The KMT’s winter of chaos
As a cold air mass arrived from China during the weekend of the winter solstice, I was originally in high spirits, with a craving for glutinous rice balls (tangyuan, 湯圓). However, my joy was overshadowed by the chaos in the Legislative Yuan, which shrouded me in the winter’s cold and unforgiving atmosphere. I could not help but worry whether Taiwan’s democracy would become damaged beyond repair.
Since the start of the legislative session, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party legislators have leveraged their numerical advantage to blatantly and repeatedly propose outrageous, constitution-damaging bills that undermine our governance. If this lack of restraint continues, the Chinese Communist Party could simply watch the flames from afar and collect the spoils without lifting a finger. Over time, Taiwan risks falling prey to China — the lessons to be drawn from Hong Kong’s experience should not be ignored.
However, to protect their livelihoods, most kind and diligent Taiwanese must live on as usual, working their daily jobs to earn money and bring food to the table. This is understandable — but at the same time, the latest developments in the Legislative Yuan are inextricable from their own self-interest.
All laws written and implemented would eventually affect the people. Erroneous, misguided and even regressive laws would leave generational impacts. It is thanks to the many pioneers that spent their lives fighting for Taiwan’s democracy that our country has come this far today. As the new generation, reaping the benefits of their sacrifices, could we really allow our indifference to destroy Taiwan’s democracy?
In the next election, earnestly and carefully choose candidates whose ideas would lead to national progress and who understand and value democracy and rule of law.
KMT legislators should think of the people they serve and turn back before it is too late. In keeping with the spirit of the winter solstice, here is some food for thought: “A blind person eating tangyuan knows what is inside.”
When it comes to the KMT’s schemes, the public sees the truth in their hearts.
Liu Ping-sheng,
Taipei
China badly misread Japan. It sought to intimidate Tokyo into silence on Taiwan. Instead, it has achieved the opposite by hardening Japanese resolve. By trying to bludgeon a major power like Japan into accepting its “red lines” — above all on Taiwan — China laid bare the raw coercive logic of compellence now driving its foreign policy toward Asian states. From the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas to the Himalayan frontier, Beijing has increasingly relied on economic warfare, diplomatic intimidation and military pressure to bend neighbors to its will. Confident in its growing power, China appeared to believe
After more than three weeks since the Honduran elections took place, its National Electoral Council finally certified the new president of Honduras. During the campaign, the two leading contenders, Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla, who according to the council were separated by 27,026 votes in the final tally, promised to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan if elected. Nasralla refused to accept the result and said that he would challenge all the irregularities in court. However, with formal recognition from the US and rapid acknowledgment from key regional governments, including Argentina and Panama, a reversal of the results appears institutionally and politically
Legislators of the opposition parties, consisting of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), on Friday moved to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德). They accused Lai of undermining the nation’s constitutional order and democracy. For anyone who has been paying attention to the actions of the KMT and the TPP in the legislature since they gained a combined majority in February last year, pushing through constitutionally dubious legislation, defunding the Control Yuan and ensuring that the Constitutional Court is unable to operate properly, such an accusation borders the absurd. That they are basing this
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) was on Monday last week invited to give a talk to students of Soochow University, but her responses to questions raised by students and lecturers became a controversial incident and sparked public discussion over the following days. The student association of the university’s Department of Political Science, which hosted the event, on Saturday issued a statement urging people to stop “doxxing,” harassing and attacking the students who raised questions at the event, and called for rational discussion of the talk. Criticism should be directed at viewpoints, opinions or policies, not students, they said, adding
RSS