In a speech to mark the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 115th anniversary on Nov. 21, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in his capacity as party chairman, said the party should be thankful to the people of Taiwan.
“We are extremely grateful to the people of Taiwan who let the KMT, which was out of power for eight years, return as the governing party,” Ma said. “We need to be humble and cherish this precious opportunity. We need to strive to hear the people’s voice and let the people be the real master of the country.”
Ma appeared genuine, his words sounded sincere and it was encouraging to learn that the KMT credited the public for allowing it back into the Presidential Office.
Words that are not followed by concrete action, however, are just words.
There has been nothing to show that Ma meant what he said, and it is becoming clear that his administration is not letting Taiwanese be the real masters of the country.
One group, which calls itself the People’s Sovereignty Movement, has called Ma’s bluff. Departing from Taipei on Nov. 8, the group began a 49-day protest walk around the country to promote amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and push for referendums on all cross-strait agreements.
In the past weeks, people from all walks of life — individuals in their 80s, mothers and their children, young people — have joined the movement. Despite the lack of media coverage of the event, the group has quietly promoted its ideals by walking, rain or shine.
Another group, this one counting 132,402 members, has voiced its support — with signatures — for a referendum on reopening talks with Washington on the import of US beef products.
There were signs of progress on this front on Tuesday, when Ma praised Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as a model of democracy in the Caribbean after it held a constitutional referendum on Nov. 25.
Maybe Ma has it within himself to recognize the significance of referendums in democratic societies (though it might be easier to praise the mechanism when it is used abroad rather than at home, where the outcome can obstruct government policy).
In his Nov. 21 speech, Ma waxed philosophical: “If a political party can take the initiative to push reforms, then I believe it could propel reform in Taiwan’s politics and let Taiwan be a quality democracy with substance.”
Rousing words indeed, but again entirely meaningless if they are not accompanied by concrete actions.
In the face of great challenges and rising public opposition to many of his administration’s policies, Ma’s slogans not only sound increasingly hollow, they risk degenerating into farce. If he doesn’t want to go down in history as a leader who talked big but accomplished nothing, Ma should tone down the rhetoric and start walking the walk. If he needs help taking his first steps, he should be reminded that he has 23 million masters in this country who would be more than happy to assist him.
Spare our ears and walk with us, Mr Ma.
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the
Many local news media last week reported that COVID-19 is back, citing doctors’ observations and the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) statistics. The CDC said that cases would peak this month and urged people to take preventive measures. Although COVID-19 has never been eliminated, it has become more manageable, and restrictions were dropped, enabling people to return to their normal way of life due to decreasing hospitalizations and deaths. In Taiwan, mandatory reporting of confirmed cases and home isolation ended in March last year, while the mask mandate at hospitals and healthcare facilities stopped in May. However, the CDC last week said the number