PRESIDENT Chen Shui-bian (
Even worse, there are those, like Kuan Hsiu-chin (
It has been 10 years since prostitution became criminalized. As everyone knows, Taiwan's sex industry has not since vanished. These destitute streetwalkers have to run from the police, and are often controlled by criminal gangs or forced to provide sexual services to police officers for free.
Meanwhile, public representatives, supported by money from taxpayers, can saunter blatantly into "bars" or "hospitality houses" and publicly engage in extramarital affairs after they legislate laws that the public are expected to follow.
Licensed prostitution once provided an outlet for the sexual desires of laborers and the lonely, allowing them to find solace in the coldest and most inhospitable cities.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) recently said they would aim to the center-left of the political playing field. During television appearances, senior members emphasize that the TSU will care especially for the middle class and the disadvantaged. In reality, this is more claptrap aimed at winning the applause of the public with impressive words.
The values and interests of the middle and lower classes frequently clash, and the abolition of licensed prostitution is a classic example. Even so, middle class feminists have been hopeful that the unjust law, which prosecutes prostitutes but not their clients, can be changed to punish both parties. Yet this completely ignores the current social climate in Taiwan, and merely adds another law that contrives to do good while further oppressing the lower classes.
For the coming elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the TSU each put together a list of legislators-at-large headed by candidates known for their focus on social-welfare, trying to emphasize that their party cares for the destitute. Indeed, no one would disagree that those with physical disabilities require the care of focused resources from the government.
By comparison, how is it that those who hide miserably in dark alleys and streets do not even have the right to a means of livelihood? If political parties only choose to confront non-controversial issues, to win votes based on topics on which there is already a consensus, then all parties must congregate toward the center, and vie for the support of the middle class. Then who will articulate the needs of those at the bottom of the social ladder?
If the people are to believe that "center left" is not an empty slogan, the TSU must find a route divergent from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the DPP's tendencies toward populism and their habit of huddling where the capital clusters. Why not propose a refreshing new political platform?
Whether the sex industry should be legalized is an issue that incites conservatism from the pan-blue camp and evasive dodging from the pan-green camp, and will certainly be a high benchmark for whether their route is truly left leaning.
Cheng Wei-chun is a lecturer at Banciao Community University and a member of the Shih Hsin University Street Persons' Workshop.
Translated by Angela Hong
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