Survey shows knowledge gap on ECFA
　

EC-WHAT?: Regardless of political views, the majority of Taiwanese do not know what an ECFA with China would entail and most support holding a referendum on the matter
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Aug 03, 2009, Page 1

“Apparently, the government only wants us to support the policy, but it doesn’t seem to want us to know what it is.”— Chen Po-chih, chairman of Taiwan Thinktank

More than 90 percent of people do not know what the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) that the government intends to sign with China is, a poll conducted by Taiwan Thinktank showed.

The poll also suggested that more than 60 percent of respondents supported the holding of a referendum on the cross-strait agreement.

“The government wants the public to support its policy of signing an ECFA with China and tells us it would help the economy and create jobs for Taiwan,” Taiwan Thinktank chairman Chen Po-chih (陳博志) said at a news conference. “Our survey, however, shows that 90 percent of the people — regardless of their political stance — still do not know what an ECFA is about.”

The poll was conducted at the end of last month, with 1,085 valid samples collected randomly nationwide. The think tank is generally regarded as leaning toward the pan-green camp.

The results showed that 90.4 percent of respondents said they did not know what would be included in an ECFA.

Breaking down the samples into three categories according to respondents’ political preferences, the survey showed that among people who identified with the pan-green camp, 88.4 percent said they didn’t know what an ECFA entailed. Among people who said they were pan-blue supporters, 86.9 percent said they didn’t know what an ECFA was, while 92.6 percent of those who said they had neutral political views said they did not know what it was.

Meanwhile, 89.7 percent of respondents — 93.2 percent from the pan-green camp and 89.6 percent from the pan-blue camp — said the Ministry of Economic Affairs should provide an objective assessment so they could understand the impact an ECFA would have on Taiwan.

“Apparently, the government only wants us to support the policy, but it doesn’t seem to want us to know what it is,” Chen said.

While government officials — including President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) — have repeatedly said the decision to sign an ECFA with Beijing is purely economic, which in their view means that a referendum on the matter is unnecessary, 63 percent of respondents said they would support a referendum on an ECFA.

Meanwhile, despite the government’s optimistic prediction that an ECFA would create more than 250,000 jobs, 58 percent of respondents — 90.7 percent among pan-green camp supporters and 31.5 percent among pan-blue camp supporters — said they believed an ECFA would help to reduce unemployment.

Chen, who recently said that the ministry had “distorted figures in its ECFA studies,” added that while 86.9 percent of pan-blue camp supporters said they didn’t know what an ECFA is, “58.3 percent of pan-blue camp supporters said they believe an ECFA would help cut down unemployment.”

Taiwan Labor Front (TLF) ­secretary-general Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) told the same press conference that an ECFA would only bring disaster to the job market.

“Rising unemployment during the past 20 years is largely the result of many businesses closing their assembly lines in Taiwan and relocating to China,” Son said.

“Signing an ECFA and further exposing the economy to China will only accelerate the migration of businesses — including high-tech industries,” he said.

An ECFA could also bring the dumping of cheap Chinese merchandise and hurt Taiwan’s traditional low-threshold manufacturing industries, he said.

“This year alone, the TLF has handled two factory closures with 180 workers laid off in each — both because their employers decided to move their factories to China,” Son said. “This is solid proof that the government is lying when it says that an ECFA will create jobs,” he said.

Taiwanese flag is proudly displayed at World Police and Fire Games in Canada
　

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Aug 03, 2009, Page 2

The nation participated as “Taiwan” rather than “Chinese Taipei” for the first time at this year’s World Police and Fire Games that began in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday.

The Taiwanese team of firefighters and police officers have been participating at the Games since 1985. The Games are held every two years.

For the first time, the Taiwanese team participated under the name “Taiwan” and carried a sign saying “Taiwan” and the national flag during the opening ceremony.

The team entered with traditional dancing dragons and lions and were accompanied by traditional Taiwanese musicians with gongs and drums, while overseas Taiwanese in the crowd watching the parade cheered.

The National Police Agency said in the past, the country could only participate at the Games using the same name as in the Olympic Games, “Chinese Taipei.” However, this year, the agency coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the representative office in Vancouver and the Games organizers to allow the country’s firefighters and police officers to compete under the name “Taiwan.”

The team is composed of 49 firefighters and police officers from around the country, led by Hsieh Fen-fen (謝芬芬), a section chief at the agency.

