President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has no right to criticize the Hong Kong government over an extradition bill, as Taiwan is becoming increasingly undemocratic under her rule, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.
Ma made the remarks at an academic conference on democracy held by the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation and the Fair Winds Foundation in Taipei.
The Republic of China (ROC) appears to have turned into an authoritarian country after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) set up the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee to control the assets of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its “so-called” affiliates, Ma said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
As a result, the KMT was forced to lay off many of its staff and cannot even access its assets unless approved by the committee, he said.
“That an opposition party’s assets would be controlled by the ruling party is rarely seen anywhere in the world,” he said.
The Act Governing the Settlement 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) and the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), passed by the DPP-controlled legislature, seem to target the KMT, he said.
Both laws allowed the DPP administration to establish supposedly independent committees that are not actually independent and are likely unconstitutional, Ma said.
More than 400 of the people the Transitional Justice Commission exonerated at the end of last year were the Chinese Communist Party’s undercover agents, he said.
Their names can still be found at monuments in Beijing, he said, adding that exonerating them was inconsiderate for the families of those they allegedly killed.
Tsai’s “so-called” transitional justice does not bring reconciliation, but instead revives authoritarianism, he added.
While the extradition bill proposed by the Hong Kong government would undermine people’s freedom and democracy, “Tsai is worse” for making the DPP pass amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) last month to restrict people’s freedom and political rights, he said.
Tsai has no right to criticize the Hong Kong government, yet she used the issue to manipulate people into supporting her, he said.
As suggested in the book How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, a democracy dies when an authoritarian leader abuses their power to completely dominate an opposition party, Ma said.
“Is it not what is happening in Taiwan?” he asked.
The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel
‘FRIENDSHIP FLEET’: A CGA official is scheduled to meet with the president of the Pacific nation, while one of the ships is to host a banquet and National Day event Two Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessels have docked at Malakal Harbor in Palau as part of an expedition exercise and diplomatic visit, during which a senior official is expected to meet with Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr, the agency said yesterday. The two vessels, the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu, set sail for Palau from Taiwan last week and arrived on Tuesday at Malakal Harbor, the CGA’s Fleet Branch said in a statement. The journey marks the second time the CGA has dispatched a “friendship fleet” to another country, after it sent its first-ever goodwill fleet, comprising the Hualien and
A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said. The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123). The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) today said that two of its patrol vessels have docked at Palau's Malakal Harbor as part of an expedition exercise and diplomatic visit, during which a senior official is expected to meet with the Palauan president. The two vessels, the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi (嘉義) and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu (澎湖), set sail for Palau from Taiwan last week and arrived at Malakal Harbor yesterday, the CGA's Fleet Branch said in a statement. The journey marked the second time the CGA has dispatched a "Friendship Fleet" to another country, after it sent its first-ever goodwill fleet, comprising the Hualien (花蓮)
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