After spending the past few weeks preoccupied with a campaign to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that was a complete waste of time and resources, the Legislative Yuan finally decided to get down and do some real work.
On Friday, the last day of the special legislative session and the last chance for legislators to prove that they can do such work, lawmakers passed an amendment to the Statute Governing Preferential Treatment for Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (
After the amendment was unanimously approved, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (
Who can forget the emotional plea by pan-blue politicians over the past few weeks demanding Chen's recall because they resented "having to support Chen for the rest of his life"? That piece of vitriol obviously referred to the life-long monthly benefits and subsidies extended to former heads of state -- though now reduced -- that will be made available to Chen after he steps down. The immediate passage of the amendment after efforts to recall Chen failed was obviously a personal attack. The other deliberate target was former president Lee Teng-hui (
Friday's move should make the pan-blues happy and encourage them to take a break, even for just a short time, from the highly confrontational recall campaign. After all, they must be given something because it is obvious they are not going to be left empty-handed. This calculation was surely on the minds of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) when they voted for the amendment.
Another reason for the DPP and the TSU's support was to distance themselves from Chen, who is now a lame-duck president and a highly tarnished political figure with little credibility.
Still, it is saddening to see that the legislative process can be so easily manipulated by factors that are so clearly personal, self-serving, irrational and underhanded. Perhaps the truly troublesome thing about Friday's legislative adventure was not so much the fact that benefits were slashed, but that the original allocations were indeed excessive and needed to be adjusted.
None of the pan-blue lawmakers seem to have considered that the reduced benefits and subsidies may one day be equally applicable to a pan-blue president. After all, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Perhaps this is the biggest problem with Taiwan's politicians: No one seems to consider the interests of the nation as a whole. Ultimately, they will leave a political system to future generations that bears this stamp.
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
RSS