Everyone knows a leopard cannot change its spots. Why do people forget this when it comes to politics? It seems that humans have a terrible memory.
By nature, we are willing to turn a blind eye and sacrifice morality for personal gain, determined to win, by means fair or foul. In the end, all we achieve is a temporary victory, having lost sight of what really matters. Our nation and the next generation are being placed in jeopardy for the sake of getting what we want.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), its presidential candidate, consistently spouts nonsense and lies and, after entering politics, has continued to use discriminatory language. All of this displays his ignorance. His statements have garnered much attention, but also polluted our politics. His words conjure up the feeling of some bizarre creature, shocking and frightening. People are mesmerized by everything that comes out of his mouth and forget what they have known him to be.
As a surgeon, Ko was accused of live organ harvesting and crimes against humanity, which should have tipped us off that he was someone to be avoided. It has been a decade since Ko first ran for Taipei mayor. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the media and pundits still respect, embrace and collaborate with him. Why?
Out of political and personal need, hypocrites have chosen to ignore public welfare and justice. They are all complicit in endangering our nation.
The DPP, helping Ko win the 2014 local election and Taipei mayoral election, was the trigger, and for that it must take responsibility.
The KMT, now seeking an alliance with the TPP, is still willing to indulge this serial fabricator. The KMT should take a long, hard look at what it is about to do, and yet it seems hell-bent on doing just the opposite.
Few people in the media have publicly repented for the mistakes that have led us to this sorry impasse. Politicians, always on the lookout for their own personal benefit and sacrificing the good of the public, would be loath to accept responsibility or apologize for spawning this creature.
Taiwanese should consider their national dignity. Politicians and voters should not focus on short-term benefits. They should learn lessons from how they voluntarily or subconsciously engage in the invention of a political monster. It is high time that Ko be disqualified from interfering in political affairs. This is the most that we could hope to salvage from this litany of errors, just as garbage becomes valuable only after it is recycled and reused.
Ten Len-phone is a retired radio program host.
Translated by Hsieh Yi-ching
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
Most schoolchildren learn that the circumference of the Earth is about 40,000km. They do not learn that the global economy depends on just 160 of those kilometers. Blocking two narrow waterways — the Strait of Hormuz and the Taiwan Strait — could send the economy back in time, if not to the Stone Age that US President Donald Trump has been threatening to bomb Iran back to, then at least to the mid-20th century, before the Rolling Stones first hit the airwaves. Over the past month and a half, Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz, which is about 39km wide at
The ongoing Middle East crisis has reinforced an uncomfortable truth for Taiwan: In an increasingly interconnected and volatile world, distant wars rarely remain distant. What began as a regional confrontation between the US, Israel and Iran has evolved into a strategic shock wave reverberating far beyond the Persian Gulf. For Taiwan, the consequences are immediate, material and deeply unsettling. From Taipei’s perspective, the conflict has exposed two vulnerabilities — Taiwan’s dependence on imported energy and the risks created when Washington’s military attention is diverted. Together, they offer a preview of the pressures Taiwan might increasingly face in an era of overlapping geopolitical
There is a peculiar kind of political theater unfolding in East Asia — one that would be laughable if its consequences were not so dangerous. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on April 12 returned from Beijing, where she met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and spoke earnestly about preserving “peace” and maintaining the “status quo.” It is a position that sounds responsible, even prudent. It is also a fiction. Taiwan is, by any honest definition, an independent country. It governs itself, defends itself, elects its leaders, and functions as a free and sovereign democracy. Independence is not a
RSS