Category: Taiwanese Politics

Dancing On Suicide Victims’ Graves

David Ting at Taiwan's China Post couldn't resist a parting shot at outgoing President Chen Shui-bian in his Tuesday column, Goodbye and good riddance to former president Chen:

[Chen's] misplaced priority in governance was not without a price to pay.  Besides diplomatic isolation, Taiwan's suicide rate soared due to the slumping economy and rising unemployment.  "Suicide by burning charcoal" has become a widely-used, and painless, way of ending one's life by inhaling carbon monoxide from charcoal of incomplete combustion.

Translation:  President Chen was the one responsible when Taiwanese carbon monoxide victims took their own lives.  Such was the quality of political debate in Taiwan over the past two years — though the KMT and its media allies may come to regret having turned these numbers into a political issue.  There's talk of a looming global recession of late, and if that happens, Taiwan's self-inflicted death numbers probably won't decrease.  In fact, they might very well increase.  And I don't imagine the opposition will feel too restrained now in turning the tables and pinning all those suicides on KMT President Ma Ying-jeou.

Will that be unfair?  You bet.  But Ma will have little right to complain – after all, we didn't hear HIM trying to cool such talk when it was HIS team pointing fingers.

Interestingly enough, the Taiwan News featured this short story a day after Ting's column:

Hsu Chao-jung, the founder of the Taiwan Association of Veterans and Veteran's Families self-immolated in his car yesterday evening at the planned "War and Peace Memorial Park" in Cijing, Kaohsiung City. Hsu's daughter confirmed with the police that the burning body was the remains of her father.

Hsu had actively fought for the welfare of Taiwanese veterans and also expended lots of effort on preserving their history. Hsu's friends said Hsu had recently complained about the disappointment he felt toward society, as it had overlooked the veteran's contribution and well-being. Hsu also expressed his deep disappointment with the Kuomintang regaining power. 

The coast guard outpost next to the park first discovered a burning car and reported it to Chungchow Precinct. The police found a burning body in the car, and suspected the incident was a case of self-immolation.  [emphasis added]

There was a similar case a couple months ago, after Ma won the election.  Which means Ma Ying-jeou has already claimed TWO victims – and he hasn't even been president A WEEK yet!

THOSE are the ugly politics the KMT have cultivated . . . and those are the politics the KMT richly deserves.

Postscript:  Taiwan's national suicide rate is 18.8 out of every 100,000.  High, far too high.  But what of China?  You know, the place the Post assures its readers is the way of the future, the land of milk and honey, Taiwan's inevitable motherland?  How many people kill themselves THERE?

Answer:  23 out of every 100,000 people.  That's four more than Taiwan under the hated Chen Shui-bian.   How odd it is then, that the boys in Beijing seem to have COMPLETELY escaped the KMT's (and the China Post's) opprobrium.

Lowering Expectations

A few weeks ago, Taiwan’s China Post began to fret:  How could the country’s incoming KMT president bring voters back down to earth after he promised them the moon and stars from a speedy economic opening to China?

This week, we got our answer.  This week, President-elect Ma Ying-jeou decided to appoint a SACRIFICIAL LAMB in charge of the process — and a willing scapegoat from another party, to boot.  Now, when Ma’s overly-ambitious deadlines are not met, the stink of failure will cling to some OTHER political party, not Ma’s own.  And when that inevitable failure DOES come, Ma will appoint a KMT man to the position, then conveniently announce that he’s granting the new guy a more reasonable deadline.  (Because naturally, the new appointee needs more time to "fix the damage" after the previous office-holder "botched the job so horribly" during her brief tenure.)

In the immediate term however, Ma has to suffer some abuse from his own side.  (Although as Michael Turton points out, Ma will actually get brownie points for political "inclusiveness" in other quarters.)  KMT members are demanding to know why government jobs are going to fringe independence party members, and not themselves.  As if on cue, they now talk down the chances of a quick opening to China, saying Ma’s choice is unacceptable to Beijing — the equivalent of eating pork in front of a Muslim.

There’s no avoiding that.  Ma either takes a hit now for a single "poor personnel decision" or he takes a hit later for his unrealistic plans — and I think he prefers the former for face-saving reasons.  But for the while, Ma (and the rest of us) will just have to endure criticism in the form of purple prose such as this:

Ma should bear in mind that there were thousands of overseas Chinese from all four corners of the world who flew back to Taiwan on their own to vote for him, to pin their dreams on him for the return of the spring of hope after eight years of winter of despair. Their hearts are now bleeding, torn asunder by the sudden death of their dreams.  [emphasis added]

Oh dear GOD, make it stop! . . .

POSTSCRIPT:  I’m struck by the Post‘s characterization of Ms. Lai Shin-yuan, the new Mainland Affairs Commission chairman, as "a firebrand legislator".

Um, is it asking too much that if you call a virtual unknown like Lai a firebrand, that you at least BACK IT UP with some quotes or examples or something?

UPDATE (May 10/08):  Deadline?  What deadline?

President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) never made any announcements on the date cross-strait weekend charter flights would commence, nor did he promise to implement cross-strait weekend charter flights by July 4, Ma spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said yesterday.

Speaking of back-pedaling, the editors at Taiwan’s China Post must have received the memo from KMT Central Command:  Using Lai as our fall-guy (er, fall-gal) is something we’ll do when the July 4th TBA deadline is missed.  Back off – NOW.

And so, after spending 3 or 4 days blasting the woman last week (and lambasting Ma for nominating her), the Post made a dizzying about-face on Monday.  Why won’t everybody just Leave Lai Shing-yuan alone?, its editors asked.

Incredible.  First the the Post calls Lai a firebrand responsible for destroying "the spring of hope after eight years of winter of despair."  Then it called her nomination a betrayal:

But people with an average IQ fail to see any beauty from any angle. Ma defended his appointment by arguing that because there were 5.44 million people who did not vote for him, he has to "broaden the base of consensus." How strange is this argument? Is this the basis for betraying the 7.65 million who voted for him?

And after all that the folks at the China Post have the face to piously tell everyone ELSE to stop the witch hunt?

Where Did The KMT Get Its Free-Market Reputation, Anyway?

Taiwan’s KMT: solid supporters of the free market:

Yiin Chii-ming, named as [Taiwan’s] new economic affairs minister, said that he will hike gasoline prices in one stroke after assuming his post May 20 because he believes that [the] free market mechanism is the best policy.

Err, scratch that:

The government of President-elect Ma Ying-jeou will immediately tackle the issue of ever rising oil prices with an energy tax . . .

Whew, problem solved!  Energy prices too high?  Let’s FIX that by taxing energy consumption . . . so prices will be even higher! 

A day after that announcement, the Taipei Times reported Taiwan’s servile press was lauding Ma for "challenging people’s habits."  Mmm.  Ma’s media shills can put all the lipstick they want on this pig, but July and 36 deg Celsius weather is just around the corner.  And no amount of spin is going to fool Taiwanese into ENJOYING all those artificially-high air-con bills they’ll soon be receiving.

[Say, whatever happened to Ma’s promise to subsidize fuel costs for Taiwanese fishermen?  Fuel SUBSIDIES for fishermen, fuel TAXES for everybody else — no inconsistency there!]

The China Post mentioned this as well:

[Incoming president Ma Ying-jeou] also announced a formula of limiting the daily per capita water consumption to 250 liters from the present 290 liters is under review.

So let’s encourage people to take mass transit, but DISCOURAGE them from taking showers.

That kinda … stinks.

More Of That Silent Diplomacy

You know, the kind where you’re too gutless to even open your mouth.  From yesterday’s Taipei Times:

Vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) arrived in China yesterday for the [economic] Boao Forum and is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) today.

[…]

Meanwhile, the Taiwan Friends of Tibet group has issued an open letter to Hu and asked Siew to bring it to the Chinese president.

The letter urged Hu to “stop repression and all kinds of aggressive actions against the people of Tibet and start a sincere dialogue with the [Tibetan] government-in-exile led by the Dalai Lama.”

The group said an electronic copy was forwarded to [Siew’s spokesman] Wang [Yu-chi], who accompanied Siew on the trip.

“I haven’t seen it because I don’t have Internet access here,” Wang told the Taipei Times via telephone. “I’ll probably not have it throughout the trip.”  [emphasis added throughout]

Yeah, I can see that.  After all, what cause have we to think that a technologically-backward country like China could provide INTERNET ACCESS for business travelers in any of its FIVE-STAR HOTELS?

(Or maybe China’s upscale hotels DO have web access, but Taiwan’s future V.P has gone a bit down-market, hoping to pinch a few pennies on his hotel bills.  Staying at the local YMCA then, is he?)

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Last year I was remiss in not blogging about the KMT’s abolition of the Taiwanese law which held minors responsible for the debts of their deceased parents.  Now it seems as though the KMT has made further changes to the law, exempting adult children as well:

 A committee of the Legislative Yuan approved yesterday the latest revisions of regulations to exempt adults from excess debts incurred by their parents or other family elders after inheriting assets from them.

The new rules added to the Civic Code by the Judiciary and Organic Laws Committee will allow the heirs to abandon the inheritance rights as a way to give up both the assets and debts if the debt amounts are higher than the value of assets they are entitled to.

I was astounded to learn that inheritance laws were so Dickensian here.  While I personally don’t stand to benefit in any way from these reforms, I will say this:  Good on the KMT, and good on Ma Ying-jeou.  It’s pretty outrageous to think of a person just borrowing a pile of money and wasting it all, secure in the knowledge that his kids will be the ones who’ll have to pay for it.

(The banks are right about one thing though; this WILL cause creditors to tighten their loan policies.  But I would argue that it’s good that banks should evaluate loans on the MERITS of the borrowers’ proposals, rather than basing their decisions simply on the collateral of children’s future labor.)

UPDATE (Apr 26/08):  More details on this here.

KMT Puts American’s Life In Danger

Sending jackboots to rough somebody up is so 20th Century.  Much more "with-it" to cynically dupe thuggish supporters into serving as willing cats-paws:

Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairwoman Therese Shaheen has revealed that she received a warning from US officials and police in Taiwan of potential physical danger to her while she was in Taiwan for the presidential election, possibly from a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) stalwart fearful that she would drop a bombshell about KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that would swing the election in favor of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

The warning came after Taiwanese newspapers and television stations reported rumors that Shaheen would attend an election eve rally for Hsieh and disclose damaging information about the issue of Ma’s US green card, which had been a major campaign topic.

[…]

[Shaheen] cited KMT officials quoted in a China Post story and other news outlets calling the statements they expected her to make a “nightmare” similar to the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on the eve of the 2004 elections.

Bravo, bravo.  Hesb Allah’s got nothin’ on today’s "mellower" KMT and its Ma-llah.  (And no doubt if Shaheen had been injured or murdered, the lovers of the truth at the China Post would have remained true to form by suggesting that this scheming foreigner must have STAGED the assault upon herself in order to win sympathy votes!)

But to be fair, Shaheen also reserved criticism for Taiwan’s main independence party:

“Frank Hsieh should have come out and made a strong statement that ‘We have not spoken to Ms Shaheen, there are no plans for her to speak at the rally, we have never talked to her about Mayor Ma’s green card,’” she said.

Hsieh probably did not “shelve” the story because deep green supporters “would have loved this to come true … because people hoped” Shaheen would be a white knight and save the DPP’s campaign, she said.

Towards A Chinese Commonwealth: Putting Taiwan’s Head In The Noose

Agreeing to the One-China policy isn’t enough; Taiwan has to agree to eventual "reunification" with the PRC.  That’s Joe Hung from his column, Ma said he would sign peace accord:

Ma Ying-jeou’s "three-no" stance on relations between Taiwan and China cannot meet the fundamental requirement of Beijing "one China" principle as set forth in the consensus of 1992.  Ma wants "no" independence for Taiwan, "no" force of arms used across the Strait and "no" change in the status quo.  He has to add "eventual unification" to the trinity to dispel Beijing’s suspicion.

Just how would the KMT president sell surrender to the Taiwanese?

As a non-Hoklo president, Ma may feel it difficult to make that pronouncement.  He does not want to expose himself to independence activists who will charge him with selling out Taiwan to China.  But he can easily neutralize any venomous attack by telling the Hoklo-Hakka majority that he visualizes relations between Taiwan and China in the future as those between Great Britain and Canada, or Australia or New Zealand.

These former British colonies, in the words of the Pronouncement of the Imperial Conference of 1926, are "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations."  Internationally, these communities were recognized as separate states, entitled to have separate representation in the League of Nations and other world organizations, to appoint their own ambassadors, and to conclude their own treaties.  [emphasis added]

A similar arrangement can be made for Taiwan to be unified with China in the name of the Chinese nation.  That commits Taiwan to Beijing’s fundamental "one China" principle.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Let’s take a look at the part I’ve underlined, and put that into a "Chinese  Commonwealth" context:  These Chinese polities…are autonomous communities within the Chinese nation, equal in status, in no way subordinate to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to One China and freely associated…

1)  Taiwan and China would be equal in status in this hypothetical Commonwealth?  Really now.

2)  Taiwan would NOT be subordinate in Hung’s wonderful fantasy land?  Uh-huh.

3)  The Chinese Commonwealth would be a FREE association?  Joe, put down that opium pipe!

Because the British Commonwealth is a free association, Australia has the liberty to LEAVE it.  Likewise, Canada can withdraw any damn time it wants to.  And New Zealand?  Why, tiny New Zealand can pack its bags TOMORROW, and not a single missile will be fired upon it in anger by a vengeful Great Britain.

Taiwan free to exit a Chinese Commonwealth?  Ehhh, not so much – and no amount of "visualization" on Ma Ying-jeou’s part will ever change that.  The plain facts are that while the British Commonwealth is a voluntary organization, Joe Hung’s Chinese Commonwealth would be a prison with no escape.  To suggest otherwise is to grossly misrepresent the world in which we live.

(One other hitch:  The British Commonwealth can EXPEL members for human rights violations.  Does Hung imply that mighty Taiwan will have the power to cast China out of his Commonwealth for, I dunno let’s say, another Tiananmen massacre or further barbarism in Tibet?)

New readers might want to take a look at a post about this I wrote a couple of years ago.  A bit wordy perhaps, but it still holds up.  You can read it – or you can skip it.  That’s FREEDOM.  Quite a different thing from being handed a Little Red Book at gunpoint and being ordered to memorize it in a Chinese re-education camp.

Freedom and compulsion.  Voluntary association and involuntary servitude.  Sadly, Joe Hung seems to believe these things are all one and the same.

Checking The Legislature’s Power

From Tuesday’s Taiwan News‘ editorial, New legislature must be watched:

While we respect the voters’ decision, we also believe our society must develop effective mechanisms to monitor the functioning of "complete ruling" government led by the KMT president and to successfully check and balance the KMT’s absolute majority in the Legislative Yuan to prevent it from abusing its powers.

[…]

Since the DPP delegation of 27 lawmakers can no longer delay the passage of ill-advised KMT proposed bills, we can expect the KMT’s absolute majority to propose and approve a series of "pork-barrel" laws catering to local financial or other special interests linked with the KMT or its individual lawmakers.

The era of a "legislative monster" is indeed imminent.

[…]

Ultimately, the only alternative force to monitor or check and balance the future KMT legislative monster can only come from Taiwan’s civil society.

A starting point is the formation of the "Citizens Congress Watch" by several civic reform leaders, which last week published a report on the worst 11 legislators rated for attendance in legislative meetings since the new Legislative Yuan took its seats in February.

[…]

If such monitoring can lead to effective boycotts by voters of poorly performing legislators, both the quality of the Legislature and the interests of our society will be advanced.

One other moderating check on KMT legislators that I don’t believe I’ve seen mentioned is the threat they may be recalled.  The Depose Chen campaign of 2006 was the first time we saw this, when the KMT tried to bully Taiwanese independence party legislators by initiating recall petitions in their districts.  (Naturally, the DPP retaliated by trying to recall KMT legislators as well.)

While none of the attempts were followed through to the end, it certainly set a precedent for this in the future. 

Probably won’t see the ball roll on this on a large scale unless there’s some major KMT corruption scandal or the party screws up royally.  Might be a possibility for egregious individual cases, though.

Used Sesame Seed Salesmen

From Monday’s China Post:

Someone, apparently a fanatic fan of Jolin Tsai, has paid NT$40,200 [roughly $1,200 US] to get 23 sesame seeds she was alleged to have dropped off on a paper napkin while she was munching her Kentucky Fried Chicken burger, the United Daily News reported yesterday.

[…]

But [the pop singer] denied through her agent she never ate at the chicken-burger outlet as was claimed. "It’s a fake," Jolin was quoted by her agent as saying. "They (the sesame seeds) are not mine. I never visited that Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet."

Nice work if you can get it, I guess.  Now she knows how Koo Chen-fu feels.  Koo can insist the 1992 Consensus is a fake all he likes, but the KMT STILL sells it over his objections.

I never visited that Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet indeed.

Zimbabwean Dictator Emulates Taiwan’s KMT

Robert Mugabe sends goons to burgle opposition political headquarters:

After four days of silence from the government, shadowy intruders ransacked MDC offices…

Interesting that Mugabe had the sense of shame to send UNIDENTIFIED men to do his dirty work.  Unlike the KMT, which of course made ITS attempt at office-breaking last month with four elected LEGISLATORS in broad daylight.