The language of political rivals has been causing divisions between the people of Taiwan for too long ("Chen and Lu need to grow up," Dec. 15, page 8). It is high time that politicians across the political spectrum put a stop to the bickering and seriously considered what could be done in the best interests of their constituents, rather than dwelling on how best to sustain their power.
Sadly, most politicians' verbal communication is nothing more than an outpouring of words with little thought given to the listeners' perspective. They are too busy thinking about what they want to say or how they might sound, and never really tune in to what others are saying to them. Genuinely meaningful, productive conversation has been very hard to find from them.
During last month's election campaigns, many candidates and those who stumped for them made promises that they could not deliver on. Mudslinging was also widely used. This kind of behavior proved to be counter-productive.
Command of language is one of the most powerful tools we have as human beings; it can either make you popular and powerful, or destroy you completely. When we choose our words carefully, we have the power to transform the way we interact with others.
Although we may not be aware of it, our words reveal who we are at our deepest core level. When we pay attention to the words we use and how we use them in our daily conversations, we begin to take control of our communication with others rather than having the communication take control of us.
In the face of the omnipresent and almost omnipotent mass media and with constituents now much more sophisticated, political leaders, and especially the top leaders of the country, should be more circumspect in what they do and say. People are holding up a mirror to these leaders. Maybe they don't like the picture in the mirror. But if they smash the mirror, the picture is not going to change.
Let's all begin to pay more attention to the words we use and see if harnessing the power of language doesn't start to change our fortunes.
David Tzou
Taipei
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
RSS