Recently a group of pro-green academics launched a signature drive demanding President Chen Shui-bian's (
The unambiguous truth of the matter is that what truly threatens Taiwan's democracy is not the corruption scandals surrounding the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which also occur in many other countries and should simply be dealt with in accordance with the law. Rather, the danger is from a scheme orchestrated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to dissolve the pan-green camp and foment chaos in Taiwan in order to destroy the democratic regime led by the DPP.
Democracy means that people have the right to choose. Today, China is using its missiles to prevent the Taiwanese people from choosing their national title, flag and anthem. The KMT uses its massive party assets, the media advantage remaining from the KMT-led dictatorship and its camp's majority in the legislature to do exactly what the CCP is doing -- which is making sure that Taiwan doesn't change its national title or write a new Constitution.
A true idealist works for the public's right to free choice and protects the rule of law and democratic procedure. A true idealist does not take advantage of a political storm to vent his or her individual anger over unevenly divided political spoils.
Over the past few years, the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) have taken it on themselves to decide that the assassination attempt against Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (
Using a signature drive to express a political opinion is acceptable, but these so-called academics are asking that a democratically elected president step down. This reveals a lack of basic political common sense.
Not only that, their behavior also runs counter to the norms of democratic nations. In fact, this pretentious signature drive is taking place on the Internet, so there is no way to verify how many people have actually joined. Isn't it preposterous to think that a popularly elected president would step down as a result of such a signature drive? What is the fundamental difference between these academics, who have launched a public campaign to oust the president, and the pan-blue camp -- which tried and failed to recall the president?
Some of those who initiated the signature drive opposed the KMT in the past, but that does not mean that they truly understand democracy. After all, the CCP also opposed the KMT. Those who have been persecuted are not necessarily more right than those who once persecuted them. In his book The Farewell Party, Milan Kundera says that the saddest discovery of his life was that those who have been persecuted are no better than their persecutors, and that he could easily imagine them changing roles.
Cao Changqing is a freelance writer based in the US.
Translated by Daniel Cheng
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
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations