It is often difficult to predict how things will develop, and we sometimes don't know whether to laugh or cry at the results. Wang Li-ping (
Corruption is a complicated issue. It will not disappear because a sit-in protest tries to bring down an individual; rather, its minimization involves a serious and difficult political, economic and social process persistently pursued over the long term.
When it was revealed that the housekeeper of President Chen Shui-bian's (
But corruption is not the preserve of a single person or party. As the pan-blue and "red" camps accuse the government of graft, former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (
And although Wu Chun-li (
Hsu has the right of appeal, and only if the second instance renders a verdict of "guilty" can the Ministry of the Interior discharge Hsu. Asking for his resignation now is only a political and moral demand.
So despite the present anti-Chen campaign, it would seem to a neutral observer that the KMT has greater problems with corruption than the DPP.
We all hope to eliminate corruption, but that goal must not take precedence over the rule of law, and it must not be turned into a moral or political issue that disregards the law. If it does, it will become a trial in the court of public opinion. Experience tells us that even though corruption charges may be shocking, they do not always lead to a guilty verdict.
If people really want to punish corruption, they should bridge the gap between morality and legality, such as amending the law regulating civil servants' use of public funds, relaxing the conditions constituting a corruption charge, and stipulating that all government officials should be stood down if found guilty by a court in the first instance.
If the public insists that ousting every politician accused of a misdemeanor will eradicate corruption, the power to appoint and remove government officials will be in the hands of the media.
Because the scandal involving the Presidential Office is still under investigation, it is too early to predict the outcome. Forcing Chen to resign based on sensational accusations in the media and by lawmakers is unacceptable. The corruption charges against the first family are still under investigation, which means the first family is neither indicted nor sentenced. The public should give the judiciary more time and space.
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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