President visits disputed islands

SEA POWER: The navy dispatched almost half its main warship strength plus a couple of submarines to provide protection for Chen Shui-bian on his trip to the Spratly Islands

By Shih Hsiu-chuan, Hsu Shao-hsuan and Jimmy Chuang
STAFF REPORTERS, WITH AGENCIES
Sunday, Feb 03, 2008, Page 1

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday made a landmark visit to the Spratly Islands (南沙群島) to visit Taiwan's military forces stationed there.

As the first president from Taiwan to ever set a foot on Taiping Island (太平島) -- the biggest in the Spratly chain and 1,000km south of Taiwan -- Chen's low-profile visit yesterday was also largely seen as a move to assert a sovereignty claim.

The Spratly Islands, a string of rocky outcrops in the South China Sea possibly holding large oil and gas deposits, are also claimed by China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

According to the Central News Agency, Chen boarded a C-130 transport plane before dawn at an air force base in Pingtung County, accompanied by Minister of National Defense Lee Tien-yu (李天羽), Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) and Coast Guard Administration Minister Wang Jinn-wang (王進旺).

While the Ministry of Defense declined to give further details, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) learned from sources that the navy, in order to provide sufficient protection for Chen, had sent two fleets with Kidd-class destroyers as flagships into the South China Sea, with almost half of the navy's main warships dispatched to the area. Two submarines also joined the mission.

A navy deployment this large has been rare in recent years.

Because the range of the air force's fighter aircraft is limited, the farthest point they can protect is the area around the Pratas Islands (東沙島). This is about 1200km away from Taiping Island, constituting too long a battle line.

The navy therefore formed two fleets of warships, using the radar of the Kidd-class destroyer, that has a range of more than 400km, to gather intelligence on their surroundings, while standard missiles have a range of 150 km. Combined with intelligence provided by allied countries, they formed an air corridor for the president's travel, sources said.

A statement released by the Presidential Office last night said the president, in addition to visiting Taiwanese forces stationed on Taiping also inspected an airstrip that was recently completed for maritime rescue work.

The 1,150m airstrip completed late last month will supplement Taiwan coastguard and military facilities on Taiping.

Vietnam has protested to Taiwan twice in the last two months as airstrip construction progressed. The Agence-France Presse said that Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said in a statement that it was "lamentable" that Chen had gone ahead with his plan to land on the island.

In his speech at the opening ceremony for the airstrip, Chen proposed a "Spratly Initiative," calling for countries in the South China Sea area to set aside sovereignty disputes and cooperate with each other to protect the Spratly's environment and resources.

Being one of the countries that claim sovereignty in the area, Chen said Taiwan would like to appeal for a peaceful solution to disputes in accordance with UN Charter and The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

"The sovereignty dispute should be replaced with environmental protection and depletion of resources should be replaced with sustainable ecology," he said, adding that Taiwan would like to accept the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea on the basis of equality among sovereign states and looks forward to participating in the establishment of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea in the future.

The Declaration was signed in 2002 by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with the aim of maintaining peace and stability in the area.

Among the four points of Chen's "Spratly Initiative," he advocated peaceful means of resolving territorial and jurisdiction controversies and suggested countries concerned agree to recognize the region as an ecological protection area where the depletion of resources would be forbidden.

Chen proposed a plan to have international ecologists and environmentalists conduct research around the area of Dong-sha Atoll, Taiping Island, and Jhongjhou Reef on a regular basis.

Chen also suggested the establishment of a research center for use by non-governmental organizations from the countries concerned, which he said could serve as a second track diplomatic channel to discuss cooperation issues without interference from the sensitive sovereignty issue.

Exporting Taiwan's culture


Sunday, Feb 03, 2008, Page 8

Feng Chien-san's opinion piece encouraged future leaders to pursue "video culture" ("New leader should take culture into video media," Jan. 31, page 8). There is a lot to be said on this subject and I'd like to add to the debate by calling for digital recordings of traditional Taiwanese performing arts with English subtitles.

