Avoiding ‘Animal House’
In the classic comedy movie Animal House, the dean of the university famously lectured a disheveled and intellectually deficient student, saying that “fat, stupid and drunk” is no way to go through life.
In his letter, Tien C. Cheng (Letters, Aug. 6, page 8) expresses some of the thoughts that I have had regarding major events of the past couple of years. I found it curious that Taiwanese kept voting for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates in the legislative election and then reinstalled the KMT in the presidency. How odd that so many people were willing to cede complete control of their future to a political party that persecuted them for decades.
Perhaps, not having lived in Taiwan, I’m simply out of touch with everyday Taiwanese folks. But then again, I don’t see large numbers of African-Americans voting for candidates openly affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. Nor do I hear of European Jews voting for candidates with neo-Nazi tendencies.
What are the possible reasons for this consistently odd pattern of voting? Naivete … maybe Ma will revive the economy and bring me a pay raise? Greed … let’s make money and forget the rest? Apathy … no interest in politics, someone else will do the heavy lifting? Fear … don’t want to speak up for fear of 228 Incident-style retaliation by the KMT? Brainwashing … from consuming only pro-KMT media?
Since the presidential election, National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall has reverted to being named after a dictator who murdered so many Taiwanese. What kind of nation tolerates such a symbolic reversal of freedom?
Taiwanese can’t depend on resident foreigners or overseas Taiwanese to make their case for progress. Either the people who didn’t vote for the KMT need to convince those who did to reconsider next time or those who didn’t participate will need to take a stand against the KMT.
I’m not saying that the Taiwanese population resembles the dean’s description of that student in Animal House, but “naive, apathetic and brainwashed” is not the path that one should be choosing consistently.
CARL CHIANG
Richmond, California
A case for ‘warts and all’
The struggle dominating US congressional politics before this year’s summer recess pits those insisting on perfection against those who would compromise for something feasible — but not without blemishes. This ideological tussle is threatening to stall the implementation of universal healthcare.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his supporters aim to create a similar conflict — with a far more disruptive effect — by preaching red-herring political morality to the Taiwanese public.
For more than a year, and with relentless assistance from the pro-China media, Ma has been hammering away at the immorality of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his family’s financial impropriety. This has succeeded in driving a wedge in the pan-green camp that has more or less crippled the opposition.
The pro-China media’s ability to manufacture a moral pedestal for Ma and the KMT has played a significant role in this regard.
Along the way, Ma’s handling of his municipal special fund has been whitewashed. Though Ma was acquitted by a string of “creative” judges, one could not help note that Ma’s behavior would have little success passing muster in ethical terms.
Ma’s sleight of hand was nonetheless miniscule compared with the wealth the KMT siphoned off Taiwan.
A law was recently drafted to battle official corruption by making asset unaccountability punishable by lengthy jail terms. This was quickly watered down because it had the potential to ruin the political lives of the KMT hierarchy — if the law applied to political organizations, the first entity to go under would be the KMT.
They may be unable to overlook Chen’s deviation from the moral norms of society, yet Taiwanese these days find themselves — at least involuntarily — honoring dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), the individual most responsible for ruining or ending the lives of tens of thousands of innocent Taiwanese.
Moral apartheid of this magnitude inevitably takes a toll: first, a collective loss of self-confidence, accompanied by fragmentation of unity. The two then feed on each other.
The feebleness of the Democratic Progressive Party helped to ensure the opposition’s almost intractable downward spiral.
Many international observers didn’t quite hit the mark when they predicted that the Taiwanese independence movement would be an immediate casualty of Chen’s downfall.
Instead, public polls reflect a continuing rise in Taiwanese consciousness in the year since Ma took office. It is society’s self-doubt on Taiwan’s ability to curb Ma’s attempt to put Taiwan on the wrong track that underscores the political damage wrought by the Chen debacle.
Fortunately, a growing number of Taiwanese have begun to compartmentalize Chen’s doings, lest they cloud the common cause.
Perhaps they will conclude that the “warts and all” approach beats “dying with dignity” hands down.
HUANG JEI-HSUAN
Los Angeles, California
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,
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
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
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