Way back in December 1999, prior to the election of the first Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) government, then Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) wrote a piece in the Taipei Times arguing that direct cross-strait flights were viable and necessary. Companies from Taiwan and China could form a consortium to work a way around the diplomatic impasse, he argued.
It was strong stuff for a DPP legislator at the time, if only because it was pragmatic and realistic.
Shen was also prepared to do something that most DPP hacks would not dare: criticize former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) for her frequently absurd and embarrassing remarks, regardless of the subject.
For this willingness to speak on matters with clarity and intelligence, even when it conflicted with the ideological preferences of his party, Shen attracted a degree of support from voters who were sick and tired of partisan wrangling. His approach after that time was to forge a middle ground and from that space find new solutions.
But in early 2004, Shen began to snipe at his own party, the administration and the first family after a brief but strange disappearance, in the process alienating his colleagues and amusing his opponents — and thus securing the tag of “lone bird.”
Then his political star fell in the most humiliating manner when he failed to gain re-election to the legislature that year. For a man who apparently enjoyed so much support from a pragmatic electorate, the result showed he had lost touch with a functional political base.
It was a terrible blow: He didn’t just lose his seat — he lost his ability to speak for anyone other than himself.
Since then, Shen has been prone to erratic or self-absorbed behavior — but always self-promoting. He has spent endless hours on pro-blue-camp talkshows in an attempt to forge his beloved middle ground, trying to make sense out of cable TV drivel and in the process dignifying some of the nation’s most discredited politicians.
Shen is now back in the limelight with a failed nomination for the vice presidency of the Control Yuan. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) apparently saw in him a middle ground figure who could speak to both sides of the political spectrum, and who possibly made the symbolism of the nomination of hardline Mainlander Wang Chien-shien (王建火宣) to the Control Yuan presidency more palatable.
Shen’s latest rejection — this time at the hands of the legislature — is a sign of how Ma’s would-be agenda of inclusiveness is being disregarded by a legislature under his party’s —not his — control.
For Shen, however, the appropriate feeling is one of pity rather than indignation.
Despite his pragmatism, his sincere attempts to open a dialogue with the KMT, his appeal for inter-party consensus and, crucially, support from the president, he has failed to comprehend the politics of the day. The KMT has laughed in his face and voted him into oblivion.
Shen has been humiliated all over again — by people he had always thought could be his friends.
It is therefore time for him to do what so many promise when things go wrong in politics, yet so few achieve: retire from this seedy profession and, while there is still time, forge a new career in his twilight years that bears some semblance of dignity.
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers
Gogoro Inc was once a rising star and a would-be unicorn in the years prior to its debut on the NASDAQ in 2022, as its environmentally friendly technology and stylish design attracted local young people. The electric scooter and battery swapping services provider is bracing for a major personnel shakeup following the abrupt resignation on Friday of founding chairman Horace Luke (陸學森) as chief executive officer. Luke’s departure indicates that Gogoro is sinking into the trough of unicorn disillusionment, with the company grappling with poor financial performance amid a slowdown in demand at home and setbacks in overseas expansions. About 95