Since March 20, pan-blue groups have been bringing constant complaints about what they call "Bulletgate" to the international community. A pan-blue fringe organization recently sent an e-mail to all members of the US Congress comparing President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to Adolf Hitler. Green-camp legislators have hit back, saying that the blue camp is discrediting Taiwan. The Foundation for the Advancement of Media Excellence (新聞公害防治基金會) has said that another international complaint by a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank, Press Freedom in Taiwan Endangered (陷入險境的台灣新文自由), also promotes falsehoods.
The internationalization of domestic issues in an attempt to get the international community to mediate is a common occurrence. The problem is not that complaints are brought to the international community, but rather that the statements are untrue. In the past, the KMT complained that the tangwai (黨外, outside the party) movement internationalized its complaints, and now the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) complains that the KMT is doing the same thing. Although such a change may be ironic, it is a political reality.
During decades of martial-law rule, the KMT kept a tight grip on the state apparatus. Trying to protect themselves and realize their ideals, could dissidents afford not to take their complaints abroad? If not for US intervention, wouldn't members of the tangwai movement such as Lei Chen (雷震), Bo Yang (柏楊), Li Ao (李敖), Sun Li-jen (孫立人) and Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) have been extinguished? And without international intervention, would Chinese dissidents such as Wang Dan (王丹) and Wei Jingsheng (魏京生) still be alive today?
With increasing globalization, people from every country can air their grievances beyond their nation's borders, in some cases getting the UN to intervene to stop genocide and political repression. International pressure brought an end to racial apartheid in South Africa and stopped the massacres in former Yugoslavia. Without international concern, there would still be violence in East Timor, Iraq would still occupy Kuwait and Taiwan would have been swallowed up by China. Didn't Chen Shui-bian also appeal to the UN press corps to accuse China of suppressing Taiwan?
The method by which a complaint is brought to international attention may not be important, but it is extremely important to establish the facts. If too many of your complaints turn out to be unfounded, they will be very quickly revealed in this information age. And then, just like in the story where a boy cried wolf once too often, no one will believe you later on.
By comparing Chen to Adolf Hitler, the blue camp has violated the facts. Although Taiwan is purchasing arms from the US, these purchases are aimed at self-defense. No foreigner would believe that Chen is another Hitler. Such a negative campaign is a simply stupie, the same thing as shooting oneself in the foot or slapping one's own face.
The blue camp's Bulletgate booklet was not very smart either. How could one unearth the facts without an investigation? Besides, how can such an argument convince people when it contradicts the judgment of the pan-blues' chosen forensic expert, Henry Lee (李昌鈺)?
As for the question of whether press freedom in Taiwan has regressed, a conclusion can hardly be reached since different people have very different feelings about the matter. Nevertheless, the government has never cracked down on press freedom through any political means, and has only demanded that the KMT return its broadcasting licenses because of the KMT-owned monopoly created in the past, when there was no separation between party and state. Such a counterattack by vested interests lacks legitimacy and is immoral. What's more, Reporters Sans Frontieres praised the nation as a model of press freedom in its latest report published this year. What good will it do to wash one's dirty linen abroad anyway? It will only irritate others, and expose our own defects.
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