In a democracy, the public entrusts political power to the government and has the right and duty to monitor how that power is used. One year after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office, the public is justified in its dissatisfaction with the performance of his administration.
Economic figures over the past year make a mockery of Ma’s campaign promise of 6 percent GDP growth, average annual income of US$30,000 and less than 3 percent unemployment. Taiwan’s economy has instead contracted for four consecutive quarters, shrinking by a record 8.36 percent in the fourth quarter last year. Many companies have cut salaries or forced workers to take unpaid leave, while unemployment has hit 5.81 percent. Despite the government’s attempts to boost the economy, including tax relief measures and a stimulus budget, the nation’s finances have deteriorated and its credit rating has worsened.
In terms of politics, the Ma administration is steering the nation down a road of democratic regression. Earlier this month, US-based Freedom House released its 2009 Freedom of the Press survey, in which Taiwan’s ranking slipped to 43rd place from last year’s 32nd. Taiwan was cited as an example of the worldwide decline in press freedom.
Ma promised many things when he took office: that his government would not tolerate political interference in the media, that it would protect human rights and deepen Taiwan’s democracy, and that the judiciary would remain impartial. Instead, the government has diluted the power of the legislature, proposed a stricter version of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), meddled in the media and put too much power in the hands of one man.
Most troubling is that the government is pursuing closer ties with China regardless of the potential damage to Taiwan’s sovereignty. Ma has pursued detente in the areas of defense and diplomacy while throwing the doors open to China economically. He supports the so-called 1992 Consensus and has called a “diplomatic truce” with Beijing.
Yet Ma dares not voice his interpretation of “one China” either abroad or at home, where his government has made concessions on the nation’s name, Ma’s title of president and displaying the national flag. Taiwan has been invited to attend the World Health Assembly as an observer, but the faxed invitation was addressed to Taipei City, with no country identified. But according to the WHO Web site, Taipei would be in “Taiwan, province of China.”
As to negotiations over an economic cooperation framework agreement with China, the Ma administration is not taking into account the concerns of the public and opposition parties and has ruled out holding a referendum on the issue.
Yesterday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets and launched a sit-in protest in front of the Presidential Office. The public expects more of its government. It expects the Ma administration to stem unemployment and propose policies to help underprivileged sections of society. Above all, it expects the government to protect Taiwan and safeguard its sovereignty. The government has a duty to heed the public’s voice.
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
RSS