This year, more than 10,000 police officers, firefighters, customs and correction officers from more than 60 countries are competing in sports that include hockey, archery, basketball, wrestling, sailing, golf and karate.

The Games were established in 1985 by the non-profit World Police and Fire Games Federation.

Town in China sealed off after plague kills one

AFP AND DPA, BEIJING
Monday, Aug 03, 2009, Page 5

A town in a Tibetan area in northwest China has been sealed off after one of its residents died from pneumonic plague, the local government said yesterday.

Ziketan town in Qinghai Province was put under collective quarantine on Saturday when laboratory tests showed it had been struck by the highly virulent disease, the Qinghai health bureau said in a statement.

A 32-year-old herdsman had died from the plague, while 11 others had been diagnosed with it, the statement said.

Ziketan, which is located in the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, had enough supplies to get by on its own for the time being, it added, giving no indication of when the quarantine would be lifted.

The health bureau urged people who had visited Ziketan on or after July 16 to seek immediate help if they developed coughing or fever.

An official at the Ziketan health bureau contacted yesterday declined to give further details.

Pneumonic plague spreads through the air, making it easier to contract than for example bubonic plague, which requires that a person is bitten by an infected flea.

It is also more lethal, with a fatality rate of up to 100 percent if left untreated, compared with 60 percent for bubonic plague.

The town, which is now under quarantine, has about 10,000 residents, authorities said.

Facts and razzamatazz

Monday, Aug 03, 2009, Page 8

The owners of a newspaper are free to voice their opinions in the form of an editorial framing their interpretation of the events of the day.

Readers may agree or disagree with this editorial line, but what all readers would expect from a newspaper is an unswerving adherence to the facts, that is, finding out the truth of a particular matter, while refusing column inches to any statements that contradict facts.

It is therefore regrettable that you continued to give column inches last week to Lu I-ming’s (呂一銘) dubious claim that “The [World] Games ... made Taiwan a focus of worldwide attention” and that as there was “substantial coverage by international media ... the Games brought international recognition for Taiwan” (“Kaohsiung showed the nation’s true face,” July 28, page 8).

As I stated earlier (Letters, July 27, page 8), where are the facts to support this claim? Where are the figures for worldwide TV audiences? TV contracts? Countries in which the Games were televised?

What about newspapers? In the US, there was a minor article on Kaohsiung’s new stadium in the Architecture Review section of the New York Times on July 15. The word “Taiwan” rather than “ROC” or “Chinese Taipei” was used — once. In the UK, there was no mention of the Games in either the Telegraph or the Times (the two most popular broadsheets). In Germany, Der Spiegel contained not one mention of the Games, while in France, Le Monde had nothing to say whatsoever.

So, are Democratic Progressive Party supporters willing to lie both to themselves and to the people of Taiwan? (Because, let’s face it, the World Games was nothing more than a bit of razzamatazz for the Taiwanese nationalist movement.)

Apparently they are. Consider the response to my letter by one Charles Hong: “But Fagan should accept the fact that the World Games raised Taiwan’s international profile” (Letters, July 30, page 8).

To which I can only reply: Where are the facts that support this contention? Are they to be found in my dog-eared copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four, perhaps?

It is high time that the people of Taiwan recognize the fact that their country is known as “Taiwan” throughout the world — regardless of Beijing’s newspeak efforts — because of Taiwan’s history of trade.

If members of Taiwan’s political class and their supporters are willing to tell such barefaced lies to the public — and lies that are easily shown to be such — then what else are they capable of?

The only thing that can “raise Taiwan’s international profile” is continuing and expanding international trade. It is of vital importance to civilized life on this island that Taiwanese fight to free international trade to and from Taiwan from both the manipulation of political forces in Beijing and Taipei.

MICHAEL FAGAN
Tainan

Chen’s gone, the system lives on
　

By Jerome Keating
Monday, Aug 03, 2009, Page 8

‘For a considerable period of time, Chen [Shui-bian] was not allowed private consultations with his lawyers or visitors. Prosecutors could quietly interview and indict witnesses to get the answers they wanted, yet at the same time they and the court made sure that Chen could see no one in private.’

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is seen by many as the proverbial beggar who came and took over Taiwan’s Temple (乞丐趕廟公). It came as a colonial power, destroyed the island’s economy to support its losing war effort in China, and finally retreated back to the island to grab positions of power, property and wealth as its own.

It is in this context that the charade of a corruption trial of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) needs to be seen.

