No matter how much the Presidential Office denies it, its latest allegation against former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government officials has raised the eyebrows of many skeptics who suspect a political motive.
On Tuesday, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration accused 17 former officials who worked at the Presidential Office during the tenure of president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of failing to return documents to the national archives as required by law when Chen’s term ended in 2008. The 17 officials have been referred to the Control Yuan for investigation.
According to Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Ma was “livid” when he was informed of the matter and demanded that officials suspected of disregarding the laws — including the National Archives Act (國家檔案法), the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) and the Decree Governing the Transfer of Documents of Civil Servants (公務人員交代條例) — be dealt with accordingly.
Any violation of government rules should be dealt with in accordance with the law, including when large volumes of official documents — which Lo allegedly said numbered about 36,000 — went missing from the nation’s highest executive body. However, before pointing the finger at former DPP officials and accusing them of dereliction of duty and undermining national interests, has Ma examined his own officials and staffers at the Presidential Office to see whether they are guilty of negligence in the first place?
After all, that it took the Presidential Office nearly three years to realize that a large bulk of official documents were missing speaks volumes on the Presidential Office’s efficiency — or lack thereof.
Add the fact that in April 2008, Chen set up a seven-member handover task force to take charge of the transfer of power procedures, assisting then--president-elect Ma’s team and answering all their queries and requests concerning information on national defense, cross-strait relations and foreign affairs, among others.
Looking at media reports at the time, these handover meetings were carried out in an amicable atmosphere with no complaints from either side. Why wait three years to raise questions about allegedly missing official documents?
With the DPP presidential primary just getting under way, the timing of the Presidential Office’s allegations implicating senior DPP politicians — including former premier and DPP presidential hopeful Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) — is suspect.
The next presidential election is just around the corner and there are no signs that anyone within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would try to challenge Ma.
According to KMT sources, Ma has begun to prepare for his re-election bid. Hopefully, Ma and his party would seek to win over voters’ hearts and minds through sound governance and an honest campaign instead of resorting to “dirty tricks.” It would be utterly despicable if Ma were to turn the office of the president into a personal campaign against the DPP by trying to tarnish the reputation and image of his political opponents.
Jan. 1 marks a decade since China repealed its one-child policy. Just 10 days before, Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), who long oversaw the often-brutal enforcement of China’s family-planning rules, died at the age of 96, having never been held accountable for her actions. Obituaries praised Peng for being “reform-minded,” even though, in practice, she only perpetuated an utterly inhumane policy, whose consequences have barely begun to materialize. It was Vice Premier Chen Muhua (陳慕華) who first proposed the one-child policy in 1979, with the endorsement of China’s then-top leaders, Chen Yun (陳雲) and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), as a means of avoiding the
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces. Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should
The last foreign delegation Nicolas Maduro met before he went to bed Friday night (January 2) was led by China’s top Latin America diplomat. “I had a pleasant meeting with Qiu Xiaoqi (邱小琪), Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Venezuela’s soon-to-be ex-president tweeted on Telegram, “and we reaffirmed our commitment to the strategic relationship that is progressing and strengthening in various areas for building a multipolar world of development and peace.” Judging by how minutely the Central Intelligence Agency was monitoring Maduro’s every move on Friday, President Trump himself was certainly aware of Maduro’s felicitations to his Chinese guest. Just
RSS