For active participants in student autonomy, two negative news items this month are particularly worrying.
On June 11, school officials ruled null and void a May 28 election for president of the Kaohsiung Senior High School Student Association, because the student that won had reportedly during the campaign sought to form a coalition with other candidates and allocate them seats if he was elected, which the school determined to be a form of election bribery.
The other incident involves a June 11 election for deputy president of the Shih Chien University Student Association. A candidate reportedly took advantage of a moment when student election officers were not watching to grab blank ballots, stamp them with the election seal and place them in the ballot box, so as to ensure enough votes for him and his running mate, who were standing unopposed, to win.
The school formally reprimanded the student for ballot stuffing.
Student autonomy is an embryonic form of politics. Student associations, like government institutions, are structured to separate powers into executive, legislative and judicial branches that work together while applying mutual checks and balances.
Students have the power to elect and recall the officers of their autonomous associations. In some schools, students even have initiatives and referendums.
Participation in student autonomy fosters students’ awareness of their rights and powers as citizens, as well as independent thinking and the ability to participate in public affairs.
Elections are the principal means by which student autonomy can function and persevere. It is therefore particularly important that election procedures and results are lawful and fair.
Even the slightest carelessness can shake the foundation of students’ trust in student autonomy, and it can also cause them to lose interest in matters of public concern.
It is even worse if candidates intentionally indulge in election malpractices such as bribery and ballot stuffing. Such abuses could lead to unrest and even clashes within student associations, and cast doubt on the legitimacy of their elected officers.
Another possible repercussion is that candidates who lose an election might not accept their loss and appeal the results. If a second election is needed, it could waste resources.
It would be a dark day for campus democracy and civic education in Taiwan if student autonomy degenerated to the state of affairs possible on the dark side of real politics, rife with malpractices such as election bribery, ballot stuffing, pork-barrel deals and slander.
Hopefully, everyone who takes part in student autonomy will draw a lesson from the recent events at Kaohsiung Senior High School and Shih Chien University.
The conduct of student association elections can be rectified if students take part in them with proper dignity and solemnity.
Lai Yen-cheng is deputy secretary-general of the National Chung Hsing University Student Congress.
Translated by Julian Clegg
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
Taiwan-India relations appear to have been put on the back burner this year, including on Taiwan’s side. Geopolitical pressures have compelled both countries to recalibrate their priorities, even as their core security challenges remain unchanged. However, what is striking is the visible decline in the attention India once received from Taiwan. The absence of the annual Diwali celebrations for the Indian community and the lack of a commemoration marking the 30-year anniversary of the representative offices, the India Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, speak volumes and raise serious questions about whether Taiwan still has a coherent India
RSS