Constitution does not prevent changes to the lyrics of the national anthem.
Thus, as long as agreement can be reached between the ruling and opposition parties, the Cabinet can issue an order to revise the lyrics or even replace the current anthem with a new one. If this change can be given final approval by the public through a referendum, the new national anthem will win greater legitimacy and wider acceptance.
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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