There needs to be an amendment of the ROC Constitution in order to clearly define the checks and balances between the branches of government and thereby prevent any one branch from being more powerful than the others.
The non-partisan Control Yuan should be the only branch with the right to impeach or recall any official, including the president. Giving the Legislative Yuan the right to remove high officials at its political whim only causes the daily operation of government to be paralyzed. The Legislative Yuan has other more important concerns, like passing the budget or passing laws that improve the rights of the people. If a political party does not like the way one or other branch of government is controlled by another party, then it should make its case during the next legislative or presidential elections.
I also strongly believe that the Legislative Yuan should have elections every two years for 50 percent of its members for a four-year term. This allows political parties to be more accountable to the people.
Allen T. Chang
Berkeley, California
Allies, not spies
National Security Bureau (NSB, 國安局) deputy director, Han Kun, has stated that there are approximately 426,000 foreign nationals in Taiwan and that, "Quite a few are engaged in gathering information on Taiwan" ("NSB warns against spies, Oct. 26, page 3). According to Han, the main interests of these spies are: local politics, cross-strait relations, the nuclear power plant controversy and the stock market. Well, I guess that makes me a potential spy too!
Granted, we all know China has an interest in spying on Taiwan, but Han's report smells like revisionist McCarthyism, or at least, a witchhunt in the making. Han believes these spies work under the guise of "missionaries, students, language teachers and travelers ... and have a strong desire to know more and more about Taiwan, including the people and the government."
OK, let's assume a few legitimate spies really do infiltrate the ranks of these categories of people. How will the NSB go about shaking these spies out of their closet? Han admits that some government officials sometimes spill the political beans when entertaining foreign friends, but in those particular instances, whose fault is it? What would the government do if one of its members accidentally mentioned to a foreign guest a highly sensitive issue? Detain the guest on some trumped up charges, or make him disappear, never to be seen again?
I believe I have a better way to deal with spies. In the future, the NSB could use all of the future potential spies (foreigners) as allies.
Few people in the world are fully aware of the nature of the Taiwan-China situation. If the Board of Tourism (via the NSB) were to give every foreigner entering the country a pamphlet stating Taiwan's position -- that it is democratic and peace-loving -- foreigners could talk more about Taiwan with a sense of ease, rather than a sense of foreboding. Foreigners would begin to feel "in the know" about the political and social issues in Taiwan and less fearful of an "Asian" culture.
Taiwan owes itself this much: to inform the average citizen of the world that Taiwan is, indeed, a free and democratic society. Hopefully, in the near future, the NSB will not name hundreds of thousands of people as potential spies, but rather as allies.
Kevin R. Larson
Tainan
Ill-timed gesture
I am writing to express my disapproval of Vice President Annette Lu's visits to Su Chien-ho's (蘇建和) house and to the family of the victims in the Hsichih Trio case yesterday, one day before the retrial of Hsichih Trio.
Though it may be interpretated as a guesture to comfort the two families that lost their loved ones, to which I have no opposition whatsoever, it is the timing of the visits that may have an adverse impact on people's faith in the fairness and impartiality of the retrial today.
The visits seem understandable as Lu's personal experiences in the past has made her one of the most persistent advocates for human rights in Taiwan. However, as vice president, her visits shortly before the retrial did nothing to address the human rights problems in Taiwan, but will only add fuel to the already over-politicalized case.
Ashley Wu
Taipei
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