Once again we are graced with People First Party Chairman James Soong's (宋楚瑜) desperate efforts to try to gain the media spotlight and keep open his faltering chances to run for the presidency in 2008.
Now Soong wants to be able to debate the president regularly on his position, ideas and attitudes toward China and Taiwan.
True, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has a responsibility to the people to indicate his agenda, which was done when he put forth his platform for the recent presidential elections. At that time both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Soong had their chances to debate Chen.
After the election is decided, how-ever, the president does not have an obligation to continue debating with the legislature or any Tom, Dick or Harry who wants to gain the spotlight.
If Soong is eager for a debate, I suggest another topic. Let him debate his fitness to be a representative of Taiwanese democracy, whether in the legislature or in any position, after his notorious record as head of the Government Information Office (GIO) and his bilking the country out of millions of dollars -- which he allegedly used to purchase numerous properties in the US and elsewhere.
He can also debate his GIO record with any of the people who suffered imprisonment, torture or other violations of their rights during the Kaohsiung Incident and the period following it. At that time it was Soong's job to justify, excuse, and put a positive spin on the one-party totalitarian state's continued suppression of the nation's democratic movement.
As for his subsequent profiteering from his political offices and black gold, he can debate that with any concerned taxpayers. Clear up the past before you ask us to give you any consideration for the future.
Jerome Keating
Taipei
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US