In his interview with Time magazine correspondent Natalie Tso (Oct. 16 issue), former political prisoner and Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-teh(
Answering a question about why he did not choose to leave the issue of President Chen Shui-bian's (
This is a very serious allegation that should be backed up by some solid evidence, not by suspicions, hearsay and the populist rantings of some bloodthirsty media personalities. Is Shih in possession of such evidence, or at least aware of its existence?
In another remark Shih said, "[But] when the legislators and president don't have the trust of the people and they [the people] have to wait till their term is over, that hurts the country more."
By this strange logic perhaps both US President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac should be removed immediately, since neither of them enjoys particularly good popularity ratings these days.
If Shih is unhappy with some of the legislators, what he should do is to mobilize enough of their constituents to vote for their recall. If he is unhappy with the president, then he and his friends should lobby the Legislative Yuan to censure and remove Chen. Self-styled "people's power" is but an euphemism for street power.
The most distressing remark Shih made during the entire interview was this: "But if President Chen doesn't resign, there will be no peace and stability in Taiwan."
No matter how noble Shih's intentions, this sounds like nothing but naked blackmail. One wonders what got into our romantic hero, our shining knight.
Shih played a significant part in making this country a democracy. One can only hope in his declining years he will show some more respect for the banner under which he once marched.
David Min is a political commentator based in Taipei.
They did it again. For the whole world to see: an image of a Taiwan flag crushed by an industrial press, and the horrifying warning that “it’s closer than you think.” All with the seal of authenticity that only a reputable international media outlet can give. The Economist turned what looks like a pastiche of a poster for a grim horror movie into a truth everyone can digest, accept, and use to support exactly the opinion China wants you to have: It is over and done, Taiwan is doomed. Four years after inaccurately naming Taiwan the most dangerous place on
Wherever one looks, the United States is ceding ground to China. From foreign aid to foreign trade, and from reorganizations to organizational guidance, the Trump administration has embarked on a stunning effort to hobble itself in grappling with what his own secretary of state calls “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.” The problems start at the Department of State. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that “it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power” and that the world has returned to multipolarity, with “multi-great powers in different parts of the
President William Lai (賴清德) recently attended an event in Taipei marking the end of World War II in Europe, emphasizing in his speech: “Using force to invade another country is an unjust act and will ultimately fail.” In just a few words, he captured the core values of the postwar international order and reminded us again: History is not just for reflection, but serves as a warning for the present. From a broad historical perspective, his statement carries weight. For centuries, international relations operated under the law of the jungle — where the strong dominated and the weak were constrained. That
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
RSS