Taiwan's security must be foremost

During the last meeting of the legislature's Procedure Committee, the legislative caucuses of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) again forcefully blocked the placement of the arms procurement budget and nominations of Control Yuan members on the deliberation and review agenda. As a result, these two bills, the focus of much public attention in Taiwan, were again kept from being included on the list of topics to be deliberated on the legislative floor, causing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to withdraw from the meeting in protest.

The balance between the military powers on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is rapidly tipping toward China, as that country increases its missile deployment against Taiwan. The need for Taiwan to strengthen its self-defense capabilities can wait no longer. However, the budget for the arms procurement was blocked again for the 24th time by the pan-blue camp and therefore deprived of even the opportunity to be reviewed and deliberated in the Legislative Yuan.

Obviously, some reasons cited by the pan-blues for blocking the bill are superficial at most. The real problem more than likely rests with the divided national identification and the pan-blue camp's resentment of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) -- which, taken together, caused the pan-blues to disregard national security and continue down the wrong path.

After the election of the National Assembly members, the DPP had an internal debate over the party's direction. The concept of "reconciliation for co-existence" proposed by Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) was the target of much criticism. The Taiwan-consciousness path won the approval of the majority within the party. However, those advocates of reconciliation continue to think wishfully about the potential of successfully working out their differences with the pan-blue opposition and insisting on the path of reconciliation.

Frankly under normal circumstances, the idea of reconciliation not only should not become the target of scrutiny and critique, but in fact should be positively recognized. However, politics are a highly realistic art. Roles and scripts staged in the political forum reflect the highly complicated characteristics of human nature and conflicts between ideals and reality. Therefore, the implementation of reconciliation in Taiwan's political forum requires consideration about the practical difficulties.

In other words, the differences between the pan-blue and pan-green camps over national identification must be recognized. From the pan-blues' viewpoint, this difference is no longer an internal contradiction within a country but a clash between enemies. Therefore, on topics that touch upon national identification and ideologies, they would rather sing in chorus with China from this side of the Taiwan Strait than resolve their differences and shake hands to make peace with the Chen government.

If anyone within the ruling party continues to hold a shred of illusion about reconciliation, it is about time to wake up and smell the coffee over what had again transpired in the Legislative Yuan's procedure committee.

It is no exaggeration to say that the pan-blue camp sees the rivalry with the pan-greens as confrontations with the enemy. The fact that the budget for arms procurement has been blocked repeatedly is pretty much self-explanatory.

First, while reports appraising the military strengths of the two sides of the Strait may otherwise differ in substantive content or underlying standpoints, one conclusion has been uniformly reached -- that is, if Taiwan does not strengthen its military capabilities, such as by acquiring arms included in the arms-procurement plan in question, then Taiwan's advantage in military strength will be gone within a few years. In contrast with the annual decrease in the percentage of GNP dedicated to Taiwan's military defense budget, the Chinese national defense budget has been increasing by two-digit percentage points each year, strengthening its ability to strike at Taiwan by the year.

After China enacted the "Anti-Secession" Law, making explicit its intention to deal with Taiwan in a non-peaceful manner, Japan and the EU began to feel alarmed by the rising threats posed by China to peace and order throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

However, it is puzzling why, at a time when the international community is seriously worrying about Taiwan's safety, when the US and Japan are strengthening their military alliance and now include the security of the Taiwan Strait in their common strategic goals, and when the majority of EU countries strongly oppose the lifting of the union's arms embargo against China, the pan-blue camp continues to block reviewing of the budget for arms procurement.

What total disregard of the security of the 23 million people in Taiwan. The absurdity is this -- the pan-blue camp claims that what it opposes is "wasteful spending," paying for the purchase through a special budget as well as certain items to be purchased, rather than arms purchases per se. KMT spokesperson Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) even stressed that the KMT has "two musts" -- arms procurement being the "first must" and price reduction the second.

However, it is precisely because of the divergent views between the ruling and opposition camps that there is a real need to submit the budget for legislative review and deliberation, so that the opinions and viewpoints of all the parties and groups can be fully communicated and expressed.

In particular, the three major items of arms to be purchased were proposed during the era of the KMT's reign. At the time, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) was the premier and after him, Vincent Siew (蕭萬長). At the time, Taiwan wanted to buy these advanced weapons from the US but was refused. Now, finally, the US had agreed to the nation's requests, yet the pan-blue camp is deliberately making things difficult and takes on a completely different attitude just because it is no longer in power.

Lien PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) paid a visit to China, respectively, helping China to create the illusion of peace. Their behavior has not only helped China relieve mounting international pressure but also deluded the international community. After Lien and Soong dined and wined with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and returned to Taiwan, they continued to block the arms-purchase budget. Is it because the pan blues are naive enough to believe that their visits to China were enough to ensure peace? Or perhaps that there is something going on between the other side of the Taiwan Strait and the pan-blue camp that cannot be made public? This is indeed worth pondering.

Actually, in the communiques issued and talks held between Hu and the two chairmen, there may seem to be a lot of so-called "consensuses" as well as "flowery talk" all over the place. However, China went on to oppose Taiwan's observer status in the World Health Assembly. Everything tells us that the so-called agreements reached between the pan-blues and China are nothing but lies and empty talk.

The people of Taiwan most definitely should not underestimate the situation or do any wishful thinking about the unification propaganda wielded by Beijing to cosy up to the opposition leaders of Taiwan. The only way to ensure national security is through strengthening defense capabilities and being prepared for war. The pan-blues should seriously think about the safety of the 23 million people in Taiwan. Do not block the purchase of these arms any longer!