Pro-independence groups back Hsieh for president
THE CHOICES: Academic Tsay
Ting-kuei said the DPP lost the legislative elections because it did a poor job,
but the KMT does not deserve to govern because it buys votes
By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jan 18, 2008, Page 3
Pro-independence groups yesterday endorsed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), saying Taiwan cannot afford to return
to one-party rule following the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) victory in
Saturday's legislative elections.
The DPP suffered a bruising defeat in Saturday's elections, securing only 27 out
of 113 legislative seats. The KMT won 81 seats, securing a comfortable
two-thirds majority in the legislature.
Northern Taiwan Society president Chang Shyue-yih (張學逸) told the press
conference that it was dangerous to let one party control both the Cabinet and
legislature.
The nation's democracy could have a slim chance of survival if Hsieh is elected,
he said.
Former senior presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) called on the DPP and
its supporters to be patient in the run-up to the presidential election in
March.
Koo said Hsieh has the full support of pro-independence groups.
Although the DPP won only 36 percent of the second-ballot legislative vote, the
support base is secure, he said.
Reverend Kao Chun-ming (高俊明) of the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan described the
DPP's election defeat as the defeat of the Taiwanese people. He urged the DPP
and voters to be humble and admit their mistakes.
But the public has no time to mourn the loss, because they must focus on the
next election, he said.
Former senior presidential adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培) said he did not dare to
imagine what would happen if the executive and legislative branches of the
government were both controlled by one party again.
Wu said the public should give the DPP a second chance and the DPP must engage
in introspection and rekindle the public's passion.
Taiwan Association of University Professors chairman Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) said
the DPP had lost the legislative elections because it did a poor job at
governing the nation.
But the KMT does not deserve to govern, because it buys votes, Tsay said.
In light of the failure of the two referendums held in conjunction with the
legislative elections, Tsay proposed a referendum seeking the abolition of the
Referendum Law (公投法) and another on changing the electoral system for the
legislative elections.
Freedom House reports global liberties suffering
SETBACKS: According to the report, China remained the world's most populous
'not free' country as the government continued to crack down on dissidents
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA, NEW YORK
Friday, Jan 18, 2008, Page 4
Washington-based Freedom House, an NGO that rates countries' freedom based on
surveys detailing their political rights and civil liberties, announced on
Tuesday that global freedom suffered notable setbacks last year but saw Asia as
a bright spot, with democratic success stories in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
India and Indonesia.
Last year, a total of 193 countries were included in the survey.
Results show that 90 countries, or 47 percent of the total reviewed, were judged
to be free, 60 countries or 31 percent as partly free and 43 countries or 22
percent as not free.
A free country is defined as one where there is a broad scope for open political
competition, a climate or respect for civil liberties, significant independent
civic life and an independent media.
Countries in Western Europe and North America were mostly in the free nation
category. In Asia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have been rated as free
countries in recent years.
The 60 partly free countries, according to the report, may suffer from an
environment of corruption, weak rule of law, and ethnic and religious strife.
Many countries in Africa and some former Soviet republics were placed in this
category.
The percentage of countries found "not free" remained the highest in the Middle
East and north Africa, while Cuba, Libya, North Korea and Burma were rated the
worst because of the absence of basic political rights and civil liberties.
According to the report, China remained the world's most populous "not free"
country. The regime continued to crack down on political activists, journalists
and human rights lawyers.
Preparations for this year's Olympic Games have contributed to China's
antidemocratic environment, with millions of people forcibly moved to make way
for Olympic facilities and new restrictions placed on ethnic and religious
minorities.
The report also indicates the resurgence of pragmatic, market-oriented, or
energy-rich dictatorships. The trend of governments trying to harness the power
of the marketplace while maintaining closed political systems is most visible in
Russia and China, but also in other parts of the world.
Taiwanese
be proud
Friday, Jan 18, 2008, Page 8
The resounding defeat of the indendependence-leaning ruling party in the recent
legislative elections must have been profoundly depressing to those who hoped
for self-determination for Taiwan.
