Amid criticism from lawmakers over the government’s rebuttal of concerns over the political turmoil in Taiwan voiced by a group of foreign observers, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) yesterday defended the move, saying it was made to “maintain a [positive] public image of the country.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday night sent a rebuttal to the media in response to the statement, which was co-signed by 30 international academics and writers, and published on the op-ed page in the Taipei Times on Monday.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday where Lin was present, several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers panned the ministry for its refuting of the international critics.
Getting involved in the case was “way outside the purview of the foreign ministry,” DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said. “Was it an act toadying to [President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)]?”
The points the foreign observers made were “poignant” suggestions for reform to democracy in Taiwan because that is what they have been constantly concerned about, Tsai said.
“The foreign ministry has missed their points,” he said.
In light of Ma’s “political use” of the Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and his “interference in the judicial system over the past years, as well as his most recent attempt to remove Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) from office over an alleged undue influence case,” the critics said they are deeply concerned about the “backsliding of freedom, democracy, and human rights” under the Ma administration.
“While an erosion of democracy and justice has been ongoing since this administration assumed office in 2008, recent events constitute a fundamental breach of the basic principles of separation of powers and checks and balances in a democracy,” the foreign observers said.
The ministry said it “highly regretted” that the foreign observers made the allegations against the Ma administration based on their “lack of sufficient understanding” about the situation in Taiwan and their “prejudice.”
While the ministry has always held international friends who have long cared for the development of constitutional democracy in Taiwan in high regard, the criticism leveled under the circumstances was both “unnecessary” and “unfair,” the ministry said in the statement.
“As a country under democratic rules, the nation embraces diversity of opinions. [However,] the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hopes that the few international friends can show respect for our country’s democratic process and legal procedures … Just like what they have said in the statement that ‘it is up to the people and political system of Taiwan to resolve the crisis,’” the ministry said.
At this moment in time when the recent cases are being dealt with according to the law in Taiwan, the “dissent” expressed by people who are “something of an outsider” not only affected international perceptions of Taiwan, but also unilaterally negated the achievements the government and people of Taiwan have made in pursuing democracy and human rights, the ministry said.
“It did enhancing democracy and the rule of law in our country no good,” it said.
In response to questions from DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩), Lin said he signed off on the ministry’s statement before it was released to the press.
The ministry issued the rebuttal because the statement sponsored by the foreign observers “has tarnished the image of the country,” Lin said, adding that the ministry did not aim to interpret the controversies surrounding the recent events, but to “maintain a [positive] public image of the country.”
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS