Next Wednesday marks the one year anniversary of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
While the KMT's willingness to explain how it has managed its stolen assets is to be applauded, it is hoped that this new-found interest in transparency will not turn into a "bait and switch" game, with the emphasis on finding fault with former president Lee Teng-hui (
In 2004, former KMT chairman Lien Chan (
Within one year of Ma's chairmanship, half a dozen key pieces of real estate have been auctioned off: the Institute of Policy Research and Development, the Chunghua Open Hospital, three KMT-owned media outlets and the party's old headquarters on Zhongshan South Road.
These asset sales reaped billions of dollars, and totally ignored the question of how they came to be in the KMT's hands. Where did all the money go, and how does the party continue to plead poverty in the face of such huge injections of capital?
According to the KMT's own twisted logic, most of the assets were obtained "legally," so it is free to do whatever it likes with them. But what was legal during the authoritarian era -- particularly during the height of KMT suppression in the 1950s -- and what is legal in today's democracy is radically different. Talking about "legally obtained" assets during the White Terror period just doesn't make any sense, when the KMT was the ultimate source of authoritarian rule.
Ma talks about "integrity" and "reform" often, and has portrayed himself as above the corrupted politics of the administration of President Chen Shui-bian (
The KMT amassed a vast empire of banks, investment companies, petrochemical firms and media outlets during its autocratic rule, making it the richest political party in the world at one point. There are few political institutions quite like it in free market economies anywhere on the planet.
Time and again, the stolen assets have been the subject of criticism from the party's political opponents during elections. If the party had faith in the nation's democracy, it would give the assets back to the people to eradicate this potent source of electoral discontent.
Ma has won considerable support for his "clean-cut" image. Next Wednesday provides another opportunity for him to live up to his reputation and prove to the public that the KMT, under his leadership, is actively dealing with the nation's assets that are currently in his hands. The people can only hope the chairman will do the right thing.
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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