Democracy’s last chance
Taiwan’s democracy faces an unprecedented crisis. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is infiltrating our legislature and taking advantage of our democracy’s weaknesses to direct Taiwan to go the way of Hong Kong, gradually disintegrating our freedoms and democratic institutions to ultimately achieve its ambition to control Taiwan. In this battleground of critical national security battles, each Taiwanese needs to keep their guard up. This is because politics and economics are intimately tied — without a healthy political environment, stable economic development could never occur.
A few days ago, Tainan City Councilor Lee Chong-lim (李宗霖) of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party at a news conference criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposal for handing the majority of budget allocations over to local governments, pointing directly to issues with the policy, and revealing the deception and inequality behind the scenes. Lee’s actions are evidence that local councilors’ voices are crucial. Every public opinion survey shows that all politicians should be taking a stand like Lee, refuting the KMT’s and the Taiwan People’s Party’s (TPP) joint attempts to hobble our government. It is a stark reminder that far more members of the public need to understand what is happening.
Meanwhile, recall motions are spreading like wildfire. Recalls are not just a mechanism for opposing lawmakers who are unfit for office; they are an important means for citizens to protect democracy. Recall movements represent an opportunity to show once more that constituents have a right to choose, and are a symbol to the world expressing Taiwan’s steadfast safeguarding of democracy.
However, we must be clear that time might not be on Taiwan’s side. CCP infiltration strategies and KMT-TPP cooperation are being utilized to force our democratic system to oppose democracy itself, imperiling our freedoms. If we choose to stay silent, our future only becomes grimmer. Any hypocrisy and compromise would only serve to drag us several steps back toward dictatorship.
The KMT last month proposed budgets and senior citizen welfare laws that, frankly, are no different from paving a fast lane to CCP infiltration by increasing the inequality of domestic allocations toward citizens. These proposals have the appearance of being fair to everyone, but they sabotage Taiwan’s foundations. We need much braver and more rational voices to speak out and reveal their schemes and shadiness to protect our homeland.
The jump in recall drives across Taiwan is our most direct response against the CCP’s schemes. This latest wave could very well be the public’s final chance to ever use them again. If we do not stand up to the KMT and the TPP, our future choices might be strangled and be later misused as a tool to further disenfranchise true representation.
Shi Li
Tainan
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