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Rights progress
criticized
By Su Yung-yao / Staff Reporter
Ahead of Human Rights Day today, Taiwan Brain Trust yesterday published a report
claiming that Taiwan has moved backward on human rights issues under the
administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Discussing the development of human rights over the past three years, Charles Lo
(羅承宗), an assistant professor of financial and economic law at Chungyu Institute
of Technology, said several incidents showed the nation has made no progress on
human rights, including the broadcasting contract renewal dispute between New
Tang Dynasty and Chunghwa Telecom and the government’s decision to suppress
protesters when Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman
Chen Yun-lin (陳雲林) visited Taiwan.
“Ma said he would execute judicial reform during his term. Judging from the
number of people detained for political reasons, however, the human rights
situation in Taiwan’s judicial system has actually backtracked to a level that
can [be compared to] that in China,” Lo said at a press conference hosted by the
think tank.
Referring to a remark made by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) that unpaid leave was an
innovation that deserves a Nobel Prize, Lo said Taiwan has become a welfare
state for government employees, teachers and the military.
These examples show that Ma’s administration is behaving ridiculously, Lo said.
The report said the incidents illustrating an erosion of human rights under Ma’s
administration were “too numerous to record,” but it said the controversy over
the musical Dreamers (夢想家) demonstrates how Ma’s administration has also drawn
the wrath of members of the artistic community who believe the government used
the arts to promote a political agenda.
Former Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄), who also presented at
the press conference, said Taiwan was in the process of transforming itself into
a free democratic country, but the nation’s human rights record has plummeted in
the past three years.
“The main reason is that the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] has not changed
from being a totalitarian party,” he said. “Many who are in higher authority do
things that trample on human rights.”
Hsu said the nation’s human rights record had become worse because of several
factors.
Apart from the “outdated human rights concepts” held by government employees,
Ma’s administration treats Taiwan as a district under the “one China” framework,
rather than adopting the position of “one country on each side,” he said.
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