Rights must be protected
When the mostly pan-blue allied Red Shirts protested last year, they were given the right to express their opinions without police suppression. There was no violence because the police gave the Red Shirts a chance to vent their grievances. Compare that to the police’s suppression of the pan-green camp’s right to express its opinion of a quasi-official visitor who somehow is able to create a magic bubble around himself in Taiwan where the Republic of China (ROC) sovereignty and Constitution as well as the human rights guaranteed by the Constitution need not apply. By suppressing the right of protesters to express their opinions, suppressed anger turned into violence.
The double standard doesn’t end there. For the past couple of months, I always walked by a group of ROC flags placed near the headquarters of the Hsinchu Science Park. One day last month the flags were cut down by a vandal. They were immediately replaced the next day. The day Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yulin (陳雲林) visited the Science Park, the flags were uprooted, but replaced the following day.
Somehow it seems that the government applies selective defense of the sovereignty of the ROC and is willing to surrender this sovereignty when there are moneymaking opportunities.
And then it seems that not all corruption cases are equal before the law. Somehow people of a certain political color get away with their corruption, while people of another political color do not.
While I do not agree with the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) concept of Taiwanese identity and am certainly disgusted by corruption within the DPP, I am even more disgusted by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) blatant double-standard and arrogance.
Even though the DPP has been uncomfortable with the concept of the ROC, it at least defended the sovereignty of the republic by observing Chapter I, Article 2 of the Constitution: “The sovereignty of the Republic of China shall reside in the whole body of citizens.”
The KMT has allowed this sovereignty to be violated by preventing the people from exercising their rights derived from this sovereignty despite the KMT’s empty cries of “Long Live the Republic of China.”
Allen Timothy Chang
Hsinchu
We haven’t seen so many excited greens out in the streets with this much energy since late 1999.
I was wondering when and how the Taiwanese were going to finally respond to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) experiment in acquiescence. These past few days are a welcome sign that everyone is not still asleep or dead. Show those Commie bastards what democracy is all about! You’ve run one Chicom out of town early with his tail between his legs.
We’ve seen people being detained for displaying the national flag, police brown shirts violently attacking college-aged girls with their shields and city council members being treated in the hospital. Surge and counter surge of police lines and demonstrators.
These images are on the news constantly now, and this affects the entire society in myriad of ways, many troubling ways sometimes. A politically excited spittle-spraying fanatic of any ilk is an ugly sight.
So what now? It is time for the DPP to take the lead. Now that Chen has gone home with his horse paintings and crystal mementos, then the party needs to get off the streets and show us how a real opposition party works. All the KMT knew to do was have their spittle-spraying fanatics camp on the streets downtown for months. That’s as far as their ideas went. That’s about the only thing they could think of to do.
We expect much, much more from the DPP. DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), this energy must be put to good use in constructive ways. We need some creative ideas and a new way forward.
The US is also searching for a new path into the future. Their people have spoken. Now the hard part begins.
There is a long road ahead for Taiwan’s struggle to be free, and it is going to be anything but smooth. But the whole world’s watching now.
Daniel Chamberlin
Muzha
I like many other foreigners I know, fully support Taiwan and the right of its people to self-determination. I am saddened by a person who has no balls to call himself the president of Taiwan, then has the nerve to look his fellow countrymen in the eyes and ask to be called the president. A hypocrite to the word and liar to the letter.
Any other country where the police on the orders of the government harass people from showing the flag is not only disgraceful, shameful but surely would result in a revolution. No police state can suppress the spirit of the people unless they throw everyone in jail.
Let’s not forget the silent and tacit support of the KMT to its supporters, who took to the streets unlawfully and violently after losing several elections. Now the KMT are trying to preach the gospel when they don’t have a leg to stand on.
Almost 6 million people did not vote for the KMT. It is not the KMT’s country and no they don’t have a mandate to speak for all. People of Taiwan it is your right and responsibility to protect your freedom. Money should not be the only priority in your life. Do not take for granted the privileges you have.
Long live Taiwan! Long Live the people! Long live the spirit of all who choose to live and work here!
ROGERIO CRISTOVAO
Taichung City
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