Chen
Shui-bian reportedly goes hungry again
By Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Feb 21, 2009, Page 1
Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who remained in detention when he marked
his 60th birthday on Wednesday, has not eaten anything for two days in protest
against government incompetence and continued judicial persecution, Chen's
office said yesterday.
“Former president Chen stopped eating two days ago. He wants to express his
anger [at the government] even if it means death. He is very determined,” Chiang
Chih-ming (江志銘), the secretary of Chen's office, said yesterday outside the
Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng, Taipei County.
Chen's daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), later rushed to the detention center to
visit her father, where she conveyed former first lady Wu Shu-jen's (吳淑珍)
concerns about her husband's health on the couple's 34th wedding anniversary.
The former president's lawyer, Shih Yi-ling (石宜琳), later said Chen Shui-bian had
been depressed over the past several days and had skipped lunch and exercise.
Shih, however, said the former president did not mention anything about fasting
to death.
Lee Da-chu (李大竹), deputy head of the detention center, denied reports that Chen
Shui-bian had skipped breakfast and lunch yesterday, saying he had finished his
three meals on Thursday.
Lee said the center would pay extra attention to Chen Shui-bian's situation.
The former president conducted a 15-day hunger strike in November after being
detained for the first time. He was sent to hospital for a check-up during his
first fast.
Chen Shui-bian, who left office in May, has been detained on charges of
embezzlement, taking bribes, money laundering, influence peddling and extortion.
Wu, their son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and his wife, Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), and
several of his former aides have also been charged with corruption and
money-laundering.
Chen Chih-chung and Huang moved to Kaohsiung on Thursday to start a new life in
the south. Chiang said the former president knew about their move and understood
their decision.
Chen Chih-chung had said on Thursday that he would start looking for a job in
Kaohsiung to support his family.
He said his mother would not be moving to his new residence anytime soon because
of the difficulty in finding a caregiver.
The danger
in national abnormality
Saturday, Feb 21, 2009, Page 8
Modus vivendi remains the unwavering strategy of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九)
administration on cross-strait issues — to the point of brushing aside the
diplomatic reality.
In an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on Wednesday, Ma dismissed the
idea that Taiwan should be considered anything but a normal country. The nation
governs itself, the president said, and with 23 allies and diplomatic offices in
another 87 countries, “our relations with those countries are not any less than
a UN member state enjoys.”
Let’s talk quality, not quantity. A UN member state can count on its normal
status and the help of other countries and international organizations in ways
that Taiwan cannot. That is a lesson Taiwan learned during the SARS outbreak,
when it was isolated from the help of WHO experts until the crisis had almost
completely run its course.
“Normal” and “independent” are not one and the same. That this nation is
independent is clear. What Taiwan seeks at this point is the international
community’s concern for its security. With no hope of winning recognition in any
context from China — the sole threat to the nation’s sovereignty — we must
ensure that Taiwan is part of an international network that respects its
independence and the rights of its people to representation at key global
bodies.
While insisting the nation has already achieved normality, Ma said relations
with China remained abnormal in terms of finance and trade. In this context, he
was ready to portray the country as still in the process of normalization: “Do
you think we are a normal country if our ships are required to make detours to a
third country [to reach China]?”
Normalizing economic ties with China does not constitute normalizing the
country. No amount of negotiation with Beijing over trade and financial
mechanisms will win room on the issue of Taiwan’s future, nor gain it
recognition from other governments. It is this point that triggers concern that
the government’s cross-strait policies could further constrain Taiwan by leaving
it overly dependent on China’s economy without addressing Taiwan’s status as a
country.
Ma is not concerned that Beijing is seeking to control Taiwan through political
and economic weapons. The president dismissed the argument that there are
dangers in depending on China, saying: “We have not seen any attempts by
communist China to force Taiwan to do things we cannot accept,” nor “have we
lost the freedom to make decisions.”
Ma said Taiwanese must have confidence in the nation’s strengths, including
democracy and human rights, which help keep the playing field level. That these
are invaluable goes without saying, and they have won respect and sympathy
abroad for Taiwan in the face of an obnoxious neighbor. However, it would be
foolish to think these things in themselves have the power to obstruct Beijing’s
plans for unification.
Nor should we pretend that a “diplomatic truce” with China has weakened
Beijing’s aggressive agenda. Ma said that Beijing was tacitly adhering to this
“truce” and that this would allow Taiwan to pursue economic opportunities and
greater international participation, while preventing its remaining allies from
changing sides. This is possible, Ma argued, because Beijing and Taiwan are
refraining from engaging “in vicious attacks,” which he called “fruitless
efforts.”
While Ma noted that such attacks have not helped Taiwan in recent years, he did
not mention that the strategy has paid handsome dividends for Beijing. China has
added to its list of allies and squeezed Taiwan’s voice internationally.
This, if nothing else, illustrates the chronically precarious situation of a
country that Ma calls “normal.”