Koo apologizes for offensive remarks
　

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, May 08, 2008, Page 4
　

Bowing to mounting pressure, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairmanship candidate and former senior presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) yesterday apologized to women for disrespectful remarks he made on Tuesday.

“I would like to offer my sincere apology to all women in this country,” he said.

Referring to former vice premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the only female contender in the election scheduled for May 18, Koo said that the party’s current problems should be dealt with by men and questioned the suitability of letting a “single woman” take care of them.

It was not the first time Koo has made controversial remarks about women. In March last year, Koo insinuated that Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was not suitable to run in the DPP’s presidential primary, saying “someone in a skirt would not make a good commander-in-chief.”

Lu yesterday dismissed Koo’s remark as coming from “someone living in the Stone Age who is not fit for the 21st century.”

Tsai yesterday remained low-key, saying that she could understand why the 82-year-old Koo would make such remarks.

“He is an elder and he already apologized,” Tsai said.

The other contender Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said that Koo’s remarks were inappropriate and “didn’t sound good.”

He emphasized that all people are equal under the Constitution and that the times are different.

Earlier yesterday, several women’s rights groups condemned Koo.

At a press conference at the legislature, Taiwan Women’s Link (TWL) secretary-general Tsai Wan-fen (蔡宛芬) said the groups did not rule out launching a campaign to call on female DPP members to quit the party should Koo be elected chairman.

Tsai Wan-fen said Koo’s repetition of discriminatory comments had harmed the DPP’s image, adding that the DPP should change its name to “Democratic Regressive Party.”

The danger in choosing China over other states
　

By Lai I-chung 賴怡忠
Thursday, May 08, 2008, Page 8

Although a small group of decision-makers in President Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) government must take responsibility for the Papua New Guinea scandal, it is also a result of China’s policy to win over all of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.

Taiwan needs to maintain allies to demonstrate the de jure existence of the Republic of China (ROC). But the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is reluctant to discuss the shrinking of Taiwan’s international space caused by the contradiction between the ROC and the “one China” consensus. It argues that cross-strait issues come before diplomacy, making the recurrence of such incidents during president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term all the more likely.

Ma believes stable cross-strait relations will help Taiwan avoid being called a “troublemaker,” and may even keep China from blocking Taiwan’s diplomatic activities, hence the privileging of cross-strait relations over diplomacy. Putting aside the naivete and ignorance that underlies this position, the strategy of prioritizing cross-strait relations has four serious problems.

If cross-strait relations were to determine diplomatic policy, Taiwan’s ability to take the initiative would depend on China. This could result in damaging relations with other countries.

For example, the US might worry that Taiwan would adopt a passive attitude toward Taiwan-US military cooperation because of China’s attitude. Japan might also worry that Taiwan would back China on issues where there is conflict with Japan.

Second, Taiwan would be telling its diplomatic allies that its commitment to diplomatic ties is weak, implying that they should not place too much importance on the relationship. If another wave of allies severed ties with Taiwan, it would not be because China was undermining Taiwan’s diplomatic position but because Taiwan was sending the message that it did not value diplomatic relations.

If that happened, embezzlers claiming to know how to pave diplomatic relations with Papua New Guinea or other countries would change their tune: They would claim to know how to prevent relations from being severed.

Third, for non-diplomatic allies, prioritizing cross-strait relations may cause them to see relations with China as more important than those with Taiwan. This would not only be an obstacle to bilateral relations with these countries, but would also run counter to Taiwan’s attempts to convince them to maintain parallel ties.

Former US officials such as Randall Schriver and Dan Blumenthal attended a seminar of the American Enterprise Institute’s Taiwan Policy Working Group in late February, where they urged Washington not to place Taiwan relations below China relations. When Ma proposed that cross-strait relations take priority over relations with the US and Japan, he hurt attempts to reform the US’ China policy and Taiwan’s past strategy of parallel relations. This will have a severe impact on Taiwan’s diplomatic policy.

Last, according to an opinion poll by the Mainland Affairs Council following the presidential election, 35.7 percent of respondents said it was more important for Taiwan to develop relations with countries other than China, while more than 30 percent said it was more important to develop ties with China. But 75.1 percent said that Taiwan should expand diplomatic relations even at the cost of cross-strait tension, indicating that Ma’s policy is not built on a domestic consensus.

A policy that lacks consensus will cause numerous problems and much controversy. If Ma insists on this flawed policy, disaster may well ensue.



Lai I-chung is deputy director of the Democratic Progressive Party's Department of International Affairs.

With homes like these, who needs anemones?
　

In Penghu, officials are waking up to the potential value of the archipelago’s unique coral architecture. Convincing islanders to preserve these homes, however, is a different matter

By Cindy Sui
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Thursday, May 08, 2008, Page 13
　

Travel to Taiwan’s outlying archipelago Penghu — roughly an hour’s flight from Taipei — and you will be directed by local residents, tour guides and brochures to white sand beaches, seafood restaurants or the Twin Hearts Stone Reef (雙心石滬), a man-made rock formation once used as a weir for catching fish.

On the drive to these places, you will sometimes get a glimpse of something tourists often overlook — something from a little-known past squeezed between new, nondescript cement or brick buildings: old houses made of coral limestone.

But less and less are you likely to spot such a building, some of which are nearly a century old — and few islanders seem to care, local officials and preservationists say.

“Only Penghu has these homes. It’s very obvious there are fewer and fewer of these homes left,” said Cuei Lu-lu (崔石路石路), an official at the cultural relics division of the Penghu County Cultural Affairs Bureau (澎湖縣政府文化局).

Many of the coral houses are left to deteriorate by residents who have gone to mainland Taiwan for work. Those who remain want to build new houses rather than spend money restoring the old ones, Cuei said.
　

Still, a growing number of people with money, or nostalgic feelings, are attempting to save at least some of these unique structures. And the local government is trying to help.

The one-story coral houses typically consist of a narrow entrance joining two wings with bell-shaped roofs. The entrance opens to a large courtyard leading to the main hall. Colorful porcelain tiles painted with flowers, birds and scenes from ancient Chinese fairy tales adorn the walls. Windows are made from stone slabs — not to keep out the sun, but to block the fierce, howling winds this low-slung archipelago is notorious for.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CHEN YUNG-HSING


‘A FEELING OF THE SEA’

Ancestors of today’s Penghu residents built their houses using materials from the ocean. Only a few rich families in this desolate string of islets could afford to import wood from China, Taiwan or Southeast Asia.
　

Families would venture to the coast during low tide and load ox-drawn carts with dead coral. It took many such trips to gather enough of the laogushi (石老石古石), or coral rock, to construct a home.

The limestone was then laid out in the sun for anywhere from a few months to two years to let the rock dry and become sufficiently desalinated.

“They gave one a feeling of the sea. They were dark inside, but they kept people warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” said Tsai Ting-chin (蔡丁進), a retired Penghu history teacher who remembered staying in one of the homes when he visited his grandparents.

The only study ever done on old homes in Penghu found about 2,000 coral houses left in 2002 to 2003, but the number is believed to be significantly lower now.

It can cost NT$1 million to repair one of the old homes, many of which have leaking or collapsing roofs. Indoor plumbing must be installed. Significant maintenance work is needed every 10 years.

“They’re pretty to look at but they’re not necessarily comfortable to live in,” said Sylvia Lyu (呂秀玫), a Taipei transplant to Penghu who operates the Sunrise Bed & Breakfast (菓葉觀日樓) hotel in Guoye village (菓葉村), where many of the homes can be seen.

For NT$1.5 million, residents can build a modern 30-ping house.

Government recognition of the need to protect the coral stone homes was not strong initially.

Considering the old, dilapidated houses an eyesore, a previous county magistrate offered to help residents demolish them — even if only to leave the land as grassy fields. Many residents took him up on the offer.

But the uniqueness and beauty of the old coral homes have in recent years encouraged the local government to be more proactive about preserving them, as it tries to boost tourism.

One project has seen two rows of such homes in a village called Er Kan (二崁) in Siyu Township (西嶼鄉) restored. Though some say the result lacks authenticity, the area has become a tourist attraction, with some homes used as hotels, restaurants and shops.

Of the 2,000 homes found in the study, the cultural bureau has identified 33 as worth protecting due to the quality of construction and the state of preservation.

But efforts to persuade the owners to allow the homes to be placed on a list of historical structures have been met with protests. None have been listed so far.

FEW TAKERS

Last year, the local government obtained NT$2 million in funding from the Executive Yuan’s economic development committee for a program that asks fund recipients to pay one-third of the cost of restoring their home, with the remaining cost coming from the fund.

The bureau plans to apply for funding every year, but Penghu will have to compete with other parts of Taiwan.

So far, only one Penghu resident has applied for the money, Cuei said.

That person, Chen Yung-hsing (陳永興), a 53-year-old convenience store owner, bought a piece of land by the seaside to retire in and was originally planning to tear down the laogushi house on it to build a new one.

“But the more I looked at it, the prettier it seemed,” Chen said. “It seemed just like the house I lived in sometimes when I was young and visited my grandparents in the countryside. There’s no way you can build a home like that nowadays even if you had the money.”

His wife resisted at first, wanting a modern home, but when Chen told her about the government fund, she agreed.

“Few people feel these homes are worth keeping … but we should protect them,” Chen said. “Otherwise, a lot of history will be gone. We won’t know the older generations’ hardships, their wisdom in building these homes and their way of life.”