When a human being's fate is decided by a third party on the basis of a piece of paper -- legal or otherwise -- it is an act of "Slave Trading." It is a practice that has been eradicated by many civilized nations, including -- interestingly enough -- many members of the UN. Now the Taiwanese have rightfully rejected being the subject of such an action, and any civilized nation should support this.
We must not forget what happened before World War II when most nations became numb to Nazi Germany's demands on territorial rights, sitting silently, hoping that the problem would go away. History has taught us that there is a big price for such behavior. We can not stand by as our fate is being decided by the UN.
Being silent on this subject may be construed as approval -- not only for the act of slavery, but also for the extension of the UN secretary-general's authority to interpret what is intended in the resolution without consulting the General Assembly. Indeed, those who forget history will certainly repeat it.
If the UN were to decide -- with or without votes -- that Taiwanese are subjects of any nation in UN Resolution 2758, then what is there to prevent the UN from becoming a tyrant headed by the secretary-general?
Meanwhile, there's no need to blame ourselves, President Chen Shui-bian's (
Rao Kok-sian
Boston, Massachusetts
Public verdict will come
The Taipei Court has just handed down an innocent verdict to former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
The verdict reinforces the belief that even after the 2000 transfer of power to the Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan's courts are still owned by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), run by partisan judges and designed to serve the KMT partisan state. In fact, the verdict statement and its rationale closely resemble the arguments of Ma's lawyers.
During the trial, the judges gave preferential treatment to Ma on many occasions. The pan-blue media sided with Ma and trumpeting his innocence. Even China pitched in for Ma's sake.
The court conveniently neglected a film recorded earlier of Ma's admissions regarding the special mayoral allowance. Ma fumbled and fudged the nature of the allowance publicly. But none of this mattered because a guilty verdict would seriously damage the chance of a comeback of a partisan state.
The KMT and the partisan state system have to win next year's election. The court has now shoveled its decision to people and bulldozed its way through. However, they couldn't care less that this verdict completely destroys the credibility of Taiwan's judicial system.
To many people this is the last straw. This will certainly come back and haunt the KMT and Ma when people finally get their turn to hand down their own verdicts in next year's election.
Yang Ji-charng
Ohio
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