The generation born or raised after the lifting of martial law in 1987 was the first to experience democratization and enjoy the initial fruits of Taiwan’s freedom. Many of the generation following those who witnessed martial law lifted are now high-school and college students. The political background in which they grew up was the second eight-year governance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Taiwan’s democracy has issues that need to be addressed in each generation, but the social environment of this latest voting-age generation is freer and more open. If they take universal values such as democracy, freedom and human rights for granted, then they are testing Taiwan’s democratic resilience and putting these staples at risk.
Politics has become increasingly vulgar, populist and beholden to celebrity worship, and the eyeballs come before the brain. The more often Internet celebrities and politicians grab the attention of people on social media, the more they get to shape this generation’s political ideas and attitudes.
Thus, slogans such as “blue and green are equally bad” and even “taking down the DPP” have become dumbed-down slogans used to criticize politics, making withdrawal of Taiwan’s democratic assets easy, and such dumbing-down is not going to stop until democracy is bankrupted.
If young people, including teenagers are the “democratic trust fund babies” following Taiwan’s democratization, then what we ought to worry about is whether Taiwan’s democracy would be a case of “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” after next month’s presidential and legislative elections.
Faced with the crisis of democracy being gutted or bankrupt, the elections, like a national shareholders’ meeting, would determine how Taiwan’s democracy could sustainably operate.
There is still more than a month left until the elections, and we still have a chance to explain to the younger generation how to invest in Taiwan’s democracy.
Just as there are risks in financial investment and management, in the market of democracy, what kind of candidates and political parties you invest in and whether your voting judgement is correct determines whether the democracy you live in continues to thrive independently or be subordinated and dominated.
Yang Tsung-li is a political staff member.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hypersonic missile carried a simple message to the West over Ukraine: Back off, and if you do not, Russia reserves the right to hit US and British military facilities. Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as “Oreshnik,” or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine on Thursday in what Putin said was a direct response to strikes on Russia by Ukrainian forces with US and British missiles. In a special statement from the Kremlin just after 8pm in Moscow that day, the Russian president said the war was escalating toward a global conflict, although he avoided any nuclear
Would China attack Taiwan during the American lame duck period? For months, there have been worries that Beijing would seek to take advantage of an American president slowed by age and a potentially chaotic transition to make a move on Taiwan. In the wake of an American election that ended without drama, that far-fetched scenario will likely prove purely hypothetical. But there is a crisis brewing elsewhere in Asia — one with which US president-elect Donald Trump may have to deal during his first days in office. Tensions between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea have been at
US President-elect Donald Trump has been declaring his personnel picks for his incoming Cabinet. Many are staunchly opposed to China. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Trump’s nomination to be his next secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, said that since 2000, China has had a long-term plan to destroy the US. US Representative Mike Waltz, nominated by Trump to be national security adviser, has stated that the US is engaged in a cold war with China, and has criticized Canada as being weak on Beijing. Even more vocal and unequivocal than these two Cabinet picks is Trump’s nomination for
An article written by Uber Eats Taiwan general manager Chai Lee (李佳穎) published in the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Tuesday said that Uber Eats promises to engage in negotiations to create a “win-win” situation. The article asserted that Uber Eats’ acquisition of Foodpanda would bring about better results for Taiwan. The National Delivery Industrial Union (NDIU), a trade union for food couriers in Taiwan, would like to express its doubts about and dissatisfaction with Lee’s article — if Uber Eats truly has a clear plan, why has this so-called plan not been presented at relevant
RSS