There is much talk of "labor brokers" in both the English and Chinese-language media recently in connection with the Kaohsiung MRT scandal. I prefer the more accurate term "slave traders."
If we were to use this term, we could at least get ourselves past some major hurdles in analyzing the authenticity of Taiwan's commitment to liberal-democratic ideals -- by examining its conduct toward non-Taiwanese citizens. Central to liberal-democratic ideals are the notions of human rights, which transcend racial and national divisions. The existence of the slave trade -- or, as the euphemism calls it, "labor brokerage" -- fatally compromises Taiwan's claims to sovereignty.
Aside from the very obvious problems of sex slavery, as detailed in consecutive US State Department human rights reports, Taiwan's attitude toward immigrant workers -- from Filipina maids at the bottom of the scale to English teachers supposedly at the top -- suggests that the sovereignty apparently legitimized by its commitment to liberal-democratic ideals is, perhaps, less intact than it should be.
The confiscation of passports, imposition of involuntary deductions from wages and extension of working hours without overtime pay contravenes international human rights standards on working conditions. To this, I would add -- and from a fairly legitimate legal and social justice perspective -- that it also contravenes international standards on the trafficking of persons.
Employees being forced to pay vast sums of money to slave owners for the privilege of working, and being left with very little from a monthly paycheck, is nothing short of indentured servitude. Indentured servitude, of course, is simply a polite word for slavery.
Though high-profile riots may be isolated incidents, the dirty, dangerous and inhuman conditions which many of Taiwan's laborers have to endure are obviously not. Further, they are a gross offense to basic human dignity.
Denying immigrant laborers the rights enjoyed by citizens is fundamentally at odds with Taiwan's supposed commitment to liberal-democratic frameworks, although supposedly "mature" democratic nation-states such as the US and the UK are equally guilty of practicing segregationist policies against economic migrants.
In fact -- as we have seen in the recent riots in France -- simply conferring citizenship on people who are clearly still viewed as outsiders presents the same problems. An ID card may allow one to transcend borders freely. It doesn't make you rich.
However, the implication of high-ranking Taiwanese government officials directly benefiting financially -- and even soliciting such benefits -- from the whole process of bringing in slave labor is nothing but corrupt profiteering. When this is done to save money on employing local labor, it is a damning indictment of the way the Taiwanese leadership sees both non-Taiwanese economic migrants and also jobless Taiwanese. The question, therefore, is a class issue: People are viewed as possessions to be traded and exploited without fear of repercussions, as chattel in a pseudo-feudal system.
This benefits everyone in Taiwan's ruling elite, regardless of political affiliation. To put it simply, it exploits an impasse in the international community. Taiwan aspires to be "vaguely" sovereign. That is, when sovereignty is convenient, such as in access to the World Health Organization or the WTO, Taiwan oozes sovereignty. Yet, when sovereignty would compromise high-level collusion by abrogating international standards and trafficking and exploiting people, Taiwan calls "foul."
Based on the evidence, Taiwan's liberal-democratic ideals have evolved little since martial law was lifted.
With China's economic power threatening to gobble up Taiwan, these ideals have, in Taiwan's internal politics and its diplomatic relations, been reduced to an internecine, corrupt and often risible set of alliances that can only lag doggedly behind international standards -- as long, of course, as it is convenient.
Taiwan has much to offer the global community aside from plasma TVs and the promise of a potentially nasty, short and brutal career as an immigrant laborer. But while poor or foreign (or, better still, poor and foreign) people remain marginalized within Taiwanese society, the claim to national determination appears incredibly weak, if not overtly cynical.
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