It is a treacherous world out there, and it is quickly becoming even more dangerous. Taiwan needs to be prepared for very real external threats, and to be prepared to stand on its own.
The government’s ability to react to changes in the international situation has been hampered by political disunity at home. Legislators from the two main parties — the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — are facing a wave of recall motions. The Central Election Commission on Monday confirmed that the petitions to recall 32 KMT lawmakers have passed the first-phase review, while the motions to recall 12 DPP legislators are pending due to irregularities, with the petitioners given 10 days to meet the signature threshold.
The KMT is calling foul and saying that these numbers reflect intervention from the DPP; it is aware of, but prefers to distract from, the very real public ire that has led to this situation. It is not just that the KMT is reluctant to address the reasons behind the recalls; it has been fully cognizant that these were coming, ever since it — together with the Taiwan People’s Party — embarked on its program of controversial amendments in February last year.
It is the bane of the media in Taiwan that so much time, effort and print real estate are taken up with cross-strait issues and the threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Politicians and journalists alike would love to concentrate on pressing issues and reforms that would benefit the lives of Taiwanese. The obsessive focus on the CCP’s ambitions and lies is wearying, but it is the CCP’s obsessive focus on annexing Taiwan that necessitates this.
Pretending an existential threat does not exist is no answer.
In his article published in today’s paper, KMT assistant director of international affairs Chance Hsu (須予謙) writes about how the recall motion is disruptive and politically motivated, and notes that the KMT would prefer to concentrate on social and economic reforms in the interests of Taiwan’s long-term stability and development. He also writes that the opposition should be allowed to execute its duty of providing checks and balances, as he says it is simply doing its job of providing oversight to the government’s budget.
These are perfectly reasonable propositions, except for two glaring omissions. First, working for a prosperous future means little if the nation’s future is in jeopardy. Second, these proposals were only made once the opposition had wrought havoc in the legislature, gutting government finances and depleting the defense budget, as well as hobbling mechanisms of checks and balances on the legislature’s own power, namely the Constitutional Court and the public’s right of recall.
The aim of the KMT’s project has, quite transparently, been the depletion of the administration’s ability to govern, and laying the foundations to prevent sufficient pushback from constitutional institutions or the recall motions that it knew would happen.
One needs to ask where the KMT’s idea for a NT$10,000 handout came from. It would certainly be welcome. It is just that it feels a bit too much like a sweetener offered to the electorate to make it better disposed to the KMT, despite the chaos it has brought upon the political process.
Now the KMT is considering pushing for a referendum to keep the death penalty — which it knows will be a win for it, given the overwhelming public support for capital punishment — and possibly to have the referendum held on the same day as the recall votes, in an obvious ploy to boost voter turnout.
Concentrating on social issues and reform is certainly important; what Taiwanese do not need is the dismantling, disruption and distraction. National security matters, and the wave of recalls did not come from nowhere.
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