The defeat may look like a forfeiture of self-determination. However, Taiwanese
democracy has survived a very bitter contest between the pro-Taiwan and
pro-China groups, without significant civic unrest. Moreover, it has also
overcome the subversive threat of China's united front tactics.
As such, Taiwanese should hold their heads up high and treasure the preservation
of this most remarkable democracy. The decision of the majority prevailed, and
all issues can be resolved by peaceful means.
The extraordinary tolerance shown by the pro-Taiwan group to the anti-democratic
provocations by the opposition should not be considered cowardice. Instead, it
should be rewarded handsomely in future elections.
The legislative responsibilities of rooting out corruption in the government,
reinvigorating the economy and safeguarding Taiwan's sovereignty are now
entirely in the hands of the pro-China group. The pro-Taiwan group will be in
the driver's seat to oversee the performance of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
A free press and free speech, which had been carefully nurtured by the ruling
party during the last eight years, will also scrutinize the promises made by the
KMT before the elections.
With a firmly established democracy, it will be impossible for the KMT to
resurrect the past autocratic regime. In March, the pro-Taiwan group will have
another chance to prove that its relentless pursuit of democracy is most
beneficial to all Taiwanese.
Samuel Yang
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
A beautiful
country
Friday, Jan 18, 2008, Page 8
As a Canadian who lived in Taiwan for three years, I feel compelled to speak
about last Saturday's elections.
I do not pretend to understand all the intricacies of Taiwanese politics and
culture.
But what I do want to say to all Taiwanese is that you already have an
interesting, vibrant, beautiful country that charms people who visit it, even
for a short time. It would take too many pages to write about all the wonderful
experiences I have been fortunate to have in Taiwan. I consider my years there
as the best of my life, and I will be forever grateful for all the things I
learned in Taiwan.
I spent some weeks in China during that time as well. I wish I had not. In all
the cities I visited in China, I found none of the sparkle and charm of Taiwan.
I saw only downtrodden people, children begging on the streets, a tense
atmosphere everywhere and horrible pollution. I am not implying that all of
China is all of those things, or that China has no positive qualities, but my
experience there was very negative.
Aside from my personal experience, China's horrible environmental and human
rights records are very well-known. I was so thankful to get back to Taiwan
after those weeks.
As I understand it, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has no interest in
furthering Taiwan as it is, or taking it to its full potential. From all the
information I can gather, the KMT will only use Taiwan to further its own ends,
possibly eventually making it unrecognizable from the place it is today.
I frequently hear from my Taiwanese friends and acquaintances a wish that Taiwan
was "more," "bigger," "grander" and so on. Please look around at your wonderful
country, which bears much less resemblance to China than most people know and
realize what a wonderful place it is and all its potential to be even more.
Please don't allow fear, or short-term thinking to give the KMT -- or anyone --
the power to harm or destroy such a wonderful place as Taiwan.
Hayley Swinamer
Canada
Undemocratic KMT
Friday, Jan 18, 2008, Page 8
If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has a conscience, it should feel ashamed
of benefiting a great deal from the recent legislative elections.
Many people did not vote for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates
because of the poor performance of the DPP government and several corruption
cases. However, the KMT is partly responsible for the DPP administration's poor
performance because KMT legislators repeatedly boycotted proposed government
projects and disapproved or cut budgets, including the national and defense
budgets. The KMT would rather see the DPP government fail than allow it to
operate smoothly.
The past eight years also saw persistent conflict between the central government
and the KMT-controlled Taipei City Government, which appears bent on
implementing a "one nation, two systems" in Taiwan. Determined to oppose the
government, the KMT continues to worship dictatorship, wears its "China" hat and
is committed to "ultimate unification."
Corruption by government officials and their family members should be condemned.
But the fact is the KMT is not any cleaner than the DPP. In last Saturday's
referendums, 91.5 percent of the valid votes cast were in favor of asking the
KMT to return its stolen assets and 58.2 percent were in favor of punishing
corrupt officials. Unfortunately, both issues were defeated partly because of
the KMT's campaign to boycott the referendums, including the one it proposed.
