Although "flattering" certainly wouldn't be the best characterization of former president Lee Teng-hui's (
Fueling Lee's anger is alleged corruption within the DPP government, which, with 10 ministers arrested on graft charges in the past eight years, has reached a level unequaled by any other country, he says.
Deplorable though the situation is -- and Lee as well as every Taiwanese have every reason to be outraged -- it is not as isolated as it seems, nor has the DPP been any worse than many other governments in that regard.
In fact, the region as a whole, with perhaps China in the lead, has long been plagued by corrupt officials whose shenanigans have reached proportions undreamed of in Taiwan. Nor is that phenomenon limited to Asia, as the Enron scandal, which ran tentacles deep inside the White House, or the sponsorship case in Canada, which forced the Liberal Party out of power, have shown.
Greed and corruption, sadly, are part of human nature. Lee himself recognized this when he wrote in his memoirs The Road to Democracy: "Even in advanced industrial nations, [problems] derive, on the one hand, from people's uncontrolled desires and greed, and on the other, from their stubborn rejection of the constraints of society."
As such, unless we invent a way to fundamentally alter this darker side of humanity, greed will continue to thrive in our midst.
What matters is that systems of accountability are in place that deal with these robber barons. The fact that 10 ministers have been arrested in less than eight years is proof that the system, though imperfect, is working.
One reason why such numbers were not reported when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in power is that the party, with its authoritarian baggage, stood above accountability. And in light of how it has responded to requests that it return its stolen assets to the state, there is every reason to believe the KMT has retained that old reflex and would continue to do so should it regain power.
As with almost every democratic election in the modern world, voters in March will be handed the difficult task of choosing the lesser of two evils.
One, the DPP, is troubled by allegations of corruption, but it has made progress in its short time in power implementing a system of laws from which its own officials are not -- and should not be -- exempt.
The other, the KMT, is certainly no less corrupt, but it continues to show contempt and disregard for the law -- so much so, in fact, that it fetes as "national heroes" members in its ranks who have served jail time for criminal activity.
Sad though it is to see Lee use such language against a party whose raison d'etre it is to give Taiwan its proper place among the community of nations -- a goal, shared by Lee, that led to his ouster from the KMT -- his remarks were predictable encouragement for voters to support the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU).
In an electoral campaign marked by an absence of constructive proposals, Lee seemed to be giving the TSU a campaign weapon to advertise itself not only as a viable option on the legislator-at-large ticket, but also as a party that can clean up corruption.
But the corrupt officials are members of the executive, not the legislature. Which leaves one question for Lee: Who should voters support in the presidential election?
An outrageous dismissal of the exemplary Taiwanese fight against COVID-19 has been perpetrated by the EU. There is no excuse. I presume that everyone who reads the Taipei Times knows that the EU has excluded Taiwan from its so-called “safe list,” which permits citizens unhindered travel to and from the countries of the EU. As the EU does not feel that it needs to explain the character of this exclusive list, perhaps we should examine it ourselves in some detail. There are 14 nations on the list that have been chosen as safe countries of origin and safe countries of destination for
Filmmakers in Taiwan used to struggle when it came to telling a story that could resonate internationally. Things started to change when the 2017 drama series The Teenage Psychic (通靈少女), a collaboration between HBO Asia and Taiwanese Public Television Service (PTS), became a huge hit not just locally, but also internationally. The coming-of-age story was adapted from the 2013 PTS-produced short film The Busy Young Psychic (神算). Entirely filmed in Taiwan, the Mandarin-language series even made it on HBO’s streaming platforms in the US. It is proof that a well-told Taiwanese story can absolutely win the hearts and minds of hard-to-please
Drugged with sedatives, handcuffed and wearing a bright orange prison tunic, British fraud investigator and former journalist Peter Humphrey was escorted by warders into an interrogation room filled with reporters, locked inside a steel cage and fastened to a metal “tiger chair.” Humphrey recalls: “I was completely surrounded by officers, dazed, manacled and with cameras pointing at me through the bars. I was fighting for my life like a caged animal. It was horrifying.” Footage from the interrogation was later artfully edited to give the appearance of a confession and broadcast on Chinese state media. While this might sound like an
The US House of Representatives on July 1 passed by unanimous consent a bipartisan bill that would penalize Chinese officials who implement Beijing’s new national security legislation in Hong Kong, as well as banks that do business with them. The following day, the US Senate unanimously passed the bill, which was later sent to the White House, where it awaits US President Donald Trump’s signature. The bill does not spell out what the sanctions would look like and Trump has yet to sign it into law, but Reuters on Thursday last week reported that five major Chinese state lenders are considering
RSS