|
Snubbing foreign dignitaries
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ rudeness toward former Japanese prime minister
Shinzo Abe during his two-day trip to Taiwan demonstrates just how partisan
government bodies have become under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
administration.
The ministry claims that it respected the opinions and wishes of the Japanese
entourage while it was here, but then why did officials seek to obstruct any
meeting between Abe and the opposition, while being more than happy to arrange a
meeting between Abe and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on the first day of his
visit?
The meeting was something of a flop, with Ma unwilling to touch on the Diaoyutai
Islands (釣魚台) issue after saying last week that he didn’t oppose China’s claim
over the islands because China is still Republic of China (ROC) territory under
the Constitution. Amid the bitter dispute between Tokyo and Beijing over the
islets, that interpretation was no doubt at the top of the list of points Abe
wanted to bring up with Ma. It was rude of Ma to ignore the issue.
However, that was not the main reason foreign ministry officials snubbed Abe.
The main reason was that Abe did not only want to meet with the KMT.
He did end up meeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai
Ing-wen (蔡英文), who was much more willing to discuss and defend Taiwan’s claim to
the Diaoyutais, adding that Taiwan needed to engage with Japan, not China, in
bilateral talks on the thorny issue.
This no doubt irked the KMT, whose chairman was either too spineless or too
pro-Chinese to bring up the issue and therefore ministry officials did what they
could to hamper further meetings between Abe and DPP members.
Before meeting Tsai, officials had put pressure on Abe not to meet her. Tsai
claims that Abe’s entourage had to call the DPP directly to arrange the meeting
because the ministry refused to coordinate schedules.
Ministry officials said Abe never told them he wanted to “meet with
[chairpersons] of any specific political party,” but Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), the
DPP’s director of international affairs, says the ministry had told Abe that the
DPP was “too caught up in election affairs.” This implies that Abe had expressed
an interest in meeting Tsai, but that the ministry sought to obstruct it.
In another recent example of partisan politics on the part of an appointed
official, Council for Hakka Affairs Deputy Minister Liu Tung-lung (劉東隆)
expressed outright support for KMT Sinbei City mayoral candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫)
at a campaign event, clearly violating the Civil Service Administrative
Neutrality Act (公務人員行政中立法).
However, while Council for Hakka Affairs Minister Huang Yu-cheng (黃玉振) admitted
that this was improper, he said all that he would do would be to watch Liu more
closely, slapping his wrist merely figuratively.
Liu even had the temerity to say that an appointed official had “an obligation
to endorse the ruling party’s policies and candidates.”
What does this all show?
It shows that the KMT sees no separation between government and party. It is an
authoritarian regime that does not grasp the concept of government neutrality.
Liu, as well as the rest of the KMT and the officials they have appointed,
whether it be at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Judicial Yuan, prosecutors’
offices or overseas diplomatic posts, see the KMT and the government as one. The
problem is, not all Taiwanese or foreigners share that view.
|
