Taiwan is facing a battle for its existence and our democracy looks like it is about to collapse.
There have been a slew of corruption scandals surrounding the Xinsheng Overpass project and the Taipei International Flora Expo.
In fulfilling their roles as monitors of the government, Taipei City councilors from the opposition have requested information from the city government, but their demands have been refused.
Modern democratic politics is based on the separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers to maintain checks and balances and root out corruption.
However, after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regained control of the central government, the executive power became the dominant power, and it has abused its power and done whatever it wants. This runs counter to the principles of a modern democracy.
However, because of the flawed and restrictive Referendum Act (公民投票法), referendums, which should be a symbol of how sovereignty rests with the people, the public have not been allowed to have a say even on the issue of the important Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China.
In response to the government’s breach of the law and negligence of its responsibilities, the opposition parties and citizens have had no choice but to turn to the law.
However, they have faced discrimination by a judiciary that will handle cases against the pan-green camp, but not the pan-blue camp. The judicial corruption that late democracy activist Lei Chen (雷震) spoke about during the 1950s is still rampant today.
Today’s democracy was borrowed from the West. In Western nations, there are often great tensions between society and the government, and this is what is referred to as civil society.
However, during several decades of the KMT’s authoritarian rule and culture, that authoritarianism was not restricted to politics alone, but was allowed to spread to every corner of society so that civil society was deprived of its independence.
Taiwanese society is therefore full of people who have been working for those in power. Whenever people in power need help, they call on so-called “academics” and “experts” to endorse their ideas.
After being ruled by the KMT’s vicious practices for several decades, many things still remain to be done. Although the Democratic Progressive Party managed to break the KMT’s hold on power for eight years, it remains a very difficult task to eradicate the corruption that has plagued Taiwan for so long.
Yet at a time when Taiwanese society still has not developed sufficient confidence in our current political system, the KMT is once again trying to push the idea of absentee voting.
This move is aimed at erasing every last bit of trust that Taiwanese may have left in our democracy. Regardless of what certain people may say about the current electoral system, the KMT’s motives could not be any clearer.
With the special municipality mayoral and council elections upon us, we have another major decision to make. Of course, not everything is about elections.
However, when the elections are all that is left to the public, we will be left with nothing at all if we do not cherish the right to vote and make these elections count.
Chen Chun-kai is a professor of history at Fu Jen Catholic University.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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