Democracy degenerated
The answer to your editorial question (“Where is the fruit of our democracy?” June 16, page 8) is that the fruit of Taiwan’s democracy is being eaten up by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his administration. They like to eat fruit but do not follow the Taiwanese maxim “to worship the roots of trees when eating the fruit.” Instead they are trying to cut down the tree.
It is undemocratic for Ma’s administration to reject a proposed referendum on whether Taiwan should sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
It is also authoritarian for Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to issue a directive to amend the Referendum Act so that the government can do as it wishes.
The recent on-site police surveillance of a survey on the ECFA in Chaojhou Township (潮州), Pingtung County was reminiscent of the White Terror period under Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
If Ma is proud of democracy in Taiwan, how can he let this police surveillance happen?
In the mid-1990s, Ma was strongly opposed to Taiwanese voters directly electing their president; now he owes his presidency to this democratic process. Ma has been in office for more than two years — what has he accomplished in terms of democratization? How does his performance compare to his campaign pledges and promises?
Recently, Ma has vowed to “create a golden decade” in Taiwan and proposed six measures to “strengthen the country.” Judging from his performance to date, how much trust should Taiwanese have in his new proposal? The “gold” might turn out to be fool’s gold.
The “country” might become an entirely different country.
CHARLES HONG
Columbus, Ohio
‘Taiwan, Province of China’
From time to time, news stories and editorials surface in this paper decrying, and rightfully so, the way some international Web sites treat Taiwan. Many times, when people in Taiwan want to register to become participants in a Web site forum, they are asked where they live, and often the only choice on the flipdown list is: “Taiwan, Province of China.”
This happens on Web sites all over the world, from the US to France, from Germany to Japan. These kinds of problems crop up online (and in the news) every week or so, and I am sure there will be another news story about this before long.
However, it is important to note that the problem is not with the offending Web sites themselves but with the software they use for their registration forms. They download various country lists from Web sites that sell them, and most of these country-registration sites use an international list — incorrect, of course — that has only one listing for Taiwan, and that is “Taiwan, Province of China.”
This happened to me just the other day. I was registering at the Manchester Evening News Web site in the UK and when asked to state where I was living, the only choice I was given for Taiwan was “Taiwan, Province of China.” Of course, I wrote to the newspaper’s editors and told them there was a mistake in their registration form. And of course, they wrote back and said sorry. But it’s not the newspaper’s fault. The fault lies in the companies that sell these faulty country name lists.
And it will happen again and again. Until hell freezes over.
DAN BLOOM
Chiayi City
Taiwan’s ‘airport night market’
The management of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport has been lambasted by KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), who says that the premier gateway into our country has turned into a “night market” (“Lo pans airport ‘night market,’” June 19, page 1). There are many different reasons why this unbelievable and absurd situation has continued for so long.
For instance, the food sold by these illegal vendors is cheaper than that sold by the licensed restaurants.
In addition, these illegal vendors also provide vegetarian dishes to vegetarian employees at the airport.
However, even though there are plenty of uncontrollable factors behind the illegal vending, the airport administration is responsible for dealing with these embarrassing circumstances. This is even more important since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has just announced an economic development policy under which the airport will be revamped into a modern, competitive international transportation hub. This involves renovating the old buildings, developing a modern shopping mall, providing a competitive business center, resourceful food courts and so forth.
In fact, the airport is the face of a country. Foreign tourists receive their first impression of a country at the airport. If our government cannot enforce its jurisdiction over illegal vendors in the international airport, how can the government convince the Taiwanese people and foreign visitors that Taiwan’s premier airport will be transformed into a first-class gateway to the Asia-Pacific any time soon?
CLAIRE WU
Taipei County
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