Beyond a lawyer's word games on what is and isn't constitutional -- or what constitutes presidential "deep introspection" -- Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
His rhetoric on a recall of the president is torn between playing up to deep blue voters and playing down the prospects of a recall being successful. When Ma said a recall push could only proceed with his blessing if 30 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators joined the campaign, he was effectively saying that there was not the slightest hope of it being successful, and that he would not sign on. There are compelling reasons why.
Little noticed is the fact that the most vocal of pan-blue recall campaigners are those in most need of salvation from the redistribution of electoral boundaries and introduction of single-member electorates. These include the ever-dwindling People First Party legislators and hardline or other KMT legislators distant from Ma. Ma stands to increase his power within the KMT courtesy of this electoral system, which favors mainstream candidates and will throw political freaks out on their ears.
It is these fringe elements whose voices must stay shrill and aggressive as they struggle to build a portfolio of controversy and visibility. A halved legislature, however, should better balance Ma's reformers against the old guard. If the KMT submits only one candidate per district -- as it should to avoid a split vote -- that candidate must appeal to the broad pan-blue vote that swept Ma to the chairmanship.
Destabilizing the nation by buying into the recall campaign lends nothing to Ma's ambitions, especially if it means helping the last-gasp ambitions of perennial irritants former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
And if Chen is indeed a lame duck, why would Ma want to remove such a dependable object of scorn and replace him with an uncertain opponent in the lead-up to the presidential election? There are also the uncertain consequences for Ma if a precedent is set in which a president steps down merely for (in the words of the PFP) "ethical" and "political" reasons, surely one of the funniest demands of the year so far.
For now, Ma must appease the anti-democrats that dominate the KMT hierarchy with attacks on the Chen government that do not too obviously injure the structure he intends to inherit -- and which he would then be obliged to defend. The KMT has been molesting the reputation of the judiciary, the legislative process and the basic functions of the executive for so long now that even the Great Jogger must be concerned at what damage this will inflict upon his would-be administration. A healing process is needed, but first Ma must keep the knife buried inside this government to aid his election. Luckily for him, the DPP seems addicted to the sensation of being stabbed -- by others and by itself.
But there's one other problem. Ma's KMT rival, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
With Wang now looking for a more circuitous route to power, the last thing that Ma needs is for the office of the president to be destabilized even further just as he is preparing to assume it. What Ma really needs is his own people in the next legislature.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
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