Voters made the right choice
Voters made the right choices in electing the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate for Yunlin’s County’s legislative by-election and in voting against a plan to allow casinos in the Penghu referendum (“A double loss for Ma and his party,” Sept 28, page 8).
These are two major blows to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) after the government’s poor response to Typhoon Morakot, which left hundreds dead and homeless. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said that he “treats” Aborigines like people. Unfortunately, his words are not matched by action. He did not mobilize the military to rescue victims in time and initially declined foreign assistance. National defense and foreign affairs are two of the three major responsibilities of the president of Taiwan.
The other presidential responsibility concerns relations with China. Ma’s policy is too much inclined toward China. His official title of president (總統) has been replaced by Mr (先生). He considers Taiwan part of China and has given up application for UN membership. He wants to put Taiwan under China’s economic control by signing an economic cooperation framework agreement. He hides the Republic of China (ROC) flags during meetings and events with Beijing. He tried to convert the ROC into the Republic of Casino, but Penghu residents rejected that idea.
Ma has also confused Taiwanese and the rest of the world. If Taiwan is a democracy, why does Ma worship dictators? If he worships dictators, why doesn’t he follow their anti-communist attitude? If Ma loved Taiwan during the presidential election, why does he love China now? If Tibet is a part of the ROC, why does the Dalai Lama, an exiled Tibetan, have to apply for a visa to go there? If former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is sentenced to life, why was Ma acquitted after pocketing part of the mayoral funds during his term as Taipei mayor? If Ma thought the KMT stolen assets should be nullified, why doesn’t he do something about it?
CHARLES HONG
Columbus, Ohio
Love affair with Beijing
There’s an old saying. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.
Ma and his band of merry communist sympathizers have finally dropped all pretense, and he has led our government into the shadow of China’s tyranny. It is a sad day for democracy and freedom when the government of Taiwan joins a totalitarian dictatorship in calling Rebiya Kadeer, a supporter of human rights, a “terrorist.”
In fact, some in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) party compared Rebiya Kadeer to Hitler and Osama Bin Laden. Has the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) sunk so low as to have become entangled not only in Beijing’s economic claws, but to have become ensnared in its ideological evils as well? Indeed it has.
Finally, the mask is off, and Ma and his cronies have taken their true forms, that of true supporters of the dictatorship in Beijing and enemies of freedom. Given the record of the Ma government, we have seen the decline of freedom and human rights in Taiwan, and a helter-skelter rush toward a deep and abiding respect and admiration for the totalitarian regime in Beijing, beginning apparently with a wholesale adoption of Beijing’s list of enemies.
Ma and the KMT have come to believe that “the friend of my friend is my friend, and the enemy of my friend is my enemy,” only they got the concepts mixed up. The Ma government has not only made startling negative statements about the Dalai Lama and Rebiya Kadeer, but have actually parroted Beijing’s vitriol.
How long before Taiwan can count North Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam and Iran among its best friends, and Tibet, Japan and the US among its new worst enemies? China. In their rush to appease China and make money, many in the international community have unwittingly helped Ma and the KMT in their efforts to extinguish the torch of freedom here.
We can only hope it is not too late to rescue our precious freedom from Ma’s love affair with Beijing.
LEE LONG-HWA,
New York
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