Legislators receive NT$28,000 a day to cover their salaries and administrative expenses. Despite this, a group of pan-blue lawmakers have spent their time in the legislature clanging gongs, blowing whistles and occupying the podium. For creating such furor, former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) commended them for their “battle readiness.”
It is a wonder voters are able to control their temper over such a bizarre political party.
The members of the “old legislature” — which consisted of National Assembly representatives, legislators and Control Yuan members who were elected in China in 1947 and kept their seats until 1992 — lacked any vestiges of legitimacy. Some were too old to walk, so they were wheeled in in their wheelchairs to cast their votes and continue to bully the general public.
Things did not improve with democratization as the sole responsibility of the pan-blue leaders was to use violence to deal with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to ensure that pro-China and bills opposed to the US were passed. It was not a pretty sight.
After the pan-blue camp was relegated to the ranks of a minority for the first time last year, order went out the window and it has deteriorated into a mob whose only purpose is to disturb order.
Former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is a rare exception who does not want to make a fool of himself, remaining aloof and keeping his distance from the hubbub. In doing so, he also focuses attention the injustice of the mess on the legislative floor.
Democracy is valuable because of the legitimacy of its processes and procedures, and focus on the majority. If the decision of the majority does not suit the views of the minority, they simply have to wait for the next election and hope that voters choose them instead.
The disturbances, boycotts, obstacles and breaches of legitimate order by pan-blue legislators are a shame to democracy.
In the US Congress, they would have been treated as breaches of discipline and punishments would have been issued.
Opposition to a proposed bill requires that voters be told why, and it must be legitimate. Pan-blue legislators oppose the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, and the reason they give is that they are opposed to “building local support using money and connections.”
This is an odd piece of political thinking: If the government did not have a plan for infrastructure development, it would be neglecting its duties. Infrastructure development is beneficial to the public, but pan-blue legislators are defining it as “building local support using money and connections.”
Whether it is the ruling or opposition party, creating benefits for the public should be every politician’s priority. If the government’s infrastructure program “builds local support,” that is good for voters.
By opposing it, pan-blue legislators are in effect exploiting voters’ interests and by claiming that the government is passing debt on to future generations they are only shooting themselves in the foot.
The infrastructure program would not benefit only pan-green supporters; these facilities would be shared among all Taiwanese.
The pan-blue camp has lost its hold on government and it can no longer be in charge of bringing benefits to the public.
The best way to minimize the damage would be to back the government in bringing benefits to the public, so the DPP government does not get all the credit.
The worst strategy is to do what it is doing right now: losing itself in a display of “battle readiness” and showing voters see that the party opposes public infrastructure.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past