Senior Presidential Adviser Koo Kwang-min (
The elections have even been portrayed as a confidence vote in the president and the prelude to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
Taiwan has been holding democratic elections for decades. The form of these elections may have changed, but there have been no major changes in election culture -- vote-buying and mudslinging still rule the day. The government's rapid and forceful crackdown on vote-buying has not rooted out the practice, but only forced it further underground, making those involved ever more sneaky. The mudslinging war waged by politicians and the media has become the focus of the Dec. 3 elections.
On the surface, the pan-blue camp is still hell-bent on exposing government scandals and claims of corruption. In response, President Chen Shui-bian (
This mudslinging has blurred the focus of the elections and made middle-of-the-road voters reluctant to vote, which may result in a low overall turnout. This is simply a repeat of what happened during the last National Assembly elections, when middle-of-the-road voters did not show up because of the pan-green and pan-blue camps' ideological warring. Such fighting is diametrically opposed to what middle-of-the-road voters expect. The exposure of scandals and smear tactics has no impact on die-hard loyalists, but is rather a catalyst for stronger animosity. More animosity and irrational behavior will only strengthen the political fanaticism of diehard loyalists. We have already seen how the poet Tu shi-san (
Mudslinging is off-putting to most of us. If we do not get the election campaign back on track and make candidates tell us where the real beef is, too many voters will regularly refuse to vote.
The election is, after all, about choosing the wisest and the most capable candidate. Mudslinging is no way to prove superiority. The only result will be that people lose interest in the election.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry