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KMTˇ¦s
ill-gotten assets issue on Oct 25, 2004 DPP
taking KMT to task on ill-gotten assets issue By
Jewel Huang Last
week, the entire Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), including party
heavyweights and local candidates, intensified their attacks against the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) for its assets looted from the state coffers. The DPP
clearly plans to utilize this issue in order to put the KMT on the defensive,
analysts say, and thereby help ensure that the pan-green camp wins a legislative
majority in December. "Although
we are confident about our stand on other issues, including the arms procurement
bill and the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute, we
find that people care a lot about the KMT's ill-gotten assets," said DPP
Information and Culture Department Director Cheng Wen-tsan. Cheng
said that DPP polls showed that voters regarded the first two issues as wars of
words between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, from which they feel distant.
But the KMT assets issue hits a raw nerve, because the party has never tried to
correct their past mistakes and has instead kept trying to cover them up, Cheng
said. "We
found that voters were generally repulsed by the KMT's dishonesty," Cheng
said. "Therefore, demanding that the KMT disgorge its ill-gotten gains will
become our main campaign theme, and will also highlight the DPP's determination
for reform." Some
high-level DPP campaign aides jokingly compared the KMT assets issue to a debit
card and ATM machine it can use to steal votes from the pan-blue camp. "If
the KMT still brazenly holds on to the money and properties it stole from the
country and refuses to return them, this issue will continue to be an ATM
machine for the DPP to withdraw votes from the KMT," said DPP caucus whip
Tsai Huang-liang. DPP
Deputy Secretary-General Chung Chia-pin said whenever elections came around,
high-ranking KMT officials always vow that they will deal with the party assets
issue, yet they never seem to get around to doing that after they're elected. "It
was the KMT who gave the DPP the pin number of this `debit card' and it was the
KMT who broke its promises," Chung said. "The KMT has disarmed itself
in these elections because of its dishonesty and greed." In
fact, long before Taiwan's first "rotation of political parties" in
2000, the KMT violated social justice, Chung said. However, compared with other
newly democratic countries that passed power from authoritarian regimes to
democratic government, Taiwan is one of the few countries that did not undergo
the course of "transitional justice," said Peter Huang, an advisor to
the president and former president of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights. "The
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial still stands there. Many people still worship Chiang's
family and feel deep emotions whenever they recall them," Huang said. According
to the UN definition, transitional justice considers both judicial and
nonjudicial responses to human rights crimes, which might include prosecuting
individual perpetrators, offering reparations to victims of state-sponsored
violence, establishing truth-seeking initiatives about past abuse and reforming
institutions like the police and the courts. "The
KMT assets issue is also included in the concept of transitional justice,"
Chung said. The fact that Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou enthroned the Chiangs as the
key promoters of Taiwan's democracy and said that the DPP raised the issue of
the KMT's assets in order to sabotage the ethnic harmony were examples of how
Taiwan has lacked transitional justice. "From
the perspectives of elections or justice, the KMT has to return money that does
not belong to them and show sincerity on this issue if they do want to be
recognized by the people of Taiwan," Chung said.
Cross-strait
row a regional issue: Lu HELP
NEEDED: The vice president said that in the age of globalization, Taiwan
belonged to the world, and said a regional effort to tackle the cross-strait
problem is needed Vice
President Annette Lu yesterday solicited the support of nations around the world
in Taiwan's efforts to resume long-stalled cross-strait dialogue. Noting
that Beijing has been working toward becoming a hegemonic power in the region,
Lu appealed to governments across the globe to recognize and appreciate Taiwan's
determination in maintaining and upholding peace across the Taiwan Strait. Lu
said that in light of Beijing's ambitions, the so-called Taiwan issue is not an
issue between just two nations, but instead a regional issue that requires
regional efforts to tackle successfully. The
vice president made the remarks during an audience at the Presidential Office
with a group of foreign academics and opinion leaders who are in Taipei to take
part in the Workshop on International Negotiations and Conflict Resolution
sponsored by National Chengchi University. Lu's
guests included Jacob Bercovitch, dean of the Institute of Mass Communications
Studies of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Norbert Ropers, director
of Sri Lanka Department of the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies; and Zhao
Quansheng, a director with the Institute of International Affairs, American
University of the US. The
vice president said that the people of Taiwan have for a long time been
ingenious in finding ways to prevent an outbreak of war in the Strait. Taiwan
is one of the very few countries in the world that has continued to survive
under persistent and long-term political and military threats from a neighboring
country and diplomatic isolation in the international community, Lu said. The
world may have recognized Taiwan's economic miracle and its political
democratization, but the "miracle of peace" that Taiwan has achieved
needs greater recognition, Lu added. She
said that the last thing that the Beijing leadership wanted to see was the
re-election of President Chen Shui-bian and herself, despite the fact that she
and Chen extended olive branches to Beijing on at least 30 occasions between
2000 and this year. Lu
noted that in his Double Ten National Day speech, President Chen suggested that
the two sides of the Strait build a mutual trust military mechanism, enter an
era of cross-strait peace negotiations and conduct arms control talks. His
words were aimed at facilitating a resumption in the long-stalled cross-strait
dialogue, Lu noted. She
stressed that in the era of globalization, the concepts of cross-strait
unification and Taiwan independence are both "outdated," saying that
Taiwan does not belong to China. "Taiwan belongs to the world," she
asserted. Meanwhile,
the legislative caucus of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said
yesterday that next year is the best time for Taiwan and China to resume
cross-strait talks as there are no national elections scheduled in Taiwan and
since this December's legislative elections will create a new situation across
the Strait. In
related news, Joanne Chang, deputy representative of the Taipei Economic and
Cultural Representative Office in Washington DC, yesterday urged the US not to
make concessions to China on the Taiwan issue and to instead take concrete
actions to encourage the two sides of the Strait to resume dialogue. Chang
said at the annual conference of the American Association for Chinese Studies
that Beijing will be more reluctant to hold talks with Taiwan if the
international community makes more concessions to Beijing. Washington
should be willing to play the role of promoter of cross-strait talks even though
it is not willing to be a mediator, Chang said. Taiwan
appreciates the efforts made by the US in promoting a resumption of the
cross-strait talks, she added.
Australian
government to toughen anti-terror laws
The
Australian government, re-elected with an increased majority two weeks ago,
announced plans yesterday to toughen its counterterrorism legislation after
previous efforts were stalled in the Senate. Attorney-General
Philip Ruddock said the government sees an urgent need to pass three security
bills which were before the upper house when the election was called. Among
proposed measures is legislation giving more powers to the key Australian
Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) and federal police to use listening
devices, intercept emails and prevent the release of classified information
during court hearings of terrorism cases. "It
can be quite an impediment to the organizations, such as ASIO, to outline the
methods they use, the equipment that they have, to outline human intelligence
that they may have received which could identify people who are still involved
in providing information to them," Ruddock told commercial television here.
"To
do so in open court exposes to risk your ongoing inquiries." Ruddock's
statement followed last week's decision by Australia's most populous state, New
South Wales, to give counterterrorism police increased powers to carry out
covert surveillance to help destroy extremist cells. State
Premier Bob Carr said the new powers would allow counterterrorist police to
obtain covert search warrants which would allow them to enter homes, conduct
searches and install listening devices without the resident being informed. The
federal government has significantly toughened its anti-terror laws since the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US and the Bali bombings which claimed 202 lives,
88 of them Australian, in October 2002. But it was prevented by opposition
parties from going as far as it wanted. The
opposition used its upper house majority in the previous parliament to refer the
legislation to a Senate committee, effectively stalling it until it lapsed when
the election was called and parliament prorogued. However, in the Oct. 9 poll
the government won an increased majority and, although the Senate vote is still
being counted, appears likely to win effective control of the house with at
least 38 of the 76 seats.
To
remain competitive, nation needs to be unified By
Franklin Lee The
World Economic Forum (WEF) recently published the annual Global
Competitiveness Report 2004-2005. Taiwan ranked No. 4 among 104 countries
and came out on top in Asia, retaining the No. 1 position in competitiveness in
the region. It is truly remarkable that in global competitiveness, Taiwan
follows only Finland, the US and Sweden, up one place from last year. In
the WEF's 1999 report, although Taiwan was also ranked No. 4 globally -- after
Singapore, the US and Hong Kong -- it was No. 3 in Asia. Five years later,
Singapore and Hong Kong dropped to No. 7 and No. 21 respectively. From a
political perspective, Hong Kong's competitiveness has been in decline since the
territory was handed over to China in 1997. China itself dropped to No. 46 from
the No. 32 position in only five years. The
WEF's annual report is mainly based on eight factors: Openness of an economy;
role of the government; development of financial markets; quality and quantity
of infrastructure; quality of technology; quality of business management;
efficiency and flexibility of labor markets; and the quality of judicial and
political institutions. It is thus evident that all these are directly or
indirectly related to an economy's political environment. As
for Taiwan, its supply of laborers has become worse every year. Also, the
government's economic policy is unstable, and the fairness and stability of its
judicial system still awaits improvement. What Taiwan has to be introspective
about the most is the government's credibility and the efficiency of public
policies. Apart from the chaotic legislature that has damaged Taiwan's image and
the government's implementation of public policies, I believe that we also have
to reform the attitude and efficiency of public servants. From
an educational perspective, among the above eight factors, the one the least
affected by politics is perhaps technology. As expected, Taiwan has been in the
top three globally in this category over the past few years, and ranked No. 2
this year. Rather than our technology education, the WEF's report focuses on our
outstanding manufacturing industry and excellent engineers. In fact, traditional
engineering departments and institutes are unable to cultivate the engineering
talent that we need today. Although curriculum reform for engineering schools
has always been a hot topic, much is said but little has been done. Many
universities are now developing various inter-department or inter-school
academic programs -- including micro-electro mechanical engineering,
semiconductor design and manufacturing, and nano-material and technology -- in
order to fulfill the industry's needs. As
far as public universities are concerned, it is easier for them to develop new
programs with their abundant resources. But the Ministry of Education has
delayed acknowledgement of the legitimacy of such programs or diplomas, which
has reduced students' willingness to participate in these programs. Private
universities are hesitant to create new programs, in order not to crowd out
existing programs and teachers. As a result, the industry often needs to educate
its employees itself. Today,
we are proud to be the world's No. 4 and Asia's No. 1 in terms of
competitiveness. Hopefully, this great honor will bring us self-confidence and
self-respect, and eliminate people's conflicts over different ideologies, so we
can come together and march into the future together. If we can unite, this tiny
nation will certainly become the world's most competitive country in the near
future. Franklin
Lee is the dean of the School of Engineering at Chinese Culture University.
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