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Democracy, free speech under siege in
Taiwan
By Ketty Chen 陳婉宜
Aristotle stated in Politics, “the basis for a democratic state is liberty.”
Liberty is one of the most important attributes of a consolidated democracy,
because the more opportunities citizens have to express, associate, discuss and
represent a variety of political ideologies, the easier it is for the state to
ascertain public preferences and correctly represent them in its policies. If
the leadership of a government attempts to limit such freedom, that offers a
chilling indication as to the government’s unwillingness to determine and adhere
to the will of the people. The consequences of such an approach can be
disastrous for the vitality of any democracy.
Public outrage ensued after a notice from the Ministry of Education surfaced
requesting that National Taiwan University “reflect and improve the content of
its PTT Gossip board.”
Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) vehemently denied that the ministry was
attempting to interfere with freedom of speech on the Internet. However, Wu’s
refusal to retract the notice in question, after the massive public outcry,
reflects the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration’s position on
stifling the most basic and universally recognized human rights — freedom for
individuals to think, believe, speak, publish, inquire, associate and be
informed.
The notice to the university and the legal threats an Internet user faced after
making a spoof of a campaign video by KMT Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), who is
seeking the top job in the to-be-formed Greater Taichung special municipality,
only added to the series of civil rights violations under President Ma Ying-Jeou’s
(馬英九) administration.
There has been a clear erosion of the essential components that ultimately
sustain a healthy democracy; components such as an individual’s freedom of
expression and speech, academic freedom, institutional checks on the power of
elected officials, an independent judiciary that is consistent and neutrally
applies the rule of law to protect individual and group rights, and a vibrant
civil society independent from the state.
A democratic culture is that of accommodation, cooperation and moderation. In a
democratic system, conflicts between competing ideologies, ambition for
political power and interests will always emerge. Controversies and conflicts in
a democracy; however, are resolved in lawful and peaceful manners.
Wu tried to say that the notice was only routine and should not be considered a
big deal. However, the language employed in the ministry notice demonstrated
otherwise. It contained phrases like “to provide users with a ‘cleaner
environment’ and “to investigate and act accordingly.”
If one takes these phrases at face value, they might not bear any special
meanings. However, if scrutinized in the context of Taiwan’s authoritarian past,
then the meaning is far more worrying. It is well documented that, during the
White Terror, the Taiwan Garrison Command and other agencies of the state
security apparatus routinely issued warnings with the aforementioned phrases and
demanded investigations by other government and civilian agencies into those
under suspicion of anti-government activities.
Threats of lawsuit, investigation, warnings and even arrests run completely
contradictory to what Ma has promised to uphold — the rights guaranteed by the
UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
If the KMT administration continues to fail in safeguarding what is crucial to
the maintenance of democracy in Taiwan, then the Taiwanese need to select
another group of leaders who will, or see their hard-earned democracy suffer an
inevitable decline.
Ketty Chen is a professor of political science at Collin
College in Plano, Texas.
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