Delight, anger, sorrow and happiness are normal human emotions. However, after suffering heavy oppression from a foreign colonial government, Taiwanese are only capable of feeling sorrow and lack the ability to, or do not dare, get angry.
Despite having no new convincing evidence, the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) recently and unexpectedly indicted former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). Taiwanese should be angry about this instead of just lamenting the sorrows of being Taiwanese.
If we only feel sorrow when we see those in power carrying out political persecution, then the poison has gone too deep — we are experiencing the wrong emotions. People in Middle Eastern and North African nations, such as Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Libya, who suffered corruption and political persecution for years under the highly oppressive rule of their dictators reacted not with sorrow, but with anger. The result was the “Jasmine Revolution.”
In a democracy, anger does not have to lead to revolution because anger can be expressed peacefully and voters can vote their leaders out of office.
The democratic system that the forefathers of Taiwan’s democracy movement shed blood and sweat for was established with the aim of creating a fair society in which everyone has the equality of opportunity. Lee nominated James Soong (宋楚瑜), now chairman of the People First Party, to run for the now-scrapped position of Governor of Taiwan Province and teamed up with Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), now president, to promote the “New Taiwanese” concept. Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) appointed Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politician Tang Fei (唐飛) as his first premier. These were all strategies aimed at encouraging a sense of pride in Taiwan while recognizing the different ethnic and political groups that coexist in the country.
Lee and Chen worked hard to secure Taiwan’s independent status and their actions had the same goal as the pro-Taiwan policy of “defending Taiwan through reform” that former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) promoted after the Republic of China was kicked out of the UN. Now, though, Chen is in jail and Lee has been indicted.
Taiwanese do not believe that those two former presidents should have immunity from the judicial process just because they contributed to the establishment of Taiwan’s democracy and the protection of its sovereignty. However, they firmly believe that the judiciary should use one set of standards and base all charges on concrete evidence, and that those with different opinions should not be persecuted because it suits the interests of those in power.
Ma constantly breaks his promises and he is incompetent. He has betrayed Taiwan’s sovereignty, stunted its economic growth and caused the gap between rich and poor to widen. For these things, Taiwanese should be angry.
Ma uses the judiciary as a tool and had nothing to say when members of the Koo (辜) family who were witnesses in Chen’s case said that prosecutors instructed them to give false statements. Now Lee has been indicted without any new evidence being submitted. These actions imply that Ma is out to eliminate pro-localization leaders. For this, Taiwanese should be angry.
We have seen over the past three years that only a pro--localization government is capable of enacting reform and upholding Taiwan’s sovereignty and independence. We must abandon Ma to save Taiwan.
Abandoning Ma and implementing reform to protect Taiwan are two strategies that will shine brightly in the history of Taiwan’s struggle for sovereignty and independence.
James Wang is a media commentator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
World leaders are preparing themselves for a second Donald Trump presidency. Some leaders know more or less where he stands: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy knows that a difficult negotiation process is about to be forced on his country, and the leaders of NATO countries would be well aware of being complacent about US military support with Trump in power. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely be feeling relief as the constraints placed on him by the US President Joe Biden administration would finally be released. However, for President William Lai (賴清德) the calculation is not simple. Trump has surrounded himself
US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named US Representative Mike Waltz, a vocal supporter of arms sales to Taiwan who has called China an “existential threat,” as his national security advisor, and on Thursday named US Senator Marco Rubio, founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China — a global, cross-party alliance to address the challenges that China poses to the rules-based order — as his secretary of state. Trump’s appointments, including US Representative Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, who has been a strong supporter of Taiwan in the US Congress, and Robert Lighthizer as US trade
Following the BRICS summit held in Kazan, Russia, last month, media outlets circulated familiar narratives about Russia and China’s plans to dethrone the US dollar and build a BRICS-led global order. Each summit brings renewed buzz about a BRICS cross-border payment system designed to replace the SWIFT payment system, allowing members to trade without using US dollars. Articles often highlight the appeal of this concept to BRICS members — bypassing sanctions, reducing US dollar dependence and escaping US influence. They say that, if widely adopted, the US dollar could lose its global currency status. However, none of these articles provide
On Friday last week, tens of thousands of young Chinese took part in a bike ride overnight from Henan Province’s Zhengzhou (鄭州) to the historical city of Kaifeng in search of breakfast. The night ride became a viral craze after four female university students in June chronicled their ride on social media from Zhengzhou in search of soup dumplings in Kaifeng. Propelled by the slogan “youth is priceless,” the number of nocturnal riders surged to about 100,000 on Friday last week. The main road connecting the two cities was crammed with cyclists as police tried to maintain order. That sparked
RSS