“Building a democratic system is just the first step in protecting human rights. If a democratically elected government does not accept monitoring or respect the law, it may still act lawlessly and abuse its power, leading to discrimination and confrontation. To build a normal democratic society, therefore, we have to actively improve Taiwan’s politics, economy and human rights environment. Otherwise, democracy will exist in name only. Neither illegal acts and abuses of power by the government nor social inequality and injustice can be erased by the fine-sounding word ‘democracy’ alone.”
This comes from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew’s (蕭萬長) human rights White Paper entitled “Taiwan Human Rights Declaration for the New Century” (新世紀台灣人權宣言).
Few would dispute these words. The problem is, why does the declaration seem so ironic today? “Operation Concord,” carried out on Ma’s orders to guarantee the security of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) during his visit last month, has become a byword for collective government abuse of power. The government has yet to review and reflect on events during Chen’s visit.
Faced with accusations that separation of powers under the Constitution is being upset by excessive centralization of power, the government has responded with cold arrogance, paying no attention to the problem.
Ma promised to amend the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), changing the permit system to a notification system to give the streets back to the public. In practice, however, he has used the police to deny the public its constitutional right to parade and assemble.
In response to calls from the Wild Strawberry Student Movement and other civic groups for amendments to this law, the Cabinet proposed an amendment that would change the law’s form but not its content; the proposed notification system would be compulsory, not voluntary.
Ma also said that party, political and military forces would cease exercising influence within the media, but now his administration is wantonly interfering in the Central News Agency and Radio Taiwan International. Ma even stood by as some of his Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legislators pushed through an absurd resolution forcing the Public Television Service to secure item-by-item budgetary approval from higher authorities.
Ma said that prosecutors and investigators should strengthen their understanding of human rights protection. But in answering criticism from his former professor at Harvard University on the criminal detention system and human rights issues, Ma struck a different note, claiming that there were no such violations.
Ma has also said every citizen has the right to transparent information, but after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a report from the US government on the US nationality status of Taiwanese legislators, Ma allowed Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) to refuse to reveal the contents in an effort to cover up for at least one lawmaker who deceived the public.
This powerful leader is someone who says one thing before a presidential election but does another after it. Under today’s constitutional system and given the political reality, the public cannot reverse this situation straight away. And those who dare to protest are ridiculed as victims of their own deeds.
Ma must keep his promises and reflect on how he has departed from them. If he cannot, the discontent and anger simmering in civil society — now reflected in low approval ratings — will break out in a new wave of collective action.
Huang Kuo-chang is an assistant research fellow at the Preparatory Office of the Institutum Iurisprudentiae at Academia Sinica.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability. Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to