Sun, Mar 30, 2003 page8

• Time has arrived to think for ourselves

  • By Chiu Hei-yuan 瞿海源
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  Recent media reports carried President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) reminder that for decades Taiwan has been under the constant threat of China's military attacks -- such as the 1958 Battle of the Taiwan Strait and the 1996 missile crisis -- and that the nation was fortunate to have the US sending aircraft carriers to maintain security in the Strait. He made the remarks in order to defend the government's pro-US stance on the war on Iraq.

  The United Daily News even quoted Chen as saying that Taiwan was able to keep its sovereignty and dignity from being destroyed solely because Washington sent its aircraft carriers when Beijing threatened us with its missiles before the 1996 presidential election.

  This statement was indeed shocking. According to the above idea, the democratic society that we have worked so hard to build would never exist without US military support, and Taiwan's sovereignty and dignity is backed solely by US military power. If this is really true, then Taiwan's democracy is fragile. The country will hardly be able to hold the next presidential election if Washington does not take any military action once Beijing threatens us by force at that time.

  The legitimacy of this war is obviously insufficient in view of world opinion. Under such circumstances, the government should think and move cautiously before supporting the US military action in Iraq. Taipei must take international justice into account even if it has no choice but to support the US.

  The government should also be careful when voicing support for Washington, in order to highlight the independence and autonomy of this nation. Government officials' comments on the Iraq issue appear to be excessive. They were not only unnecessary, but also reflected unfavorably on Taiwan.

  The nation has relied on the US for a long time, especially for security. It is indeed impossible for the government to oppose the Iraqi war. Indeed, our safety would be seriously threatened without the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).

  But Taiwan is an independent sovereignty. It should never completely rely on the US. Nor should it voice unconditional support for the military action that has violated international justice.

  Chen said that he was surprised that some people do not support the government's current anti-terrorism stance. He posed the question of whether the government should be supporting Iraq if it was not supporting the US and that what good it would do if this country were to talk like China.

  Such words are superfluous. They reveal that Chen's and government decisionmakers' thinking on national security may be flawed. In fact, those who oppose the US-led war do not oppose the government's anti-terrorism stance, not to mention that none of the anti-war activists in Taiwan support Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime. Chen's "dichotomous language" was inappropriate.

  Taiwan can learn much from the US-Iraq war. The ruling and opposition camps should try to understand the war with a rational attitude in order to improve this country's national security strategies.

  Taking a long-term view, the government should construct in-depth political ideologies that uphold human rights and democracy -- so it can lay a solid foundation for national security and its overall policy. It should not take national security or interests as its only concern.

  Given the anti-war sentiments around the world, blind loyalty to the US may damage Taiwan's international image.

  Chiu Hei-yuan is a research fellow in the Institute of Sociology at the Academia Sinica.

  TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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