Strangely, the KMT was afraid of a high turnout of voters.
In spite of the fatal setback the DPP suffered, DPP members have displayed
sportsmanship. In contrast, after the last two presidential elections in 2000
and 2004, the KMT and other pan-blue party members protested loudly and
violently in the streets day and night for several months. Taiwan needs
democracy with sportsmanship.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
DPP loss part of democratic process
By Cao Changqing 曹長青
Friday, Jan 18, 2008, Page 8
THE RESULT OF the legislative elections was difficult for everyone in the
pan-green camp. Questions abound on why it happened and what the green camp
should do next. Pro-pan-blue media have given two explanations for the results:
It was a vote of no confidence in President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), and it was the
result of the deep-greens taking the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) hostage.
There are two reasons why the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is making much of
these interpretations. First, the KMT wants to lead the public into thinking
that Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the party's presidential candidate, is most likely to
be elected. And second, the KMT wants to lure the DPP into adopting a more
moderate line, thus putting a stop to the normalization of the country and
weakening the confidence of pan-green supporters.
A closer look at the election system and structure would reveal the reasons
behind the DPP loss.
First, the change to a new single-member district, two-vote system. In 2005,
former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) went on a hunger strike to call for a
reduction in the number of legislative seats. This came from an idealistic view
of politics. However, the new system favored the KMT, with its stash of stolen
assets and huge and well organized power base. As a result, when a blue and a
green candidate competed for a seat in one district, the pan-blue candidate
obviously had the advantage. The day the new single-member district system was
decided on, the green camp's loss became unavoidable. The KMT won only 15
percent more votes than the DPP in the elections, but garnered 4.7 times the
number of seats. This shows just how much the pan-blue camp benefited from the
new voting system. For the pan-green camp, this was the bitter result of top
party members insisting on political correctness at the expense of political
reality.
A second cause of the DPP loss was the vote captains. In Yunlin County, a
27-year-old woman who had just finished her studies, never been elected to any
local council and lacked political experience and qualifications became a
egislator because her father had a large power base in the area. This happened
while many honest, skilled, senior legislators lost, demonstrating the
effectiveness of a vote captain culture at the grassroots level. The KMT has at
least 250 times more assets than the DPP and can support its vote captain
culture with injections of cash. This made the election battle very unbalanced,
but it is the price the country had to pay for a peaceful transfer of power, and
it must be endured.
The third reason behind the DPP loss was the economy. Since the green camp came
to power, the Chinese Communist Party, together with the KMT, has lamented the
state of affairs in Taiwan, exaggerating Taiwan's economic problems and saying
the public couldn't make ends meet because the DPP government was ineffective.
Even former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) went along with this and talked about
how the public was suffering. And with the KMT-controlled media contributing to
the distortion of facts and reinforcing this message of an economic malaise,
many were swayed.
A fourth reason was overly high expectations. After the fall of communist
regimes in Eastern Europe, most democratic parties that came to power faced the
same problem after taking office for the first time: very high expectations from
the public. As soon as a member of the government was found to be corrupt, the
party's supporters became enraged. The old media added fuel to the fire and, as
a result, the public became even less forgiving of the new government than the
old one. Often, democratic governments that had come to power in these new East
European democracies lost in the next elections. However, as the public
gradually gained more faith in democracy, the democratic parties became more
successful.
Under the KMT and China's watch, Taiwan's situation is more difficult than that
of East European countries. The DPP may have suffered in the elections, but as
long as Taiwanese don't give up their faith in democracy and remain steadfast in
upholding Taiwanese identity, Taiwan can still succeed in its quest for
normalization. The pan-green camp must now leave all its old complaints behind,
refrain from fingerpointing, stop being discouraged or disappointed and put all
its efforts into winning over the public and outrunning the KMT in the March
presidential election.
Cao Changqing is a political
commentator based in the US.