Tag: Taiwan

Sooner Or Later, All The KMT’s “Laws” Turn Into Calvinball

Taiwan's KMT realizes some of its legislators are vulnerable to a voter recall…so it attempts to change the recall law itself!

Rigging the system to save its lawmakers' seats. Shameless.

But then, one expects little better from a dictatorial Leninist party steeped in the undemocratic habits of 38 years of martial law:

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said that a controversial proposal to increase the documents required by petitioners during recalls of elected representatives is intended to “reduce possible abuses in the process.”

[…]

The party’s move has raised doubts, as it comes during a public campaign for recalling legislators that was launched after the cross-strait service trade act row. Many of the officials under fire are KMT members.

…the KMT-proposed amendment…would require petitioners to provide photocopies of identity cards and affidavits — in addition to the existing requirements for name, address and national identification number… [emphasis added]

What, no notorized copies of the petitioners' last proctological exam?

Goodbye, predictable Rule of Law. Welcome, capricious Rule of Man.

Congratulations, KMT. You have officially turned Taiwan into a legal laughingstock.

Calvin and his toy tiger Hobbes play Calvinball while running and wearing masks.

(The majesty of Taiwanese law. Image from Foreign Policy)

UPDATE (May 13/2014): The Taipei Times points out something that I've considered of late:

When activists take to the streets [and engage in civil disobedience]…the government and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers condemn such acts, urging the dissidents to express their opinions within the democratic system in a lawful way.

However, when activists want to play by the rules [by utilizing Taiwan's electoral recall laws], KMT legislators seem to suddenly decide that the law is not so sacred after all and seek to change the rules.

[…]

“If the people cannot vent their anger within the system, they will certainly start their resistance outside of the system,” [attorney and rights activist Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎)] said.

 

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How Dare Those Awful, Awful Students Insult The Noble Dignity Of Lu Hsueh-chang!

His lordship Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) sues Taiwanese students for implying that he's cowardly.

Kuomintang lawmaker Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) yesterday pressed charges against a group of activists who gathered at his constituency office to give him a fake turtle shell with his name carved on it.

“A turtle hiding in its shell” (縮頭烏龜) is an idiom in mandarin [sic] Chinese used to describe a person as a coward.

This CANNOT stand! Don't they realize how thin-skinned the veteran KMT legislator is? How easily bruised his delicate feelings are?

They should realize Lu Hsueh-chang is sensitive and fragile, and needs to be handled gently. Very, very gently.

Like you would a tender little strawberry…

Lu Hsueh-chang, otherwise known as Lu Xue Zhang (呂學樟), as a delicate human strawberry.

"Freedom of speech is all well and good, I suppose. But criticism of ME isn't a constitutional right!"
— Lu Hsueh-chang: The KMT's Strawberry Legislator

UPDATE (May 7 / 2014): It appears I'm not the only one to make the "Strawberry Generation" connection with Lu Hsueh-chang's childish antics:

“If the lawmaker decided to sue us for likening him to a head-retracting turtle, he is not only substantiating the claim, but also acting like a member of the strawberry generation,” Wei said.

“Strawberry generation” is a term used to refer to young people whom the older generation feel are not able to handle adverse circumstances and are easily bruised, like strawberries.

“A legislator who cannot handle criticism from the public and turns to lawsuits when he is upset does not have broad enough shoulders for politics,” Wei said. “Calling him a head-retracting turtle is not a false accusation since he has been hiding under the party’s umbrella during all the disputes.” [emphasis added]

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A Tale Of Two Building Occupations

First, in Ukraine:

Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov is promising amnesty for pro-Russian demonstrators if they give up their weapons and abandon government buildings under siege in two eastern Ukrainian cities.

Second, in Taiwan:

Students who have broken the law during protests against the cross-strait service trade agreement will not be treated differently from other lawbreakers, Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) said yesterday.

Curiously enough, no KMT members were ever arrested when they broke the law in 2006 while protesting against former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian.

But, I guess the law just doesn't apply to you if you're a KMT man…

KMT Continues To Lie About The Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement

Yesterday:

With the implementation delay of the Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement, many countries have placed a hold on their current trade negotiations with Taiwan, said Economic Minister Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) yesterday.

Today, one of Taiwan's trade partners called Chang on his bullshit:

The current dispute over the cross-strait service trade agreement would not negatively affect the US’ position on Taiwan’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokesman Mark Zimmer said.

KMT Admits Their Trade Pact With Chinese Communists Strip Taiwanese Of Democratic Liberties

From today's Taipei Times:

Former Executive Yuan spokesperson Hu Yu-wei (胡幼偉) has recently come under fire for posting a message on Facebook saying that students who participated in the Sunflower movement [a protest movement against a service trade agreement made between the KMT & the Chinese Communist Party] could face job-hunting difficulties due to their “perceived anti-establishment tendencies.”

Hu…said several high-level managers at private corporations had told him they planned to include questions such as “Did you participate in the student movement?” and “Do you support the student protesters’ anti-establishment behavior?” into their list of routine job interview questions.

Know your place, peasants. You may think you have some sort of right to "free-speech" and "freedom of assembly"…but pro-Communist Red Fat Cats will do their damndest to make sure you'll never work in Taiwan again!

Hu Yu-wei has done the people of Taiwan an enormous favor by this frank admission. But he would do them an even greater favor if he were to name which companies have adopted this policy of Communist repression.

That would provide democracy-loving Taiwanese the information they need to boycott traitorous freedom-hating companies and bankrupt them.

Punch back twice as hard.

Postscript: Of course, there is no need for the thuggish Hu Yu-wei to name names.

All that is necessary is for but a single student to be asked an irrelevant political litmus test question during a job interview, and the 500,000-strong student movement can arrange the rest.

The China Post Projects Its Own Love Of Autocracy Onto Others

Taiwan's worst English-language newspaper put out a howler today:

…the Sunflower students, who violated the law by hijacking the parliament and storming the government house of the Executive Yuan, [conducting a peaceful sit-in at government buildings against an economic surrender agreement with Communist China] have succeeded in imposing their “people's democracy” on Taiwan. Theirs isn't democracy. It's monocracy. [Emphasis added]

Monocracy? Mono, as in ONE?

500,000 Taiwanese students came out to protest the KMT's dangerous backdoor economic deal with the Communist Party of China.

Hate to break it to ya fellas, but:

500,000 >>> 1

Guess that old trope about Asians being really good at math was just a myth…

Oh, but wait, the best part comes at the end of the China Post's latest editorial:

The last card President Ma may play may be to invoke the Statute Governing the Relations between the People in the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area to have the trade in services agreement go into force by an executive order. [emphasis added]

..it's probably the only way to ensure Taiwan's economic survival.

Evidently, the only way for Taiwan to avoid the dangers of monocracy…is for its president to govern by dictat!

Ma Ying-jeou’s Bloody Crackdown: Taipei Police Beat 76-Year-Old Man With Truncheons

From today's Taipei Times:

A 76-year-old man yesterday filed a lawsuit against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and other government officials, saying he was seriously beat up by police officers during a crackdown on the occupation of the Executive Yuan on Sunday night to Monday morning last week.

[…]

“I was sitting with the students during the occupation of the Executive Yuan [on Sunday night], and because I am too old to stand up immediately when police came to evict the students, several officers beat me hard and I had to stay in a hospital for six days,” he said.

Chou filed a lawsuit of attempted murder against Ma, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞), and Taipei’s Zhongzheng First Precinct Police Chief Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧).

Chou said police beat him with batons and shields until he lost consciousness. He said he woke up to find himself in a hospital.

Chou showed reporters a large area of bruises on his back.

76 year old man in wheelchair who was beaten by Taiwanese police on the orders of KMT president Ma Ying-jeou.

(Image from the Taipei Times)

Shocked by President Ma's latest barbarity, reporters on the scene immediately rushed to the home of the China Post's Joe Hung for his take on the news. Hung, a staunch supporter of the KMT's self-proclaimed right to brutalize Taiwan's unarmed citizenry, had this to say:

Satire: The China Post's Joe Hung regarding 76 year-old man who was beaten by police on the orders of KMT President Ma Ying-jeou:: '76 years old? That young punk had it comin!'

When further pressed on the hypothetical question of whether
80-year-olds are fair game for similar treatment, the octogenarian Hung grew silent for a moment, before ordering reporters off his damn lawn.

 

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Is Joe Hung Taiwan’s Slimiest Liar?

Admittedly the competition is stiff, but Joe Hung goes full Goebbels with his latest screed on March 24th's government eviction of student protesters from Taiwan's Executive Building.

Claims Joe about Ma Ying-jeou's bloody crackdown:

"The force used to expel the Black Island Nation Youth Front mob wasn't violent at all." [Emphasis added]

Refutation comes from the equivalent of a thousand words:

Student with bloody head after being beaten by police truncheons during Ma Ying-jeou's bloody crackdown on students at Taiwan's Executive Yuan.

(Image from 4am.tw)

No violence, you say, Joe? Perhaps this man just went to a REALLY bad barber then, eh? Took a little too much off the top. Happens all the time!

Or maybe it's spontaneous hemorrhaging. Brought on by…ebola! Yeah, that's the ticket!

Or, when in doubt, why not return to one of Joe Hung's pet tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories? The devious man in this photo quite obviously faked his own assault by snatching a riot stick from a virtuous policeman's hands and beat himself over the head with it to gain sympathy.

Oh, the lengths these sneaky devils go to!

The China Post's Joe Hung begins his latest column by informing his readers of the meaning of "grandiosity".

Instead, he might have been better served looking up the definition of violence, in order to avoid making a complete ass of himself.

Postscript: Heh. A good journalist would instantly recognize that "mob" probably doesn't apply to those who are peacefully seated.

But this is Joe Hung we're talking about, so standards of good journalism don't really apply.

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Congratulations To The REAL “Supreme Leader” Of Taiwan: The Taiwanese People

Well done!

A half-million Taiwanese protest against KMT-Communist Party of China trade and service pact negotiated by KMT President Ma Ying-jeou.

(Half-a-million Taiwanese protest a KMT-Chinese Communist Party service trade pact which they fear will strip them of their liberties. Image from the Taipei Times.)

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