At the invitation of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) delivered a keynote speech yesterday marking International Human Rights Day in Taipei.
In his speech, Ma expressed the wish that the legislature would speedily approve the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to show the importance Taiwan attaches to human rights.
Kudos to Ma for bringing up the issue, which would suggest that he agrees with Article 1 of both covenants, which states: “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
Talk is cheap, however, and so are lofty legislative performances if not backed up by concrete action. Even if the legislature does approve the two UN covenants, they could end up as two more pieces of paper gathering dust if not followed by amendments to various laws in the spirit of the covenants.
If not, the Referendum Law (公民投票法) will remain a “birdcage” law that deprives people from exercising direct democracy, and the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) will remain a terrible piece of legislation that denies the public the right to freely assemble and express their views.
While yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it was also a day of ironies for the Ma administration, even as Ma trumpeted his message on human rights to the audience.
In his speech, Ma said: “The government has worked incessantly to uphold human rights ... Taiwan has also become the freest country in the world for those wishing to assemble or parade.”
In his inauguration speech, Ma also pledged that: “Taiwan’s democracy should not be marred by illegal eavesdropping, arbitrary justice or political interference in the media or electoral institutions.”
Again, irony struck on International Human Rights Day when the Public Television Service (PTS, 公視) alleged that the government was mulling censorship measures.
The ad ran by PTS yesterday in various newspapers said that the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee and the Internal Administration Committee — both KMT controlled — had passed a resolution demanding that all future programs, productions and budgets receive approval from government agencies such as the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Council for Hakka Affairs and the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission.
In view of these events, coupled with lingering discontent over police brutality against protesters during Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit to Taipei last month, maybe the biggest irony of all was Ma being chosen to present this year’s Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award in the first place.
Taiwan’s democracy and high-tech economy play a crucial role in global affairs and are central to the world’s embrace of a raft of next-generation technologies, including AI. It is underpinned by a security relationship with the United States that’s existed in several iterations since 1949 and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) retreat from China. A central pillar of that security relationship is the American willingness to sell arms to Taiwan. Indeed, since 1979 it has been embedded in US law, with the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) charging the US with helping to improve the island’s ability to deter an attack from
When Panama severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognized China in 2017, Beijing achieved one of its most important diplomatic victories in Central America. However, nearly a decade later, Panama is demonstrating that diplomatic recognition does not necessarily eliminate Taiwan from a country’s political system. Panama and Taiwan had diplomatic relations for more than 100 years and the goodwill between the countries was displayed last week when Panama’s National Assembly established an interparliamentary exchange group with the Legislative Yuan. Forty-five of the assembly’s 71 lawmakers joined the group, representing more than 60 percent of the legislature. Its members include National Assembly President Shirley
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Ten years ago, when I was an undergraduate at National Chung Hsing University (NCHU), there was a referendum on whether to remove a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the campus. I wrote to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) urging faculty, staff and students to vote for its removal. Eventually, the statue was removed from the university. Today, I am filled with emotion at seeing students at Soochow University democratically remove their own statue of Chiang, a figure of authoritarian rule, after it was on display for 48 years The timing is noteworthy, with the nine-in-one local elections approaching.
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