While President Chen Shui-bian (
The latest example is the allegation by one newspaper that Chen tried to blackmail Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
If the allegation is true, then Chen committed a criminal offense. It is therefore hardly surprising that the Presidential Office took this matter seriously, demanding a retraction and an apology from the newspaper.
The report said Chen attempted to intimidate Wang into refusing to serve as campaign manager for the Lien Chan (
Premier Su Tseng-chang (
If Chen had hatched the blackmail scheme, why was Wang not subsequently probed by the judiciary? Most pan-blue politicians who have been under judicial investigation end up stating that they are victims of "political persecution" by the Chen administration. Pan-blue dustbuster Chiu Yi (
If Wang had committed some illegal act, what motive would Chen have to cover up the deed on his behalf? After all, Wang did not do as he was allegedly instructed. And if Chen can't stop prosecutors from detaining and investigating his own son-in-law, how could he possibly have stopped a prosecution if Wang were guilty?
It is foolish for the pan-blue camp to be peddling these allegations. If, according to the report, Chen really does have a pile of documents that would verify Wang's involvement in the Zanadau case, then it would harm the interests of a great number of its own people. And if the story is true, neither the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nor Wang has any reason to gloat.
It was impossible to make sense of KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
Whoever is behind the spread of this conspiracy yarn, there are people who obviously do not want Wang to be too friendly with the Chen government.
For all of these reasons, the newspaper report is more likely the product of tensions within the KMT, and should be treated with considerable skepticism.
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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