It is difficult to think that many people believed the pan-blue camp had a realistic chance of overturning the result of the presidential election with its ridiculous lawsuit. After a long, seven-month wait, the Taiwan High Court has handed down its verdict, rejecting the claims of the pan-blue camp that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) were elected illegally.
Ironically, across the Pacific, and only hours before this verdict was released, US Democratic presidential nominee Senator John Kerry called incumbent President George W. Bush to concede defeat after an extremely close presidential race -- at the time there were 254 Electoral Votes to Bush and 252 to Kerry with Kerry trailing Bush in Ohio by a very narrow margin. For a moment, there were fears there would be a repeat of the fiasco four year ago, when Bush was effectively declared president by the Supreme Court. But Kerry had the decency to uphold the integrity of an admittedly flawed electoral system.
It is important to keep in mind that this US presidential election -- owing to a controversial war against Iraq and issues such as tax reform and gay marriage -- divided Americans in a manner no less painful than Taiwan's experience at our presidential election in March. But the American people and the presidential candidates kept their cool at the most crucial of moments and democracy prevailed.
This serves as a painful reminder of the night more than seven months ago when, immediately after the vote for the presidential race was announced, Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman and presidential candidate Lien Chan (連戰) and his running mate, People's First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), not only refused to concede defeat but also accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of cheating and tampering with ballots, before filing an unprecedented lawsuit to overturn the result -- without substantial evidence to back their accusations. When asked about the resemblance between the situations faced by Kerry and Lien, Soong said yesterday that "so long as the truth is not out, there can be no mutual trust in society and there will always be polarization."
The problem with the pan-blue camp is that it is so blinded by its biases that "truth" has no value. But the truth of the matter is plain and simple -- they lost. The inability of the pan-blue camp to face up to this difficult reality took on greater meaning when, before the verdict had even been handed down, Lien said that Chen was a fraud and that aggrieved people were entitled to kill him. Other KMT members also accused the court of being unfair -- even though the court had said nothing! With this kind of behavior on show, it was already clear the pan-blue camp was never going to accept the verdict of the court. An appeal is pending.
If the KMT wishes to waste more of its ill-gotten assets on financing this frivolous lawsuit, then that's its business. However, there is cause for concern as to how pan-blue supporters will react to this verdict. In view of the irrational behavior of many of these supporters, for which we have only the inflammatory language of pan-blue politicians to thank, it is a justifiable concern. At times like this, one can only entreat these supporters to respect the judiciary and basic democratic values and refrain from further destructive behavior.
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
RSS