Gambling is very much part of Taiwan's culture. People gamble on anything and everything -- outcomes of baseball games, the fluctuations of the stock market and of course the results of elections, including which candidates and parties will win and also the margin of victory.
Under the circumstances, placing bets on the upcoming presidential election has become a feverish and widespread pastime. However, the devastating impact that such gambling activities may have in swaying the outcome of the election cannot be overlooked.
The gravity of the situation is complicated by the fact that, in view of the enormous profitability entailed, almost all dealers in such games are mafia bosses. With enormous financial interests at stake, they often resort to violence, vote-buying and perhaps even cooperation with local politicians in their efforts to sway elections in their favor.
For example, in the Ministry of Justice's crackdown that began on Wednesday, among the 30 members of the mafia arrested was a mafia leader notorious for swaying election results in the Taoyuan area through a gambling racket that took bets that ran to hundreds of millions of NT dollars.
Moreover, people who place bets often do so based on which candidate they think will win -- rather than who is the better person for the presidency, which is the fundamental spirit of voting in popular presidential elections. Betters then become loyal supporters of the candidates they have bet on and seek to influence the people around them. This further twists the basic principles of democratic voting.
Worse yet, a candidate who was trailing in popular support in the 2000 presidential election reportedly tried to change the situation by placing large bets. Although he still lost the election in the end, it would not be surprising if he or another candidate tried to pull the same stunt this year. Doing so would be in essence buying votes indirectly.
According to Minister of Justice Chen Ding-Nan (
The upcoming presidential election is especially attractive to both the dealers and the gamblers because it is an extremely tight race -- with the pan-blue and pan-green tickets each having a 50-50 chance of winning. The unpredictability of the presidential race drastically raises the stakes of the game, attracting the interest of gamblers and dealers.
Reportedly, there was relatively little gambling on the 1996 presidential election because the incumbent president Lee-Teng-hui (
Under the circumstances, we are pleased to know that the ministry has begun a crackdown, paying special attention to illegal gambling on the outcome of the presidential election. Moreover, the people of Taiwan should exercise self-restraint and not demean their hard-earned democracy by taking part in this kind of gambling.
Allow democracy to work without interference.
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.
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past