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EDITORIAL: Time to
make our voices heard
Across the nation today voters will go to the polls to elect a president and 79
legislators, as well as, less directly, 34 legislators-at-large, including an
overseas Chinese representative. While much of the attention has been focused on
the three-way presidential race, the legislative elections are no less crucial.
While these polls are about cross-strait relations and the direction Taiwan
wants to go, more importantly for the average person, they are about issues
closer to home: the economy, jobs, the growing wealth divide and the sky-high
cost of houses.
It boils down to the cost of living, both day-to-day now and the price to be
paid for closer business and economic ties to China in the future. Taiwanese
have repeatedly said they want the ¡§status quo¡¨ to be maintained, but in
cross-strait relations, not a stagnating economy.
In the four years since the previous presidential election, housing costs in
urban areas have continued to escalate to the point where many young people have
been priced out of the market, perhaps permanently. Unemployment has come down
slightly in the past two years after hitting a high of 6.16 percent in 2009, but
in recent months there has been an increase in ¡§furloughs,¡¨ as big corporations
plead tough times even as they post high sales figures.
The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China has been proven to favor
big business over small companies and corporate Taiwan over the public. So far
we have seen just an 8 percent increase in exports to China and a far greater
capital outflow in the form of investment.
We have also seen the legislature¡¦s constitutionally mandated oversight powers
continuously bypassed or observed in the most perfunctory manner when it comes
to cross-strait pacts inked by the semi-official bodies charged with
cross-strait relations, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the
Chinese Communist Party strike agreement after agreement. It is time to put an
end to such backroom deals reached ¡§out of friendship¡¨ between parties; any and
all deals should be government-to-government.
So there are many issues to be considered as voters mark their ballots today.
Here is who we think voters should be looking for:
Candidates who will protect and defend Taiwan¡¦s democracy, sovereign
independence and the cross-strait ¡§status quo.¡¨
Candidates who are ready to work to improve the economy now, not in four or 10
years, and who will focus on reducing the wealth gap and the urban-rural divide
both by improving infrastructure, the education system and the living
environment and by improving Taiwan¡¦s safety net of social support programs and
subsidies.
Candidates who will protect Taiwan¡¦s hard-fought-for human rights, including the
rights to free speech, a free press, freedom of assembly and an impartial
judiciary.
Candidates who will work to ensure and enshrine Aboriginal rights, including
rights to their historic lands.
Candidates who will work for gender equality and an end to capital punishment.
Candidates who will work to achieve consensus with all points of view, so that
we do not end up with a stalemated legislature or one where minority views are
continuously trampled upon.
Voters should be asking themselves which candidates are most likely to improve
upon what they have today. If a candidate is an incumbent, voters should look at
his or her track record and see if he or she has delivered upon what was
promised. If not, change could be the better option.
Most of all, those eligible should go out and vote ¡X it is both a right and a
privilege bestowed by living in a democracy. Voter turnout was just 76.33
percent in the 2008 presidential election. We can and should do better.
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