In his new book, to be released tomorrow, President Chen Shui-bian (
Yin Chung-wen (
Now the fracas seems to be snowballing, as opposition parties try to use this opportunity to drive a wedge between Chen and former president Lee Teng-hui (
How is such a wide gap possible between what the two sides understand to be a proper transfer of power? There are three possibilities. One, many important meetings and briefings may have been conducted informally in the Presidential Office, without passing through any other government agency. Some of those files may have been taken away as part of Lee's private property. Two, it could be that such files never existed. Much of the policymaking may have been done in secret, through face-to-face communication or hand-written notes. In this case, no minutes of any meeting would have been left behind. Three, it could also be that the files do exist, but problems in the way the records were made and filed kept people from finding them.
In the first scenario, the blame would go to the previous government, which should keep records of anything that has to do with national policy, no matter how secret, sensitive or informal they are. Such records are not private property and should not be taken from the Presidential Office.
In the second and third scenarios, the Presidential Office is at fault, apparently not knowing how to make, compile, file and store dossiers. There might be a need to boost the awareness of public officials on the need to keep important records, as well as the need for a good filing system.
In fact, part of the problem could be a lack of proper regulation. The NSC, initially an extra-legal entity, was recognized in the Constitution in 1994, but has never been regulated under law. As for the issue that Chen is particularly concerned about, ie, the "special state-to-state" model, a study was still being conducted under then NSC consultant Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) when Lee articulated the policy during an interview with the Voice of Germany radio station on July 9, 1999. The study has yet to be completed. Naturally, Chen wouldn't have seen files on the -- as yet -- unsettled policy.
The fact that Chen has written a book complaining of a lack of files 500 days after the transition is a sign of poor communications within the government. Yin is now a senior advisor to the president and works in the Presidential Office. Chen could have asked Yin about missing files at any time.
In Taiwan's first transition of political power, the lack of the dossier handover was not a major problem because many top government officials were not replaced at the time of the takeover, while others were simply replaced with officials from other government agencies. But this is no excuse for not setting up a proper system for the transition of power.
Now that the National Archives Law has been enacted, the government should work to set up regulations for implementation so that proper procedures for the disposition of important government documents is clearly spelled out and de-politicized.
In a stark reminder of China’s persistent territorial overreach, Pema Wangjom Thongdok, a woman from Arunachal Pradesh holding an Indian passport, was detained for 18 hours at Shanghai Pudong Airport on Nov. 24 last year. Chinese immigration officials allegedly informed her that her passport was “invalid” because she was “Chinese,” refusing to recognize her Indian citizenship and claiming Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet. Officials had insisted that Thongdok, an Indian-origin UK resident traveling for a conference, was not Indian despite her valid documents. India lodged a strong diplomatic protest, summoning the Chinese charge d’affaires in Delhi and demanding
In the past 72 hours, US Senators Roger Wicker, Dan Sullivan and Ruben Gallego took to social media to publicly rebuke the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the defense budget. I understand that Taiwan’s head is on the chopping block, and the urgency of its security situation cannot be overstated. However, the comments from Wicker, Sullivan and Gallego suggest they have fallen victim to a sophisticated disinformation campaign orchestrated by an administration in Taipei that treats national security as a partisan weapon. The narrative fed to our allies claims the opposition is slashing the defense budget to kowtow to the Chinese
In a Taipei Times editorial published almost three years ago (“Macron goes off-piste,” April 13, 2023, page 8), French President Emmanuel Macron was criticized for comments he made immediately after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing. Macron had spoken of the need for his country to find a path on Chinese foreign policy no longer aligned with that of the US, saying that continuing to follow the US agenda would sacrifice the EU’s strategic autonomy. At the time, Macron was criticized for gifting Xi a PR coup, and the editorial said that he had been “persuaded to run
The wrap-up press event on Feb. 1 for the new local period suspense film Murder of the Century (世紀血案), adapted from the true story of the Lin family murders (林家血案) in 1980, has sparked waves of condemnation in the past week, as well as a boycott. The film is based on the shocking, unsolved murders that occurred at then-imprisoned provincial councilor and democracy advocate Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) residence on Feb. 28, 1980, while Lin was detained for his participation in the Formosa Incident, in which police and protesters clashed during a pro-democracy rally in Kaohsiung organized by Formosa Magazine on Dec.
RSS