It's time for President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to accept reality. The special arms procurement budget will never pass -- at least, not in anything like its current form. It's time to give up on the special budget tactic, which has left the pan-greens looking ineffectual and incompetent.
However, losing this long, drawn-out battle does not mean that Chen and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have to admit defeat. The pan-blues have already made a grave mistake that will allow the administration to achieve its stated goal and acquire the items it has proclaimed are vital for Taiwan's defense.
The key is to do exactly what some pan-blue legislators have been calling on the administration to do for several months: Include the procurement of the items in the annual defense budget.
And, ironic as it may seem, this can be accomplished in a way that shouldn't be at all distasteful for the administration: by having Chen fulfill his promises.
The president has previously said that he wanted to increase the nation's defense expenditures from the current level of 2.4 percent of GDP to 3 percent.
Pan-blue legislators -- including outspoken and influential members of the Legislative Yuan's National Defense Committee -- have already said that they would agree to such a move. And despite the fact that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) used the "special budget" mechanism to purchase F-16 Falcon fighters from the US and Mirage 2000-5s from France in the 1990s, the pan-blues now repeatedly argue that this mechanism is inappropriate for defense expenditures. They want the items listed in the special budget to be included in the annual budget.
So Chen should agree to this demand.
The math is quite simple. The proposed special arms budget, as it stands now, would require the government to spend NT$480 billion (US$15 billion) over 15 years to purchase three major weapons systems from the US. This translates to a little over US$1 billion a year to purchase eight diesel-electric submarines, three PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile batteries and 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.
Taiwan has budgeted about US$8 billion to spend on defense for Fiscal 2005. If the annual defense budget were increased to 3 percent of GDP -- about US$9.3 billion -- this would mean that the Ministry of National Defense would have an added US$1.3 billion to spend on shiny new toys. Over 15 years, the added amount would total a whopping US$19.5 billion -- US$4.5 billion in excess of the amount requested for the special arms procurement budget.
The best aspect of the "3 percent solution" is that it would allow Chen and the DPP to call the pan-blues' bluff.
Because the truth is that the pan-blues aren't concerned about fiscal responsibility. They simply oppose any policy initiative proposed by the Chen administration because their ideology is based on one thing alone: recovering political power, at any cost.
This is why, even as the country's declared enemy is openly planning an invasion, the pan-blues will not let Chen take the steps necessary to ensure that Taiwan remains a de facto independent, sovereign state.
This is why the pan-blues are ready to surrender to Beijing and sell out this country's hard-earned democracy.
And this is why it is vital for the DPP to find a way to make progress on this issue -- to achieve substantial results and not just score a few political points with pithy sound bites.
So let the pan-blues choke on their own words by giving them an offer they can't refuse; an offer that they are already on record as agreeing to.
Give up on the special arms budget, because that's the only way Taiwan can acquire the items the budget was meant to buy.
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:
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
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 —
RSS