Politicians have often promised to "export Taiwanese culture." But the tremendous talent of Ming Hua Yuan (明華園) and other Taiwanese opera troupes are still not available with English subtitles. There is a successful Puli puppet show (霹靂布袋戲) series in local video shops, but it is not subtitled in English. Other talented puppet troupes, opera companies, shadow puppet groups and Chinese-language theater companies have tremendous potential to impress foreign audiences.

But without subtitled recordings, these fine companies will remain invisible abroad.

Many digital recordings of fine performances do exist. None, to my knowledge, are subtitled in English. The argument that foreigners would not be able to appreciate the recordings does not hold, since the Taiwanese enjoy an immense amount of foreign cultural material, subtitled in Chinese. The problem is that marketing is inadequate. It's a large project, but not a particularly expensive one compared with sending performing companies abroad for limited engagements. Competent translators and native English-speaking editors would need to be hired to prepare subtitles, after which these recordings could be marketed abroad.

The first step is to target the descendents of Taiwanese abroad, who may be interested in learning more about their heritage, but may not have the language skills necessary.

Recordings of works in Mandarin, Hakka and Taiwanese could all find enthusiastic audiences abroad. A vast number of theater programs at English-speaking universities would buy the recordings. Various governments and private foundations are interested in promoting the cultures of China and Taiwan and could promote these programs. Taiwanese performing arts could be shown at film festivals and theaters. Once Taiwanese programs have been introduced and found large enough audiences, they could be offered by mainstream video rental outlets.

The value of this project is two-fold. The artists would be able to support themselves through increased sales of digital recordings, which would promote acting and puppetry as professions, attracting young people to make careers in threatened art forms. Beyond this noble objective, Taiwan's reputation -- as a valuable and unique part of world heritage -- would gain a great deal.

English should of course be the first language to create subtitles in, but we can assume that French, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese subtitles would quickly follow.

Once Taiwanese performing arts can delight the whole world, the whole world will support Taiwanese arts. Subtitling Taiwan's masterpieces would be to everyone's benefit and is a project that should be undertaken at once.

Christopher Logan
Ilan

DPP wrong about electoral system

By Samantha Wu 吳珊珊
Sunday, Feb 03, 2008, Page 8

After losing last month's legislative elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has deplored the fact that it received less than one-fourth of the seats in the legislature, despite winning 38 percent of the votes.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said this demonstrates the problem with the new electoral system. The DPP caucus has since said it would call for a constitutional interpretation of the new system.

The party seems to think that it didn't lose the elections because of ineffective governing, but rather because of problems with the drawing of district lines.

The DPP feels that the number of votes a party wins should be reflected in the number of seats it wins. Based on that idea, it argues that the new system violates the constitutional principle of electoral equality.

That conclusion is far-fetched.

In the 1962 US Supreme Court case of Baker v. Carr, the court ruled on Tennessee's electoral district system, which did not fairly represent the population. The state had refused to redraw district lines, which the court ruled was unconstitutional. The ruling protected the rights of voters, but did not require that Tennessee implement a system in which seats in the state assembly are handed out in direct proportion to the number of votes each party wins.

The US uses an electoral college for its presidential elections. In this system, each state has a certain number of electoral votes. Those votes are not split to reflect the votes cast by residents in that state, but rather are granted as a whole to one candidate. California, for example, has 55 electoral votes, and if a presidential candidate wins more than 50 percent of the votes in that state, that candidate receives all of California's 55 votes.

If the DPP's argument that such a system is unfair were correct, the US would already have abolished this system.

The DPP says that the amendment to the Constitution that says there should be a legislator for every county and city in Taiwan, so that small counties like Kinmen can have their own legislators, goes against the spirit of equality.

But in the US House of Representatives, all states are represented, large and small. Seats are allocated in proportion to the population of each state. Article 1, Section 2 of the US Constitution says that every state has the right to at least one seat in the House of Representatives. No one has ever questioned the fairness of this.

If the DPP is of the opinion that Kinmen and Matzu are too small too be represented in the legislature, then it wants voters on Taiwan proper to represent the interests of Kinmen and Matzu voters. Not everyone would say that's a good idea.

If we follow the DPP's argument, a system is only democratic if the number of votes a party obtains is reflected in the number of legislative seats the party gets.

But this is perhaps to misunderstand the meaning of democracy. Democracy means the public has the power to decide on matters of government. However, direct democracy is problematic in practice, which is why representative democracy was created, in which voters choose a representative to voice their interests when policies are made.

In the new legislature, the DPP is too small to request a constitutional interpretation. The party says this is against the principle of separation of powers.

This too is an exaggeration. The idea of separation of powers is the division of political powers between different governmental institutions. The different institutions must balance each other to protect the rights of the public. Separation of powers has nothing to do with the rights of political parties to request a constitutional interpretation.

Regardless, there are other means for the public, political parties and government institutions to request a constitutional interpretation.

The new voting system is not without problems. An absolute majority for one party, or a two-party political system, will push out small parties. This is the kind of issue over which political parties should be seeking a constitutional interpretation.

The DPP is free to request a constitutional interpretation. But it would be sad if the public's representatives in a democratic system didn't fully understand the basic principles of representative democracy. The party may just be manipulating the public with this issue to win the presidential election.

Samantha Wu is an associate professor at the International Trade Department of the Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taiwan.

Pan-greens must unite to keep the presidency

By Hsieh Chih-Lu 謝秩祿
Sunday, Feb 03, 2008, Page 8

After suffering defeat in last month's legislative elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is mending its wounds and reconsolidating support under the leadership of presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). As the pan-blue camp now controls an absolute majority in the legislature, Hsieh's responsibility is large. He not only must win the presidential election to ensure a political balance over the next four years, he must also prevent the nation's economy from becoming subservient to China's, as has happened with Hong Kong.

These goals are daunting, but not impossible. In the last legislative election, the DPP's support did not decline, but rather rose marginally.

Hence the party's support base remains stable. Furthermore, the presidential election is, after all, different from elections for district legislators.

The new legislature is interested in single-party rule, intimacy with China, and distancing itself from the US.

However, it is difficult to avoid a coattail effect after the crushing DPP defeat in the new electoral system. For the pan-green camp to reorganize and rally around Hsieh will require respect, compromise and intelligent tolerance. In this respect, Hsieh should adopt an open mind and show humility, rather than causing divisiveness.

There must be internal solidarity. The Presidential Office, the legislature and the party can act separately, but they must attack together.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is a necessary force for maintaining the pan-green support base. Although Hsieh may distance himself from Chen when it comes to policy issues, he should never consider cutting the bonds with Chen, which would not help him win the election.

At the same time, the Cabinet's performance is crucial to electoral success. It is necessary for them to campaign in order to win public support. The Cabinet is in fact part of the election team and conflict cannot be allowed to arise between the Cabinet and Hsieh's campaign headquarters.

Four years ago, Chen managed to get re-elected mainly because of the unity of pan-green forces. Now there are fears of a divided pan-green camp and Hsieh's major task is to reconcile his party with the Taiwan Solidarity Union and bring other parties onboard to combat the monster that is single-party rule.

In addition to solidarity, the DPP needs to seek out the support of voters under the age of 30. Surveys show that this social group has the strongest Taiwanese consciousness. However, they also lack interest in public issues and serious news.

Furthermore, this group lacks collective memory or basic knowledge of the atrocities under the party-state system and is more likely to be swayed by pan-blue media propaganda. Cabinet Spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) could help win over this group.

For Hsieh to win the election, pan-green political leaders from Chen, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and Hsieh himself to Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) and others, should speak cautiously to reporters.

The nation's news outlets, controlled by the pan-blue camp, skew the facts and stir up trouble at every opportunity.

Speaking flippantly in front of reporters provides them with an opportunity to sensationalize issues.

The DPP has been repeatedly smeared and distorted by he pan-blue media, without learning their lesson.

The Presidential Office, the legislature and the party must learn to avoid becoming media slaves.

Hsieh Chih-Lu is an independent journalist.