The wrong course
Dear Johnny,
On Dec. 10, right after awarding the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy’s (TFD) Asia Human Rights and Democracy Award, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) publicly instructed his Cabinet to sign the two UN Human Rights Conventions as soon as possible.
This was about as intelligent as Ma saying that the defeat of the 2004 referendums justified delaying arms purchases or that the defeat of last year’s referendums justified not applying for UN membership or, for that matter, UN membership under the name “Taiwan” when all of the referendums were boycotted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), thus insuring that the senseless 50 percent threshold could never be reached.
Regarding the conventions, signing and ratifying them would lead absolutely nowhere in terms of integrating international human rights bills into Taiwanese law, because they would never be deposited at the UN. The UN would never accept them as Taiwan is not a UN member. It would simply be good for a show, which Ma is definitely very good at staging (maybe the only thing).
Ma also ordered Cabinet members to orchestrate a response to the letters published in local papers by 22 scholars and Taiwan experts and to the letters of various international human rights and press rights organizations, all of which warned the public and the international community that we are indeed dancing to the strain of a Taiwan on the edge with regard to political freedom, justice and protection of human rights and a free press.
In these responses, the various authors (including the minister of justice), go on about how dearly they regard our democracy, impartial justice system, fair prosecuting methods, free press, etc, and how violent behavior by police during the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) did not constitute brutality and that more police were injured than demonstrators.
All this after Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) spoke publicly on you-know-which cases on Sisy Chen’s (陳文茜) TV talk show (the minister should have been sacked for this), videos showing police brutality, “deep green” reporters being interrogated about their relation to the Formosan Association for Public Affairs and other groups, a pro-Taiwan bookstore being ransacked, prosecutors appealing for former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) detention under KMT influence, press freedom suffering another blow with the KMT’s attempt to control the Public Television Service board and a host of former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials still being sought for questioning.
Oh, and what about KMT lawmakers trying to pass a third appeal to save their comrades from being ousted for vote-buying?
Ma should take seriously his old Harvard professor’s advice: Show leadership and create an independent inquiry on both police brutality and prosecutorial methods used for DPP officials.
If he takes human rights seriously, why doesn’t he do what he did with the cross-strait agreements and take a leaf from the DPP’s book? He could pass the human rights bill — drafted by the DPP with the assistance and supervision of the International Commission of Jurists — that is lying around at the legislature after being blocked by KMT and People First Party lawmakers. That would help keep Taiwan democratic.
A Concerned Canadian
Johnny replies: Maybe it all boils down to this: Ma never studied leadership at Harvard.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then