One year after the Political Parties Act (政黨法) came into being, 90 percent of registered parties have ceased operations. As the number of political parties shrank, some people established the conservative Christian Formosa Republican Association.
Stephen Yates, a US politician concerned with Taiwan’s democracy, denied in a Facebook post on Dec. 10 that he was involved with organizing the group, saying: “I am neither a member nor a cofounder of” the association.
However, “for many years, I have noted to friends that American conservatives lack a natural partner in Taiwan for collaboration on policy and commentary... In that spirit, I have often encouraged friends to consider organizing outside of the political process in a way that would facilitate policy analysis and advocacy based on common principles and values,” he said.
Although the association is a minor group, the phenomenon is significant to Taiwan. The association considers Taiwan a conservative society, but no political party represents that ideology. Its members think that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is left-wing and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is a Leninist party, while government transitions have been merely an illusion.
However, the KMT was a complex right-wing and Leninist party under Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), but followed a socialist path under former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). The DPP promoted social policies while in opposition, but after taking power, it quickly befriended big business.
Taiwan’s two major parties have no fixed values and can shift from right to left-wing and back again when they see fit.
The values of the conservatives are based on Protestant ethics: Morals override politics; people should be responsible for themselves and solve their own problems first and only then seek help from family, the community and the government in that order; fundamental human rights are God-given, but people have the choice to strive upward or fall. Conservatives thus advocate limited government, and oppose socialism and communism.
It sounds logical, but the association is naive in raising the idea of “rule by entrepreneurs,” which is fraught with problems. East Asian entrepreneurs, Chinese in particular, rarely introduce new technologies and models to increase profit and then share the profit with their employees. Instead, they tend to increase profit by cutting salaries and reducing expenditure, and then invest in real estate.
They are selfish believers in mercantilism, without the slightest sense of charity or humbleness. Someone who wants to promote “rule by entrepreneurs” should first ask themselves if they are mentally prepared for the consequences. The answer should be no and that is when conservatives need the balance of some left-wing naive idealism and reform fervor.
The long-term debate and competition of values between the left and the right has achieved spectacular accomplishments: democracy, human rights and environment protection.
The coming impact of artificial intelligence is likely to force people into a true left-right standoff. For example, the popular basic income theory could be interpreted as a left-wing social security measure, but it triggers an economic cycle favored by the right. However, capitalists oppose the idea without considering the devastating results to a stagnating economy.
Taiwan’s democracy movement has always been led by lawyers and political scientists. Three presidents over the past two decades went through law school. This makes them rigid and they tend to pay attention to detail. Now might be the time to elect a president from another field.
There will hopefully be a real policy debate between the left and right. This would be the only way to move beyond the trap set by the blue, green and white camps. The white faction’s objective to overtake the blue and the green camps is but an illusion, seemingly devoid of values and a philosophy. They are just another set of opportunists.
HoonTing is a political commentator.
Labubu, an elf-like plush toy with pointy ears and nine serrated teeth, has become a global sensation, worn by celebrities including Rihanna and Dua Lipa. These dolls are sold out in stores from Singapore to London; a human-sized version recently fetched a whopping US$150,000 at an auction in Beijing. With all the social media buzz, it is worth asking if we are witnessing the rise of a new-age collectible, or whether Labubu is a mere fad destined to fade. Investors certainly want to know. Pop Mart International Group Ltd, the Chinese manufacturer behind this trendy toy, has rallied 178 percent
My youngest son attends a university in Taipei. Throughout the past two years, whenever I have brought him his luggage or picked him up for the end of a semester or the start of a break, I have stayed at a hotel near his campus. In doing so, I have noticed a strange phenomenon: The hotel’s TV contained an unusual number of Chinese channels, filled with accents that would make a person feel as if they are in China. It is quite exhausting. A few days ago, while staying in the hotel, I found that of the 50 available TV channels,
There is no such thing as a “silicon shield.” This trope has gained traction in the world of Taiwanese news, likely with the best intentions. Anything that breaks the China-controlled narrative that Taiwan is doomed to be conquered is welcome, but after observing its rise in recent months, I now believe that the “silicon shield” is a myth — one that is ultimately working against Taiwan. The basic silicon shield idea is that the world, particularly the US, would rush to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion because they do not want Beijing to seize the nation’s vital and unique chip industry. However,
Life as we know it will probably not come to an end in Japan this weekend, but what if it does? That is the question consuming a disaster-prone country ahead of a widely spread prediction of disaster that one comic book suggests would occur tomorrow. The Future I Saw, a manga by Ryo Tatsuki about her purported ability to see the future in dreams, was first published in 1999. It would have faded into obscurity, but for the mention of a tsunami and the cover that read “Major disaster in March 2011.” Years later, when the most powerful earthquake ever
RSS