Last week, Democratic Progres-sive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun abruptly announced that his party should form a "Green Justice Alliance" with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), and even advocated a merger with the TSU. However, the TSU has mixed feelings about Yu's proposition. Judging from the party's past cooperation with the DPP, I cannot help but think that this is a calculated attempt to shift the focus away from the DPP's problems.
When the DPP is faring well, it rarely pays any attention to the TSU. In times of crisis, however, it suddenly remembers us. This month marks the fifth anniversary of the TSU's founding. Before the meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) in February last year, the TSU threw its weight behind the DPP on grounds of safeguarding Taiwan's first localized regime. We also went all-out to help Chen win re-election in 2004.
Unfortunately, the DPP turns selfish whenever an election is around the corner, taking advantage of the TSU's localization stance while unilaterally tearing up cooperation agreements with the TSU and even stealing the support base we have worked so hard to build up.
The TSU learned its lesson in the 2004 legislative elections. The DPP has never treated the TSU with genuine respect, regarding it only as a pawn to be manipulated. Now, with a record of poor government and having become entangled in corruption scandals, it has the gall to ask the TSU to sacrifice itself and join the DPP.
Since the allegations surrounding Chen's son-in-law Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘) were brought to light, both Chen's and the DPP's approval ratings have plunged to unprecedented lows. Although Chen escaped the presidential recall campaign unscathed, a series of corruption scandals are still under investigation and the evidence collected has placed the first family in a very unfavorable position.
Meanwhile, the government's policy implementation has not improved, the economy remains in a slump and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Some of the DPP's members are also involved in corruption scandals, infighting continues and the issue of nominal party members remains unresolved. With the party unable to put its own house in order, how can it possibly talk about merging with the TSU?
How can the TSU, a strong proponent of clean governance, merge with the corrupt DPP at this juncture? If it did, it would only show the same contempt for justice and the localization cause.
The TSU is an independent party upholding the cause of localization, clean governance, and people's welfare and livelihoods. The party does not rule out collaborating with any political party as long as the cause benefits the general public. However, whether the TSU enters into such cooperation will depend on the will of the Taiwanese and if the party in question is clean.
The DPP's call for a coalition or merger with the TSU may have been aimed at striking a chord in softhearted pan-green supporters who cannot bear to see a divided green camp and who will expect the TSU to obediently do as it is told. But at a deeper level, if the DPP fails to overhaul itself and instead only plans to devour the TSU, it will only bring about the disintegration of the localized government. I wonder if this is what pan-green supporters want to see.
The TSU is a friend who gives forthright admonitions, and we will not blindly follow the DPP. Based on the independent nature of political parties and their responsibilities to the people, any party can outline policy proposals on which it wants to collaborate with the TSU, such as the national economic revival program, the probe into the KMT's ill-gotten assets, the national flood-control project and anything else that can improve people's livelihoods.
The TSU will definitely welcome with open arms any proposal beneficial to the nation's development. But if the DPP is only trying to shift the focus away from its problems, Yu could have saved his breath. The TSU is not a pawn at the DPP's command, and the DPP would do better to mind its factional issues and corruption problems.
David Kuo is the director of the TSU Policy Center.
Translated by Daniel Cheng
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
Reports about Elon Musk planning his own semiconductor fab have sparked anxiety, with some warning that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) could lose key customers to vertical integration. A closer reading suggests a more measured conclusion: Musk is advancing a strategic vision of in-house chip manufacturing, but remains far from replacing the existing foundry ecosystem. For TSMC, the short-term impact is limited; the medium-term challenge lies in supply diversification and pricing pressure, only in the long term could it evolve into a structural threat. The clearest signal is Musk’s announcement that Tesla and SpaceX plan to develop a fab project dubbed “Terafab”
Most schoolchildren learn that the circumference of the Earth is about 40,000km. They do not learn that the global economy depends on just 160 of those kilometers. Blocking two narrow waterways — the Strait of Hormuz and the Taiwan Strait — could send the economy back in time, if not to the Stone Age that US President Donald Trump has been threatening to bomb Iran back to, then at least to the mid-20th century, before the Rolling Stones first hit the airwaves. Over the past month and a half, Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz, which is about 39km wide at
The ongoing Middle East crisis has reinforced an uncomfortable truth for Taiwan: In an increasingly interconnected and volatile world, distant wars rarely remain distant. What began as a regional confrontation between the US, Israel and Iran has evolved into a strategic shock wave reverberating far beyond the Persian Gulf. For Taiwan, the consequences are immediate, material and deeply unsettling. From Taipei’s perspective, the conflict has exposed two vulnerabilities — Taiwan’s dependence on imported energy and the risks created when Washington’s military attention is diverted. Together, they offer a preview of the pressures Taiwan might increasingly face in an era of overlapping geopolitical
RSS