Ma blind to ECFA danger
There is a general rule for the political leaders of this world — self interest.
Without self-interest, negotiations cannot be settled, as both sides must feel they have somehow benefited from interaction with the other side. All over the world, it appears, however, that the public’s desires are considered last, even when a minority of people support a government’s egocentric plans, just as those who voted for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last year — naively, greedily or as a result of manipulation from the media.
People are easily manipulated into believing that they will benefit from these government agendas. US President Barack Obama promised change, just as Ma did with his 6-3-3 agenda. They used attractive campaign slogans to win votes. For those reasons, they both won the presidencies. But why has the approval rate of both leaders dropped so quickly? Obama at least has tried to maintain people’s trust in him, but Ma plays the game inside a closed box with a phone to tell his Cabinet what to do next.
“Anti-war” Obama is now moving the focus away from Iraq toward Pakistan. So the war continues — but on another turf. Similarly, Ma’s “no” promise about unification with China is also crumbling, as have most of the other promises he made.
During an economic crisis, people want governments to do whatever it takes to end the pain. While many developed countries are bailing out those who caused the economic crisis, Ma is using his close relationship with the People’s Republic of China as an excuse to improve Taiwan’s economy by emphasizing the importance of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), whose content remains a mystery.
Should the people fall for it? Will things really improve for Taiwan with this agreement? Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) letter to the Taipei Times (Letters, March 1, page 8) is more convincing than Ma’s repetitive words about why he feels the ECFA is better. Tsai gave more than 10 reasons why an ECFA would have disastrous consequences for Taiwan, while Ma cannot even give half that many reasons as to why it would be beneficial.
ALEX RAYMOND
Niaosong, Kaohsiung County
Prosecute kitten ‘sadist’
If National Taiwan University believes that the student who is suspected of skinning kittens he adopted and throwing them off buildings is responsible, he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law — for the sake of animals and the community as a whole (“University vows to probe abuse, deaths of kittens,” Feb. 25, page 2).
People who think that making animals suffer is “fun” need immediate intervention to prevent their violence from escalating. Animal abusers are cowards who take their issues out on “easy victims” — often including members of their own species. Psychiatrists, criminal profilers and law enforcement officials have repeatedly documented that young people who are cruel to animals often turn that violence against humans. The standard diagnostic and treatment manual for conduct disorders also lists cruelty to animals as a criterion for diagnosis.
People who hurt animals need prison time, counseling and a ban on contact with animals to prevent their sadism from continuing.
JASON BAKER
Hong Kong
228 bias? Think again
I was shocked to learn that a group of so-called “academic historians” has accused the 228 Memorial Foundation of being biased in its interpretation of the 228 Incident (“Academic accuses 228 Foundation of historical bias,” March 1, page 2).
If those historians who are supposed to be experts on Taiwanese history have a non-biased version of the truth, why aren’t they presenting evidence to the public to rebut the so-called biased interpretations agreed upon by academics the world over?
One of the historians even had the nerve to attack former US naval attache George Kerr, claiming that his interpretation of the 228 Incident was the result of Kerr’s support for the independence camp, which sullied the image of the regime of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). What an outlandish accusation!
It is obvious that those so-called expert historians and their diehard KMT cohorts still do not accept the truth, known around the world, that Chiang and former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) terrorized Taiwan for decades and massacred thousands of innocent people who were critical of their rulings.
Taiwanese should be grateful to Kerr, whose eyewitness account of the 228 Incident and the subsequent arrests and execution of Taiwanese is so well presented in his book Formosa Betrayed, which should be required reading for every college student.
In his book, Kerr wrote that a prominent person told him “he had witnessed the notorious ‘Rape of Nanking’ by the Japanese in 1937, but that this [rape of Formosa] surpassed it, for the Nanking Rape was a product of war, a wild outburst of wartime passion, whereas this was coldly calculated revenge perpetrated by the Nationalist Government upon its own people [in peacetime].”
Despite Ma’s gestures of reconciliation toward 228 victims’ families, the wound of the savage incident will never heal because Ma and his KMT followers continue to exonerate the Chiangs’ crimes by saying they did not do the killing themselves and therefore should not be held accountable.
KRIS LIAO
San Francisco, California
On Monday, the day before Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) departed on her visit to China, the party released a promotional video titled “Only with peace can we ‘lie flat’” to highlight its desire to have peace across the Taiwan Strait. However, its use of the expression “lie flat” (tang ping, 躺平) drew sarcastic comments, with critics saying it sounded as if the party was “bowing down” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Amid the controversy over the opposition parties blocking proposed defense budgets, Cheng departed for China after receiving an invitation from the CCP, with a meeting with
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) is leading a delegation to China through Sunday. She is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing tomorrow. That date coincides with the anniversary of the signing of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which marked a cornerstone of Taiwan-US relations. Staging their meeting on this date makes it clear that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intends to challenge the US and demonstrate its “authority” over Taiwan. Since the US severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, it has relied on the TRA as a legal basis for all
Taiwan ranks second globally in terms of share of population with a higher-education degree, with about 60 percent of Taiwanese holding a post-secondary or graduate degree, a survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development showed. The findings are consistent with Ministry of the Interior data, which showed that as of the end of last year, 10.602 million Taiwanese had completed post-secondary education or higher. Among them, the number of women with graduate degrees was 786,000, an increase of 48.1 percent over the past decade and a faster rate of growth than among men. A highly educated population brings clear advantages.
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