Yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen's willingness to overturn the election results, while painful, is a display of broadmindedness. If the pan-blue camp accepts his proposal, a second reading of the amendment could be passed next Tuesday. The amended law could then be promulgated by Chen on Wednesday, allowing the recount to go ahead on Thursday.
Unbelievably, the pan-blue camp not only refused to accept the proposal, it accused the pan-green camp of procrastination. Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Understandably, this demand angered the pan-green camp. Following a meeting of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Central Committee on Tuesday, DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (
Cabinet Spokesperson Lin Chia-lung (
The Ketagalan Boulevard protest mobilized by the Lien-Soong alliance is a matter of local, not national, unrest. It is also losing legitimacy as the DPP calls upon its supporters to treat it as an ordinary demonstration and Chen expresses his goodwill toward his opponents. Without further provocation, the crowd will eventually calm down.
Declaring a state of emergency is similar to martial-law rule, a situation the KMT is very familiar with, given it ruled Taiwan for decades under such a law. There is reason to believe that Lien and Soong intend to return the country to the martial-law period by seeking to incite the pan-blue demonstrators and escalate their protests against the government.
In a state of emergency, county commissioners and city mayors have the power to suppress or disperse crowds. In view of the post-election efforts to intensify ethnic divisions, if local leaders were to order the police to take tough measures to dispel crowds, the level of anger and strife would certainly intensify. The majority of the mayors and commissioners are pan-blue members. If pan-blue supporters continue their protests, no one could guarantee that pan-green supporters will not eventually be provoked into a counter-attack. If local governments then ordered a crackdown, the DPP would fall into the trap set by the pan-blue camp.
As long as the confrontation does not subside, Lien and Soong can avoid taking responsibility for their election defeat and avoid internal criticism. Their plan to use the demonstrations to secure power is apparent in the conclusion reached at yesterday's KMT Central Standing Committee meeting. A party chairman who lost two elections would normally step down to allow a new leadership to carry out party reform. But yesterday the committee passed a resolution confirming Lien's leadership. One could almost admire the survivor instinct that has not only enabled Lien to remain at the helm of the KMT but has even seen his power consolidated.
One could admire it, if not for the realization that both Lien and Soong appear willing to sacrifice this nation's stability and international image for the sake of their own vanity and political ambitions.
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