Democratic sabotage
The blue and white camps have come together five times to block the Executive Yuan’s proposed budgets. Together with legislation to expand the powers of their own branch of government, this deliberate dysfunction is a long-term strategy to chip away at our democratic system. It is reminiscent of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s classic quote: “They lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying anyway.”
The blue and white camps are taking advantage of democratic loopholes, endlessly blocking budgets from passing, leading to the government’s inability to function normally. They are chipping away at the development of our national defense, basic infrastructure and resources for the general welfare. This not only delays progress, but could also provide opportunities for China to infiltrate our government.
Public awareness helps to protect our democracy. The 2014 Sunflower movement and the 1990 Wild Lily student movement were successful wake-up calls for public consciousness. They were aimed not only at blocking harmful policies, but also promoting Taiwan’s democratic reform. If civil society is unable to respond in time, the blue-white coalition’s strategy could leave the door wide open for outside forces to intervene.
China’s influence is evident in the blue and white camps’ activities to block budget increases. This would lead to shortfalls in resources for national security and social welfare, threatening our security and stability. On the international stage, it could also give rise to doubts about our internal governance, further impacting the outside world’s faith in Taiwan.
The two camps’ concerted manipulations have, since their inception, been preordained as a “feast of falsehoods.” This is not mere political theater. These are highly coordinated movements based on deception that are meant to cut away at our lines of defense and throw the public mood into disarray. No doubt, they know exactly what kind of consequences could result from their actions, yet they continue to ignore reality and maintain their manipulation of our political system. They also believe that they can keep up these falsehoods and false equivalences without the public fighting back.
We cannot just sit by and wait while everything crumbles around us. We must find the courage to stand up and use social movements to break through the fake visages. This does not just mean mobilizing for future votes, nor is this only for the sake of the current government. It is to protect our homeland and to guard our flame of democracy from being extinguished.
These politicians are afraid of civic power. Their hope is for the public to grow idle and indolent, or become exhausted by all of their games and shenanigans. Taiwanese have never easily bowed down to authoritarians. The blue-white camp cannot keep up their charades forever. The jig has to end sometime. We can use movements and marches to strike back, and use the truth to sweep away the miasma and fog of their falsehoods, thereby keeping us and our nation’s future safe.
Shih Li
Tainan
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
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To our readers: Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, from Sunday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 2, the Taipei Times will have a reduced format without our regular editorials and opinion pieces. From Tuesday to Saturday the paper will not be delivered to subscribers, but will be available for purchase at convenience stores. Subscribers will receive the editions they missed once normal distribution resumes on Sunday, Feb. 2. The paper returns to its usual format on Monday, Feb. 3, when our regular editorials and opinion pieces will also be resumed.
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