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Editorial: Naysayers ignore Chen's success

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) returned from his nine-day trip to Latin American on Friday. This trip will be remembered as one filled with surprises and wild guesses about the president's transit stops. The most dramatic surprise of all was, of course, the last-minute eight-hour stopover in Libya on his way back to Taiwan. Leaving all other issues aside -- including the propriety and the controversies of visiting Libya -- the trip perfectly demonstrated a fundamental characteristic of Chen as a politician: He is someone who will not give up and succumb to pressure under any circumstances.

The shouts of disapproval within Taiwan -- mostly from the pan-blue camp -- regarding the stopover in Libya have two main themes. First, since Libya is a country that is well-known for its past association with terrorist activities and Taiwan is a democratic country that places a high premium on respect for human rights, there is concern about damage to Taiwan's international image. And second, there is a fear that the stopover may upset the US, since Libya continues to be on the US' terrorist blacklist.

Chen's decision to go ahead with the stopover in Libya, and the possibility of building closer ties with that country, was obviously based on pragmatic, strategic and self-interest considerations alone. So far, Taiwan's "good image" has not helped the nation win formal diplomatic recognition from foreign nations and respect within the international community. There are, of course, inherent risks associated with allowing Taiwan's image to become degraded. This needs to be balanced against Libya's strategic importance as a springboard into North Africa and the abundant oil resources of the country.

Furthermore, it isn't as though Taiwan has no experience in courting friendships with countries trapped in controversies. When South Africa faced diplomatic isolation due to its apartheid system, Taiwan was one of the country's few formal allies. Of course, as soon as South Africa regained a position in the international community after it abandoned apartheid, it severed formal diplomatic ties with the nation. That is the sad reality of international politics, but it also highlights Taiwan's plight and the good sense of Chen's stopover diplomacy.

The truth is that moral and ethical considerations do not weigh heavily in the decision of most countries when they embrace "one China" and sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. One cannot help but ask: Is it such a crime for Taiwan, in the face of severe international isolation, to give self-interest top priority? As former French president Charles de Gaulle once said, "Nations don't have friends, they have interests."

As for concerns about upsetting the US, that has proven to be a non-issue. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Thursday that the relationship between his country and Libya has changed over the past few years, after Libya gave up its program to develop weapons of mass destruction. So, it is up to Taiwan and Libya whether they want to develop their bilateral relationship. The US has no qualms about the matter.

The joke is that pan-blue lawmakers are usually the first ones to jump up and accuse the Chen government of "kissing up" to the US. Their anti-US sentiment has kept the arms procurement bill tied up in the Legislative Yuan for two years now. Since when have they been concerned about how the US feels about anything?
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