A bill dealing with the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) “ill-gotten” party assets has finally passed into law — legislation that some have have promoted for two or three decades.
The Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) passed its third legislative reading on Monday after an 11-hour review.
This is an important milestone in Taiwan’s political development. On the surface, Taiwan has already implemented party politics and democratic elections, but in practice, it has all been a matter of unfair competition. The KMT has been relying on its party assets, massive party organization and staff, and incalculable political-economic social resources to gain an unfair advantage. This made it difficult for the opposition to challenge its status as the ruling party and allowed the KMT to remain in power for a long time.
Fortunately, the underdog does sometimes win, and that has helped change the political situation in Taiwan.
From weak demands at the beginning to the current strong public calls pushing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to take the lead and resolve the issue as soon as possible, this historic moment is likely to be the beginning of the rebirth of the KMT. It is also likely to be the beginning of fair competition between political parties and the first step toward transitional justice.
When addressing each article of the bill on Monday, legislators from the DPP and opposition parties engaged in debate. It was easy to hear who was right and who was wrong. Society at large made its decision on the party assets issue long ago, and voters have made it clear that money cannot be swapped for votes. Although previous KMT chairs have known that the issue would have to be addressed sooner or later, they were unwilling to give up the party’s vast riches, and the measures they implemented were too little, too late, and the party has now run out of time.
The party’s assets have been an important weapon for the KMT, but they have also been an albatross around its neck. In the elections of the past few years, opposition parties have used the issue as a way to win sympathy among the electorate, which has translated into votes in elections.
However, the KMT’s unwillingness to address the issue is also responsible for this outcome. Taiwan has given the KMT too much time and too many opportunities to clean up and resolve the issue, but the party was still unable to provide a concrete response to public demands during its time in government. The public is fed up with waiting, and as the DPP has now gained full control over the government, the KMT has missed its last opportunity to settle the issue with dignity.
The party has been reduced to chanting slogans such as “inappropriate,” “unconstitutional” and “White Terror” on the legislative floor, as it is unable to put forward a credible argument while it waits to be cut down to size.
The KMT legislative caucus’ original plan was to resist until the very last moment, but the momentum is gone, and even the party’s own legislators wanted to bring things to a close as soon as possible. KMT legislators only questioned the title of the act and some of the articles, while other issues were handled via the regular voting process — making it clear that they understood that it is only by ridding themselves of the curse of the party’s assets; reviewing the party’s policies and demands; learning how to adapt to the new situation; and moving closer to mainstream public opinion that the party would be able to stage a comeback.
If the KMT’s upper echelons or others in the pan-blue camp are unable to let things go and instead continue to accuse others of settling scores, the party will be unable to turn the crisis brought on by the loss of its assets into an opportunity for rebirth. Such a party will never be able to make a comeback.
US President Donald Trump last week told reporters that he had signed about 12 letters to US trading partners, which were set to be sent out yesterday, levying unilateral tariff rates of up to 70 percent from Aug. 1. However, Trump did not say which countries the letters would be sent to, nor did he discuss the specific tariff rates, reports said. The news of the tariff letters came as Washington and Hanoi reached a trade deal earlier last week to cut tariffs on Vietnamese exports to the US to 20 percent from 46 percent, making it the first Asian country
Life as we know it will probably not come to an end in Japan this weekend, but what if it does? That is the question consuming a disaster-prone country ahead of a widely spread prediction of disaster that one comic book suggests would occur tomorrow. The Future I Saw, a manga by Ryo Tatsuki about her purported ability to see the future in dreams, was first published in 1999. It would have faded into obscurity, but for the mention of a tsunami and the cover that read “Major disaster in March 2011.” Years later, when the most powerful earthquake ever
Chinese intimidation of Taiwan has entered a chilling new phase: bolder, more multifaceted and unconstrained by diplomatic norms. For years, Taiwan has weathered economic coercion, military threats, diplomatic isolation, political interference, espionage and disinformation, but the direct targeting of elected leaders abroad signals an alarming escalation in Beijing’s campaign of hostility. Czech military intelligence recently uncovered a plot that reads like fiction, but is all too real. Chinese diplomats and civil secret service in Prague had planned to ram the motorcade of then-vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and physically assault her during her visit to the Czech Republic in March last
As things heated up in the Middle East in early June, some in the Pentagon resisted American involvement in the Israel-Iran war because it would divert American attention and resources from the real challenge: China. This was exactly wrong. Rather, bombing Iran was the best thing that could have happened for America’s Asia policy. When it came to dealing with the Iranian nuclear program, “all options are on the table” had become an American mantra over the past two decades. But the more often US administration officials insisted that military force was in the cards, the less anyone believed it. After
RSS