Support the Sunflowers
Though Taiwan is a young democracy, it “has freedom of speech and assembly; its elections are vibrant and competitive; it has gone through two changes of ruling parties through elections; and it has enjoyed a very peaceful democratization,” said Dafydd Fell, deputy director of the Centre of Taiwan Studies at the University of London, during the Sunflower movement in March last year.
There is no doubt that democracy is one of the most valuable assets of Taiwan.
The core demand of the Sunflower movement has been and still is the political and administrative transparency and accountability in the government, particularly when President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration enters any pact with China.
After their modest demand was repeatedly rebuffed, the students resorted to peaceful civil disobedience which ultimately led to a protest joined by half a million Taiwanese expressing their strong support of the Sunflower movement.
The North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association (NATPA) is gravely concerned about the current indictment of the Sunflower students and leaders, including Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌).
Huang recently received the Professor CY Lee Memorial Award (紀念李鎮源教授社會貢獻獎) at the NATPA 2014 Annual Conference for his exemplary efforts in safe-guarding Taiwan’s democracy and his contribution to society and humanity.
The persecution of these patriotic students and a distinguished academic such as Huang by the Ma government could only erode Taiwan’s democracy, which has been hard-earned through decades of sacrifice by numerous activists both in Taiwan and overseas.
NATPA and its members strongly urge the Ma administration to cease immediately the indictment of Sunflower movement activists. We remind the government that this persecution will only damage the international reputation of Taiwan and Taiwan’s continued transformation into a mature democracy.
Charles Hsu
President and board of directors of NATPA
KMT looking wrong way
In a recent piece in Foreign Policy, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信) addresses several of the reasons why the party fared so poorly in the Nov. 29 elections last year, suggesting changes necessary to improve the party’s chances in next year’s presidential and legislative elections. While critics might dismiss Chen’s suggestions as focusing on cosmetic factors over substance (eg the party’s use of social media), the underlying problem is evident: the KMT requires a serious change in campaign strategy.
Under this lens, recent rumors following New Taipei City Mayor and KMT Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) meeting with the People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) of KMT-PFP cooperation next year appear contradictory to reforming the party and might do little to prevent the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) building off its recent successes.
Chu’s moves to seek advice from Soong and Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) appear to be an attempt to separate his potential presidential candidacy from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and to appeal to a broader slice of the Taiwanese public, potentially linking his candidacy to popular figures that bolted from the KMT.
Recent TVBS polls suggesting greater support for DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) than Chu or other potential KMT candidates might even fuel KMT concern about candidate viability.
Such efforts toward Soong in particular are rational if the goal is to prevent the PFP from running a presidential candidate. However, returning to the well of pan-blue coordination does little to rejuvenate the party and may signal the party’s disconnect with a changing Taiwan.
Even worse, far-fetched rumors of a co-nominated Soong presidential candidate only serve to suggest that the KMT have little faith in their own candidates or worse, that potentially viable KMT candidates such as Chu expect a KMT electoral defeat and would rather live to fight another day.
Even if coordination on a KMT presidential candidate prevents splitting the pan-blue vote, the history of intra-coalition squabbles provides plenty of fodder for the DPP. Furthermore, coordination talk ignores the difficult job of coordinating district candidates for the Legislative Yuan races, especially as the DPP appears primed to be more competitive in several districts.
Rather than looking to the past, the KMT would benefit from addressing the disconnect between growing social demands and the party’s outdated and often myopic focus on economic growth. Otherwise elections next year may look eerily similar to the results of last year.
Timothy Rich
Western Kentucky University
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