After spending the past few weeks preoccupied with a campaign to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that was a complete waste of time and resources, the Legislative Yuan finally decided to get down and do some real work.
On Friday, the last day of the special legislative session and the last chance for legislators to prove that they can do such work, lawmakers passed an amendment to the Statute Governing Preferential Treatment for Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (
After the amendment was unanimously approved, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (
Who can forget the emotional plea by pan-blue politicians over the past few weeks demanding Chen's recall because they resented "having to support Chen for the rest of his life"? That piece of vitriol obviously referred to the life-long monthly benefits and subsidies extended to former heads of state -- though now reduced -- that will be made available to Chen after he steps down. The immediate passage of the amendment after efforts to recall Chen failed was obviously a personal attack. The other deliberate target was former president Lee Teng-hui (
Friday's move should make the pan-blues happy and encourage them to take a break, even for just a short time, from the highly confrontational recall campaign. After all, they must be given something because it is obvious they are not going to be left empty-handed. This calculation was surely on the minds of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) when they voted for the amendment.
Another reason for the DPP and the TSU's support was to distance themselves from Chen, who is now a lame-duck president and a highly tarnished political figure with little credibility.
Still, it is saddening to see that the legislative process can be so easily manipulated by factors that are so clearly personal, self-serving, irrational and underhanded. Perhaps the truly troublesome thing about Friday's legislative adventure was not so much the fact that benefits were slashed, but that the original allocations were indeed excessive and needed to be adjusted.
None of the pan-blue lawmakers seem to have considered that the reduced benefits and subsidies may one day be equally applicable to a pan-blue president. After all, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Perhaps this is the biggest problem with Taiwan's politicians: No one seems to consider the interests of the nation as a whole. Ultimately, they will leave a political system to future generations that bears this stamp.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS