A while back, Taiwan's China Post took one of its usual swipes at the Dalai Lama, calling him a "one-time theocrat." True enough, I suppose, but it got me to thinking: Couldn't the "theocrat" appelation be applied with equal accuracy to Taiwan's current Chinese nationalist president, Ma Ying-jeou?
After all, in November of last year, Ma refused to permit the Dalai Lama into the country for the simple reason that the Tibetan religious figure doesn't kneel at the sacred high altar of Sino-imperialism. Then last week, when Ma was forced by political reasons to allow the Dalai Lama to visit on a religious mercy mission, Taiwan's Supreme Leader again assumed the role of religious tyrant by issuing a government gag order on the Buddhist pontiff.
Politics and economics should be separate, Ma tirelessly preaches from his pulpit. But politics and religion? Not a word from hizzoner on that score . . .
Taiwanese Falun Gong followers — I'd be afraid if I were you right now. There's no telling how many of your rights Taiwan's self-declared high priest of religious orthodoxy is prepared to sacrifice in the name of enjoying "good relations with Beijing".
Why is Pres. Ma barred from visiting the White House and Capitol and strictly prohibited
from making any press conference in the ‘Land of the Free’?
His Holiness the 14th the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.”
GOVERNMENT OF TIBET IN EXILE:
HEAD OF STATE
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is in essence the King and also the Pope of Tibet .
His unique Dual Supremo role sometimes makes some people confused and makes them think twice forever.
Is the Head of State of Tibet coming to Taiwan? Then the second thinking comes in… No it is the Pope (Spiritual Leader) of Tibet who is going to Ciaolin!
Well I guess the government of Taiwan did the right thing in welcoming the Head of State and Pope of Tibet . In sad contrast the government of the ‘Land of the Free and the (very) Brave ( and very proud)’ was too afraid to accord both Pres. Chen and Pres. Ma in their now very famous but funny ‘leash- and-gag’ “tiptoe” transits in America wherein both remain persona-non-grata to both the White House and Capitol.
When will Obama the Brave invite Ma to the White House?
If Obama the Brave will not welcome a democratically elected Taiwan President to the White House then it could not be clearer that the Obama administration is taking orders from the Chinese Communists.
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I’m going to assume you’re a sincere speaker, not a KMT hypocrite who laughed and gave high-fives when the U.S. government only permitted former president Chen Shui-bian to land in Alaska.
I’m on record as saying that American treatment of democratically-elected Taiwanese presidents is outrageous, considering the fact that the Father of Modern Terrorism, Yassir Arafat, was granted a stay at the White House.
Perhaps Ayatollah Ying-jeou is operating on the Sino-imperialist religious principle that two wrongs make a right?
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“His unique Dual Supremo role sometimes makes some people confused and makes them think twice forever.
Is the Head of State of Tibet coming to Taiwan? Then the second thinking comes in… No it is the Pope (Spiritual Leader) of Tibet who is going to Ciaolin!”
The Dalai Lama’s position isn’t exactly unique. The Pope in Rome also has secular power over the Vatican City.
But I take your point: A few Communist Party tyrants and a few pan-Blue nitwits might very well confuse Tibetan prayers for the dead with political polemics.
When will Grand Ayatollah Obama invite Pres. Ma to the WH?
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Just to keep this from becoming an exercise in America-bashing, it should also be remembered that America treats Taiwan’s leaders much better than many other countries do.
That said, American treatment of Taiwan’s democratically-elected leaders is outrageous. But it isn’t an act of RELIGIOUS tyranny. Which is why referring to Obama as an Ayatollah is nonsensical.
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By the way, part of Taiwan’s troubles stem from Chiang Kai-shek, who pig-headedly insisted on his idiotic “One China” policy. And now Taiwan is saddled with it.
Partly because of that, the ROC and America both maintain that there’s only one China.
But logically speaking, how could an ROC president EVER get an invite to the White House as a representative of China, when America already recognizes the PRC as being China?
Anywhere else, people would be burning effigies of CKS for having so diplomatically isolated their country.
While in Taiwan, KMT madmen went ahead and built that loser a TEMPLE.
Chiang Kai Shek is long gone thank Dalai!
Unfortunately American government policy on Taiwan is till CKS-like!
When former Pres. Abian became president Uncle Sam
warned him not to declare TI… or else…?
When Abian transits in the USA he’s not even allowed to disembark and is strictly barred from making any press conference.
If this is not a policy of madmen against a freely elected president of a democratic country at this present era then how can it differentiate itself from a jurassic ‘madman’ Chiang?
You are practicing your freedom to delete free speech!
Wonder what has become of American fairness?
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No newspaper prints the SAME letter from a troll on consecutive days.
So there’s no earthly reason why I should permit trolls to post the same identical comment over & over.
no harm done if one is sensitive when dealing with the hosts/ ex-hosts country’s religion, politics or customs.
just my 2 cents.
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In four years of blogging, I believe these are the first posts I’ve ever done about current religious affairs in Taiwan. Never felt much reason to write about them before.
Crying shame the Chinese Nationalist Party turned the Dalai Lama’s visit into a political issue.
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Jim,
Just one other thing to clear things up. Something that I thought I had made clear through the links, but that perhaps not everyone who read the post understood.
The whole “Ayatollah Ying-jeou” thing is hyperbole. (Something I don’t think my troll friend here realized.) Sometimes I employ it to make a point.
A few months ago, some of President Ma’s supporters at the China Post took it upon themselves to start calling him Taiwan’s “supreme leader.” Maybe they wanted everyone in Taiwan to start fawningly calling him that, I don’t know.
Anyways, I thought this was a pretty unhealthy label for a democratically-elected president. Lo and behold, within the next 7 or 10 days, Mahmoud Fraud-madinejad rigged the election in Iran, and suddenly Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was in the news. And at that point, it mischeviously dawned on me that if Ma supporters wanted him referred to as the country’s “supreme leader,” then I would oblige them.
That was a single post, several months ago. And I probably wouldn’t have revisited the theme again, had not Ma slapped a gag order on the Dalai Lama.
Once again, Ma Ying-jeou is no Ayatollah (unless there are protesters being anally-raped in Taiwanese prisons that I haven’t heard about). But there ARE disturbing developments on the religious freedom front in Taiwan, which would be unwise to ignore. The China Post’s demonization of the Presbyterian church, which labored for democracy during the Martial Law years. The government’s banning of foreign religious figures, the placement of speech restrictions on them, the talk of protest restrictions on Falun Gong members, the act of depositing Tibetan demonstrators in the high mountains in the middle of the night to fend for themselves . . .
I may be a non-resident and non-believer, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about those who are.
foreigner,
geopolitics is a crazy animal and we must strive to make the prevailing anti-american movements fade away.
i dream of those days my grandpa said people around the world were happy to see americans with ‘welcome’ written all over their smiling faces.
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If Americans want to be liked by Sino-imperialists, all they have to do is step aside and let them have their way with their neighbors in Asia.
(Of course, China’s neighbors will then become anti-American, as they realize they’ve been sold out.)
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Might as well just do what’s right, then.
masalu,
islam means peace so why fatwa, suicide bombings?
Thank Allah for exposing another Anti-Islam heretic!
Allah O’Akbar!
May Allah have mercy on you!
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Ma Ying-jeou supporters who get hysterical when their savior is compared with Ayatollah Khamenei might also fit into the category of “anti-Islamic”.
(After all, Khamenei’s beloved by many of his supporters, just like Ma Ying-jeou is. And who are we to judge?)
Seriously though, if anti-Islamic sentiments bother my commenters, they might reserve some of their ire for the KMT government of Taiwan, which just recently barred World Uyghur Congress president Rebiya Kadeer from entering the country.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/09/26/2003454520
(No doubt KMT supporters prefer the Taliban’s Mullah Omar over Rebiya Kadeer for the simple reason that he’s complicit in the murder of thousands of Americans . . . and she, well, she’s not.)