Former Presidential Office secretary-general Su Tseng-chang (
Perhaps Lien just didn't want to be reminded about his own job. Although he has repeatedly claimed he will step down when his term as chairman expires in August, he has remained tight-lipped about a transition of power.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
After Su assumed the DPP leadership, he said he would rely on action and interaction to maintain the DPP's position as a party able to touch the hearts of the people. "Action" is not something the DPP has ever lacked. The biggest obstacle to the DPP retaining that position is the different roles that parties in government and in opposition are expected to play.
While in opposition, the DPP sympathized with the poor and pushed for democracy. When looking at the DPP's development, it is hard to forget the many magazines established in the 1980s by Kang Ning-hsiang (
The DPP's firm support for and love of Taiwan were closely connected to environmentalism, and the workers' and farmers' movements, including efforts to inspire a greater cultural consciousness among indigenous peoples as part of the localization movement. It spoke for minority groups. Its members carried out forceful protests despite the risk of being sent to prison.
Obviously, it is not in the nature of environmental interests, labor groups and groups for the disadvantaged to be led by a ruling party, but at the same time, a ruling party must not sacrifice the interests of the people by compromising with established interests. Pushing for direct links amounts to toadying to capitalists intent on exploiting the China market, and risks the future of this nation's workers. If the DPP aims to please the capitalists and forgets its obligations to its grassroots supporters, then it is clearly a party that has been corrupted and lost its way.
If the DPP wants to touch the hearts of the people, then it must rekindle the flame of idealism, so that this flame can light the way for a new generation of intellectuals. Compromise may be politically expedient in the short term, but it could cause supporters to desert. The suggestion that the KMT move its headquarters south is not new, but it is something that the DPP could learn from. The south is the center of agricultural production and traditional industries, the core of the workers' and farmers' movements, and therefore also the fount of Taiwan consciousness.
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
Liberals have wasted no time in pointing to Karol Nawrocki’s lack of qualifications for his new job as president of Poland. He has never previously held political office. He won by the narrowest of margins, with 50.9 percent of the vote. However, Nawrocki possesses the one qualification that many national populists value above all other: a taste for physical strength laced with violence. Nawrocki is a former boxer who still likes to go a few rounds. He is also such an enthusiastic soccer supporter that he reportedly got the logos of his two favorite teams — Chelsea and Lechia Gdansk —
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
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