It needs to be made clear at the outset that I believe that President Chen Shui-bian (
By remaining president and continuing to represent Taiwan when receiving foreign guests, he repeatedly shames the nation. If Taiwan's political system protects his presidency, it will humiliate Taiwan.
If the Taiwanese people have to continue to put up with Chen due to the confrontation between the pan-green and pan-blue camps, it is because they are helpless, but that doesn't make it less of a humiliation.
The reason the ongoing drive to force Chen out of office keeps failing is -- in addition to the stand off between the pan-blue and pan-green camps -- that the Election and Recall Law (選罷法) requires the approval of two-thirds of all legislators for a presidential recall to be passed.
The pan-blue camp is backing itself into a corner and seems to have reached its wits' end as the green camp has countered every single one of its attempts. It is now forced to fall back on its speciality -- public demonstrations -- to unseat Chen. This is a tragedy.
The problem is that Chen is not going to be the only unpopular president. If this time one million people are mobilized to unseat Chen, then may be another million people will take to the streets to oust Annette Lu (
Taiwanese have had enough of mass protests. Politicians always crave benefits, power and prestige. Neither the governing party nor opposition may understand the importance to the public of a good political system, but at least they could cut down on the number of street protests.
When former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) and his followers take to the streets, I urge them to appeal for the revision of the Election and Recall Law lowering the threshold for approval from two-thirds to one half of the legislature and return power to the people by letting them decide in a referendum if they want to keep Chen.
There is no conflict of interest between middle and working-class people, for both groups need to live and work in peace.
There is, however, a conflicts of interest between politician and the public, and power should be returned to the public. If the people taking to the streets could help establish a reasonable system, they would earn the gratitude of the Taiwanese public as a whole.
I really don't want to think about what might happen when Lu succeeds Chen as president and pursues her agenda for Taiwan independence.
Unable to recall her due to the high legislative threshold, supporters and opponents of Lu will take to the streets. I'm sure there will be a million people from each side.
Nor do I want to think about what might happen if Ma, if elected president in 2008, proposes a cross-strait peace framework humiliating to Taiwan, and the pan-green camp fails to pass a recall motion due to the high threshold.
By then there will probably be 4 million people marching in the streets.
I'm calling for a national referendum so that the public can make the final call. If in the end the Taiwanese people decide to let Chen remain in his post, so be it.
This is, after all, a democracy -- ?power rests with the people.
Li Ching-lieh is an associate professor in the electrical engineering department at Tamkang University.
Translated by Daniel Cheng
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and