Injustice for foreigners
During the summer, I had to travel back to my country, as my passport was expiring this school year and there is no embassy in Taiwan to renew my passport here. I contacted the competent authorities in my country to find a way to renew it without leaving Taiwan, but unfortunately there was no way.
So, I left Taiwan in May and expected to come back in July and undergo a home quarantine. In the meantime, a week or so before my return, Taiwan changed the rules and forced everyone to stay in quarantine hotels. That brought extra expenses that were not anticipated before my departure.
The government offered no reimbursement for people who had booked their tickets and had planned to stay at home before the rule change. We are talking about finding hotels at the last minute and paying more than NT$55,000 for two weeks, all expenses that were not planned and I was suddenly forced to do. Basically, Taiwan just got all returning passengers trapped.
What options did I have? Lose the money for my tickets and my job in Taiwan? Or pay another NT$60,000 just so I can come back? What If I did not have that amount of money?
I feel disappointed and not cared for by the government. I believe it would have been more fair to implement the change starting from people who had not booked their tickets yet. In my opinion, it was not fair to suddenly enforce the rule for passengers who had booked their tickets, had arranged their expenses and accommodation.
On top of that, I felt an injustice when I tried to apply for reimbursement. It seems that the government gives reimbursement only for four reasons and none of them include having to leave the country for passport renewals. I was shocked when I visited the local district office that is taking care of the reimbursements and they told me that renewing my passport is not a good enough reason to leave Taiwan. I am asking: If that’s not a good enough reason, then what would you have me do? Are you encouraging me to stay illegally in the country? Is this what the government wanted me to do?
I feel this is an injustice toward foreigners living in Taiwan and I believe that the government should have thought about it or done something about it. I wish that I could be treated fairly and reimbursed for leaving the country only so that I can be legally working here.
Name withheld
‘Blue fighters’
Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) has founded the “blue fighters,” a group attracting several dozen Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators and city and county councilors, including New Party Taipei City Councilor Ho Han-ting (侯漢廷), to its ranks.
Jaw has yet to identify what the “blue fighters” are fighting for, or indeed whom they are fighting.
If the group is to fight for the survival of the Republic of China (ROC), then Jaw needs to say who exactly is the ROC’s main enemy.
Anyone with any knowledge of history and the international situation will know that the ROC’s main enemy is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which replaced the ROC with the People’s Republic of China not only as the rulers of China, but as China’s representative in the international community.
If the “blue fighters” want to fight for the safety and well-being of ROC citizens, then the main enemy has to be the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which does the CCP’s bidding.
The PLA has been intimidating Taiwan and its outlying islands for decades, and it is the only foreign military pointing missiles at Taiwan, sending jets and military ships around the island and subjecting Taiwanese to cyberinfiltration.
If the “blue fighters” are to take up a cause and protect the ROC, they need to aim their guns at the CCP and the PLA. If they point their guns internally, then they will show themselves to be just trying to grab power.
Huang Wei-ping
Kaohsiung
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