With this trial, the evidence is mounting not over Chen’s guilt, but over judicial double standards. Such double standards have been a characteristic of KMT rule for most of its existence.

Chen’s greatest handicap remains that he is Taiwanese and that he stood up to the KMT; his worst mistake was that he allegedly used a corrupt system installed by the beggar in the temple for his own benefit.

Great amounts of taxpayer money have been moved offshore from Taiwan into overseas bank accounts for decades. After Sept. 11, 2001, however, a US administration eager to track money used by terrorists required that banks declare large international transfers.

Many in the KMT were lucky that this change took place after the party lost power in 2000. Enormous amounts of money had gone under the radar screen. Allegedly similar funds moved by Chen, however, quickly showed up, concentrating the focus on the former president and leaving past abuses untouched.

Unprofessional behavior has marked Chen’s trial from the beginning.

The prosecutors began their work by stating that they would resign if they did not find the evidence to deliver a guilty verdict.

Prosecutors have largely failed to expose the corrupt system that has allowed all levels of government officials to skim and pilfer for decades, but they knew that a system of discretionary administrative funds was built to be abused.

Buoyed with confidence, certain prosecutors and at least one judge later made it a point to publicly mock Chen by impersonating him in handcuffs at a party at the end of last year.

However, the system of discretionary administrative funds has proved to be a two-edged sword.

So loose are the regulations and so frequently have they been abused that after all this time the prosecution has yet to build a substantial case.

Although the formal pursuit and indictment had to be delayed until Chen left office, the investigation in substance began more than three years ago. Yet the case brought against Chen remains a fishing expedition in want of solid evidence.

Prosecutors have therefore resorted to other means.

One was to have Chen detained and not allow him the chance to prepare an adequate defense.

For a considerable period of time, Chen was not allowed private consultations with his lawyers or visitors. Prosecutors could quietly interview and indict witnesses to get the answers they wanted, yet at the same time they and the court made sure that Chen could see no one in private.

Lawyer-client privilege be damned: They demanded, and enjoyed, the right to listen in on any discussions between Chen and his legal team.

Eventually this practice was declared unconstitutional, but that did not give Chen back the time he needed to prepare his defense.

Even now, Chen’s visitors cannot enjoy complete privacy when meeting a man who is technically innocent.

When a previous judge ruled against detaining Chen prior to trial, KMT legislators applied public pressure until a new judge was brought in — and the new judge promptly reversed the decision.

The real trial should be for a corrupt system that allows public money to be used and distributed in a haphazard, unaccountable manner — a system that is still in place.

Numerous KMT leaders who were indicted and found guilty of corruption never spent a day in jail throughout the judicial process.

The highest-profile example would be President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who never saw the inside of a cell prior to the overturning of his guilty verdict. Instead, Ma’s secretary did time for his involvement in the case.

People First Party Chairman and former KMT luminary James Soong (宋楚瑜) was found guilty of manipulating sums much larger than that Chen was indicted for, and was even about to be sued by the KMT, but he never spent a minute in jail either.

Elsewhere, former KMT legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) gained millions in improperly holding office while being a dual citizen. She has not even been indicted. To this day, scandalous numbers of pre-2000 KMT money movers walk the streets.

Numerous leaks to the press resulted in Chen’s vilification before his trial, reflecting the way in which the media serve as a tool in extrajudicial declarations of guilt.

At the same time, the prosecutors vigorously blocked Chen from talking to the media because they know and fear that he could embarrass them.

The current minister of justice will say that the case is not political because Chen’s judge was appointed during his presidency.

What the minister does not say is that the KMT-dominated legislature held the public service watchdog, the Control Yuan, hostage for three years.

They repeatedly rejected Chen’s nominations. Chen had to either appoint a list vetted by the KMT or leave the country without Control Yuan members to handle a growing number of cases.

Similarly, the minister of justice tries to rationalize this unjust situation by saying that the prosecutors are independent and impartial, but being free to be impartial and being impartial are different matters altogether: One does not necessarily follow the other.

Chen’s trial is not about justice.

It is an attempt to distract from and expunge the guilt of more than a half-century of corruption and money-laundering using an unjust and unconstitutional prosecution of one man today.

Chen’s real sin is that he, as a Taiwanese, had the audacity to utilize and expose the system installed by the beggar in the temple.

The greatest crime is that the system lives on.

Jerome Keating is a writer based in Taipei.