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.
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
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