Sun, Jan 11, 2009 page8

• [LETTERS]

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  Human rights mark closed

  Last March, I came back to Taiwan from the US as part of an election observation tour. During the tour, I had the privilege of visiting the Taiwan Human Rights Memorial Park in Jingmei. I have longed to take my parents to the memorial, as it is a place they would appreciate.

  I am back in Taiwan this month, and today I decided to take my mom to this under-appreciated memorial that many Taiwanese citizens have never heard of. After an hour’s bus and MRT ride, we arrived there, only to find the place surrounded by yellow tape with a small sign that said it is now temporarily closed for reconstruction. We saw a guard and asked him for further details. All he told us was that the memorial needed to be checked for fire alarms and so on. We asked him when the memorial would be reopened, and he said he had no idea.

  It is hard for me to not link the temporary closure to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) taking over the government. The KMT would seek to close the memorial for obvious reasons, as the memorial brings up the KMT’s wrongdoings in the past.

  In writing this letter, I want to let all the readers know about this. I personally find it unacceptable and I hope the media will investigate the matter.

  JESSIE LIN

  Silver Spring, Maryland

  Buying the lies

  I strongly beg to differ with Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng’s letter (Letter, Jan. 8, page 8). She states: “It is universally acknowledged that the crime of corruption is premised on its being committed by incumbent officials of the party in power.” Yes, corrupt officials are incumbent. That is how corruption occurs. But, unless I misunderstand her, the majority party also has the power to charge fellow members with corruption. And incumbents of the minority party can also be corrupt and charged with corruption. Such charges happen in mature democracies.

  In US history, both Democrats and Republicans were upset about the Watergate scandal, and senators and representatives of both parties were ready to impeach former US president Richard Nixon before he resigned. And more recently in the area of campaign finance reform, members of both majority and minority parties can and do charge their own party members with corruption, and both parties work hard to prevent corruption.

  Either Wang really buys the lies handed down by the KMT, or she is diligently trying to justify the bizarre mess passed off as blind justice in the case against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Blind hatred would be a more accurate word choice.

  
  

  SHERVIN MARSH

  Luodong, Yilan

  All work and no play

  I work at a private, bilingual elementary school in Kaohsiung and have been informed that in addition to working yesterday to make up the New Year’s holiday, we’ll also work next Saturday to make up another holiday. Who is this “Great Boss of Holidays” — a rather stingy, intractable character I must add — to whom the government is kowtowing?

  Having recently moved here from Tokyo, where I basked in the luxury of the holiday-laden Japanese calendar, I am surprised by the Taiwanese decision to compensate holidays with weekend work or makeup days. An apparent argument to “bolster the economy” surfaces.

  It’s been my observation that Taiwanese spend far more time at work than their Japanese counterparts, but accomplish far less. President Ma himself, having taken no days off since inauguration, has recently been prone to gaffes that have him sounding like US President George W. Bush. My students are falling asleep at their desks. Maybe Taiwanese officials should practice a little moderation, instead of implementing such an uncreative approach.

  JACOB HENDERSON

  Kaohsiung

  A more accurate picture

  Fania Oz-Salzberger presents an analogy that is inaccurate and fails to view the big picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in her commentary (“If you were in Israel’s predicament, wouldn’t you do the same,” Jan. 8, page 8).

  She does mention the “sad and complicated history” between the Israelis and the Palestinians, some holding Israeli citizenship and some in limbo, living under oppression in the Occupied Territories, and she also concedes that Israel bears “some of the blame.” However, she fails to elaborate on both the history and the blame attributable to Israel in the article. I consider her minimization of this Israeli blame and simplification of the current situation appalling, but not surprising. Perhaps I can paint you a more fitting picture of reality.

  Imagine someone (European Jews) from outside of your neighborhood coming into your home, forcibly removing you (Palestinian Arabs) from it, and kicking you into the dog pen. He electrifies the wires surrounding the pen, making it impossible for you to leave. To your great surprise and chagrin, many of your neighbors and indeed the entire community at large turn a blind eye to this brutal treatment. Later, the intruder decides to block food and medicine deliveries into the dog pen. Your children are now suffering malnutrition, with no access to health care. In your great anger, you begin to lob stones towards the house, and some of them even succeed in breaking some windows. Your neighbor then takes out his M16 and shotgun, and begins to fire indiscriminately at you and your family.

  I believe this is a better representation of the situation in Gaza. Let’s look at the death toll. In just over a week of carnage, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, more than 25 percent of whom were civilian women and children. In eight years, a dozen Israelis have been killed by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza.

  As a US citizen, I am dismayed that many of the weapons being used to massacre these Palestinians have been supplied by my country, which refuses to take a balanced approach to the conflict. Perhaps the US Congress is also an Occupied Territory?

  To preempt accusations of anti-semitism or anti-Zionism, two extremely different phenomena, let me go on to say that I am a Zionist; I believe that Israel has a right to statehood, behind the 1967 borders (Green Line) with Jerusalem a divided city — East Jerusalem the capital of a viable Palestinian state and West Jerusalem controlled by Israel.

  Name and address withheld
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