The most important election in Taiwan's history has sadly become dominated by extensive use of negative campaigning tactics that aim to persuade voters against casting ballots for rival candidates through the time-honored tradition of mudslinging or, in Taiwan political language, "painting black (
The usual motive behind mudslinging is to convince voters that "all the crows are the same shade of black" (天下烏鴉一般黑) and to imply that the crow with the deepest color -- and the longest experience in being "black" in this sense -- may the best qualified to lead the flock.
In the current campaign, there is little if no debate about which party is most closely associated in the public eye with "black gold" corruption. In its 54 years of power just in Taiwan, the KMT maintained institutional corruption in the era of the authoritarian party-state and fostered pervasive "black gold" money politics to retain power in the post-martial law period.
Lien Chan (連戰) has endeavored to shake off the bad image from this legacy by vowing to "declare all-out war on "black gold" politics and to implement "sunshine" reforms on Jan. 2. Most polls showed that few voters took Lien's conversion seriously.
Moreover, Lien's own actions -- notably his decision to share campaign platforms with such notables as ex-convict legislator Wu Tse-yuan (伍澤元) of Pingtung County, reputed "Tientaomen" (天道盟) gang spiritual leader Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) of Taipei County and Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味). Whether Lien discussed his war strategy with these notables is worthy of question.
The case of mainland-born former Taiwan Provincial Governor and ex-KMT secretary-general James Soong (宋楚瑜) appears more complex given Soong's effort to package himself as a "reformer" despite his role in helping to repress the tang wai (黨外) grassroots opposition movement in the late 1970s and 1980s.
But the Chung Hsin Bills (中興票券) Finance scandal exposed a previously dimly perceived darker side to Soong's record as KMT secretary-general and Taiwan provincial governor that has yet to be adequately addressed. Only the declaration of support for Soong by former justice minister and Investigation Bureau chief Liao Cheng-hao (廖正豪) helped stem the outflow of support from the Soong campaign.
Despite Liao's image as an anti-corruption fighter, the color scheme in the ex-KMT secretary-general's camp seems to be taking on tints all too similar to that of the KMT candidate.
Last week, Soong gained the support of KMT Taichung County assembly speaker Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), who joins other controversial figures such as former Legislative Yuan speaker Liu Sung-fan (劉松蕃), a major faction leader in Taichung County and former chairman of the Taichung Business Bank and important witness in the Kuang San enterprise stock default scandal.
The competition between Lien and Soong for the "loyalty" of politicians such as Yen Ching-piao or Chang Jung-wei does little to bolster public confidence in the likelihood of either candidate ringing in a new era of clean government. Lamented Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) last Friday: "The only people standing up for candidates are corrupt politicians."
Lee's observation was accompanied by his decision on Friday to stand beside DPP candidate and former Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Chen, the only one of the five candidates who does not reek of paternalism, has urged the Taiwan people to take history into their own hands and "dump gang and money politics and protect democracy" by ousting the KMT. Reliable indicators show a high degree of popular confidence in Chen's determination and capability to deal with vote buying, root out "black gold" corruption and improve social order and public safety.
Certainly, claims by any politician or party -- in any country -- to be pristine should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism and few would claim that Chen's administration was defect-free.
Nevertheless, despite being under a virtual microscope for over five years, accusations against Chen for corruption have not had "sticking power." Charges by "independent" legislator Lin Jui-tu (林瑞圖) regarding an abortive Taipei City lottery have not had the credibility as the charges leveled against Soong.
The more interesting issue is why -- given claims that the DPP has become "KMT-ized" -- there have been so few accusations against senior DPP politicians that have "stuck."
Part of the reason lies in the history of the DPP and its predecessor of the tang wai grassroots democratic movement. One factor was the intense supervision of the democratic opposition by the Taiwan Garrison Command (警備總部), the Investigation Bureau, the KMT controlled media and other agencies directed at tang wai activists and its few elected officials.
The DPP's willingness to take crucial actions -- even at a cost to itself -- indicates that, for all its shortcomings, it is still far from being entirely "KMT-ized." It will not be easy for the DPP to imitate the notable record of the KMT given the likelihood of intense supervision by the media and the KMT in its possible new role as an opposition party.
This may be one reason why, despite the vast quantity of mud being slung at him, Chen received a vote of confidence from Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh on Friday.
Just as the attraction of politicians of the stripe of Pingtung County's Wu Tseh-yuan and Taichung County's Yen Ching-piao to Lien and Soong, the decision by Lee and other members of Chen's new "National Policy Advisory" team points to the validity of another proverb: "Birds of a feather flock together."
Dennis Engbarth (
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS