2009 - 1st Quarter Writings
Leeches Part IV, Taiwan's Uncle Toms Perpetuate the KMT Superiority Complex
Are there so many Taiwanese that remain brain-washed? Is this the result of nearly a half century of Martial Law, White Terror and forced education? Such questions can and must be asked. Where is Taiwanese pride? Why do the Taiwanese, a majority population, allow the belittling and exploitative behavior of the minority Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) exemplified by people like Kuo Kuan-ying, Diane Lee etc. to still flourish. Bottom line, why are so many Taiwanese "Uncle Toms?" ...
Ma Ying-jeou, EFCA, MBPP and Taiwan, Wake Up Taiwan!
The horse still does not know how long his face is, and Ma Ying-jeou continues to live in his own little world. True when he was elected President a year ago, with overblown and outrageous campaign promises he got 58 per cent of the vote. However, once he took office and failed to live up to those promises, reality finally began to set in for many Taiwanese. Ma's popularity has since plummeted to as low as 23 per cent and for the last several months it has remained below 30 per cent. Instead of facing this, Ma fantasizes and postulates that the solution is for people to give him a blank check in drawing up his latest fly-by the-seat-of-your-pants brainstorm an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (EFCA) with China...
The GIO and the KMT, a Joint History of Murder, Intrigue, and Cover Up? Wake Up Taiwan.
Kuo Kuan-ying is not a career diplomat. He has always been an employee of the Government Information Office (GIO) and that may explain his lack of diplomatic professionalism. Nonetheless the hate-mongering case of Kuo Kuan-ying took a new turn today when he admitted that the GIO knew and had covered up the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) murder of Henry Liu in 1984. Kuo was working for the GIO at that time and stationed in New York. Perhaps out of kindness or perhaps as a warning, he seemed to break with government "ethics" and revealed to Liu's wife the true story of what had happened. Liu's wife also confirmed yesterday that Kuo had told her such at that time...
When Will Taiwan Awaken? The KMT Leech Has Always Been at Your Throat, Part III, Miaoli, a Glimmer of Hope?
With people like Kuo Kuan-ying, calling himself a "superior Mainlander," the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has since 1945 profited from Taiwan and its resources. Despite its sordid past, the current KMT government now claims to have changed and will support clean government. Who has not heard President Ma Ying-jeou say that the KMT aims at rooting out corruption? Who has not heard KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung re-echo that the KMT is against corruption? For this reason it was a real shock to Taiwanese (or was it?) that in Miaoli, the KMT supported the wife of convicted vote-buyer KMT Legislator Lee E-tin in the replacement elections...
When Will Taiwan Awaken? The KMT Leech Has Always Been at Your Throat? Part II, the Past
The recent scandals of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) loyalists Diane Lee and Kuo Kuan-ying's exploitation of Taiwan are mere tips of the iceberg. Collecting steady, paychecks from the nation, they nevertheless have shown little loyalty and/or respect for its people by their actions. This is however a simple continuation of the KMT history of past exploitation. The more classic example is the thousands of KMT members who had held "iron rice bowl" positions in the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly from 1947 up until their forced retirement in the early 1990s. Elected once in 1947, they never faced elections again; all also drawing comfortable paychecks until death or their final forced retirement...
When Will Taiwan Awaken? Diane Lee, Kuo Kuan-ying, the KMT Leech Has Always Been at your Throat!
The recent media scandal of Kuo Kuan-ying, information division director of Taiwan's Toronto office, again points to the condescending and demeaning attitude that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has always had towards Taiwan and its people. It is the same attitude for which they were driven from China, losing both the Civil War there and the propaganda war with Mao Tse-tung. It is the same attitude by which they always claim privileged entitlement to exploit. The shame of it is that so many Taiwanese (some brain-washed under the KMT past one-party state and others too generous and naïve to realize) remain blind to it. ...
The Erosion of Human Rights in Taiwan Continues: The KMT Seeks the Right to Go on Fishing Expeditions Against its Enemies.
Whenever the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) says that it is against corruption, step back and examine what it professes to support and what it condones. Ma Ying-jeou's secretary is in jail because he "laundered" nearly a half a million US dollars into Ma's bank account; yet, Ma Ying-jeou is found innocent by the KMT courts and so walks the streets proclaiming his virtue. Diane Lee was forced to resign her position as a KMT legislator because she illegally collected US$3 million dollars in salary, but she also walks the streets free. This is not corruption in the KMT's mind and they will not pursue restitution. These are two of many examples of KMT justice. But not satisfied with that KMT Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang wants to have the right to go on fishing expeditions against KMT enemies. ...
Taiwan Was Never Part of China's Civil Wars: Part II
During World War II, the US bombed Japan's colony of Taiwan regularly, and had considered an invasion of the island but chose instead to invade Okinawa. Later with the dropping of the atom bombs, Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945 and formally surrendered on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945 (V-J-Day). What then would become of Japan's colony of Taiwan? That was 1945; it would be another seven years before the San Francisco Peace Treaty would be ratified in 1952. The Chinese Civil War between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allegedly ended in 1949. Here then the murkiness begins. ...
2-28, 1980 The Lin Family Murders; the Surviving Daughter's Account
The Lin Family Murders took place on 2-28, 1980; they happened shortly after the Kaohsiung Incident (December 1979)and show that some 33 years after 2-28, 1947, the same vicious mentality lived in many of the KMT. This following account is by the surviving daughter as she came to terms with the past. It is a moving story, read it more than once to get all the details. Come, Take a Walk With Me: Out of Darkness into the Light ...
Taiwan Was Never Part of China's Civil Wars: Part I
If you ask people when China's Civil War occurred, be prepared for a variety of answers. Some will say from 1945 to 1949; others will add the years 1927 to 1937 and still others will point out that it continued intermittently throughout World War II. In giving their answers most will be thinking of the power struggle between the two Leninist modeled parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But I propose a different perspective. ...
2-28, The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Sins of Their Fathers
I am not one who believes that the sins of the fathers should be laid upon their children and certainly not to the third and fourth generation. However, I do believe that if those children constantly try to ignore and whitewash the sins of their fathers and insist on keeping the profits and privileges resulting from the sins of their fathers, then that is a different matter.
The Unbearable Lightness of Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou's Words
Ma Ying-jeou again shamefacedly took the cake when he pledged that he would seek the truth of 228 and provide compensation for the survivors and families of those murdered. How nice this sounds until one examines just how many survivors are now living some sixty-two years later. Anyone who was at least twenty years old at that time (1947) would now be eighty-two years old. Even if one was a baby at that time, he/she would be now sixty-two years old, so how would they possibly have any memory or recollection of that horror. Add this to the fact that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had practically a half of a century of one-party state rule to sanitize any guilt or responsibility for what happened in 1947 and destroy the convicting documentation. ...
Can Chen Shui-bian Get a Fair Trial? Taiwan's Prosecutors Leave More Smoking Guns.
Anyone who lived through the Watergate scandal and obstruction of justice will readily recall Rose Mary Woods and the "smoking gun" 18 minutes of erased tapes to protect President Nixon. In Taiwan, we are having some similar experiences though it appears that the ones erasing tapes and leaving the smoking guns are not Chen Shui-bian's lawyers, but the KMT Court Prosecutors who are supposed to be protecting evidence and upholding justice. ...
Taiwan as the World Turns, Questions of a Cheated Past
The Pareto Principle is dead in Taiwan's bureaucracy. This principle frequently referred to as the 80/20 rule, means that 80 per cent of the effects in any given endeavor come from 20 per cent of causes. In quality control it means that 80 per cent of your product defects come from 20 per cent of the process; thus if a company can cure the 20 per cent, it will have eliminated 80 per cent of its problems. Looked at in a positive way 80 per cent of a company's sales come from 20 per cent of its customers. They should therefore be cultivated. Or 80 per cent of the work in an organization is done by 20 per cent of the people, and they should be rewarded properly. So what does this have to do with Taiwan's civil servant system? ...
Taiwan: As theWorld Turns Greased With Corruption
Ma Ying-jeou's administration continually tries to spin itself as a clean government and those who lack memory or who have zero investigative powers will probably buy what they sell. So while the media are abuzz with the continuing trial of Chen Shui-bian who has been judged guilty even though his trial has just begun, maybe we should still peek behind the curtain of the side that tries to pass itself off as clean. ...
Can Ma Ying-jeou Make the Crumbs of His Mole-hills Look Like Mountains?
As the first year of Ma Ying-jeou's presidency nears completion, Ma, his cabinet and his spin-masters are desperate for some sign, symbol, or semblance of success, but the picture is looking bleak. When it comes to dollars and cents and spending power, no amount of media hype and exaggeration, no amount of pictures in the paper, no promises, platitudes or dreams can change the hole in the nation's economic pocket and the lack of dignity the people feel as Taiwanese. And so while President Ma Ying-jeou, if we can still call him president, pretends that all is working out as he planned, one is reminded of a variation of an old nursery rhyme. ...
Diane Lee Continues to Blow Smoke in Taiwan
Diane Lee and her lawyer continue to blow smoke and have dragged out a letter from Barbara Schrage, the managing director of the Washington office of the American Institute in Taiwan. In the letter of January 16 2009, managing director Schrage repeats what she said in her November 22 letter. "Loss of US citizenship occurs when a citizen voluntarily commits a statutorily define potentially expatriating act with the intention of relinquishing US citizenship." The key words are "potentially expatriating act" and "with the intention of relinquishing US citizenship." How does one separate that "intention" from the intention of one who "intends" to deceive and thus rip off the citizens of Taiwan while still keeping her passport? ...
Taiwan, Samoa, US Passports for All? Who knows?
The arguments are in and the ball is in the court of, well, the court of the US Court of Appeals. When and what the judges will decide is not announced but we do have the following report that comes from the "Boston Progressive Examiner." Regardless of that decision, there will certainly be a lot of denials and agreements as different pundits weigh in. The China lobby is going to have to spend a lot of bucks to try and put this one down. Here follows the report in the Examiner by Michael Richardson. Let the games begin. ...
Taiwan's Sovereignty and Statehood Still "Undecided" ??
On February 5th, the oral arguments of a provocative lawsuit will go before the US Court of Appeals at 9:30 am. In this presentation, Dr. Roger Lin is arguing that the sovereignty and role of Taiwan in the international community remains a piece of unfinished business left over from World War II (WWII). Lin is claiming that since the US conquered Japan and its territories, it bears responsibility for the disposition of those territories and in particular that of Taiwan. That disposition was not made, treated or designated in the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1952. Taiwan was given neither to the Republic of China (ROC), nor the People's Republic of China (PRC). ...
Why Chen Shui-bian Will Not Get a Fair Trial in Taiwan.
Chen Shui-bian will not get a fair trial in Taiwan. This is not assessing whether he is guilty or not, but simply that he will not get a fair trial in Taiwan. Why? First, remember that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has always controlled the Legislative Yuan and that for three years they refused to appoint any members to the Control Yuan, the governmental watchdog, until they got a KMT president making the appointments of their own people whom they would approve. ...
The KMT's Diane Lee Takes Her Illegal US$ 3Million Dollars and Runs
If westerners or others want to understand the double standard in application of justice and media coverage in Taiwan, they need look no further than the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) hypocritical former legislator Diane Lee. The controversy of Lee's illegal possession of dual citizenship has been going on for over a year with Lee failing to prove her innocence. With a recent press statement, Diane Lee had the gall to claim that since she has resigned from her position as a KMT legislator, she now does not have to produce any documents that would bare her falsehood. In essence, the KMT's Diane Lee is trying to take her illegally earned money (US$ 3 million) and run. The KMT dominated legislature is doing nothing about it. How can thieves accuse one of their own? ...
Scholars Issue Yet Another Letter on the Erosion of Justice in Taiwan
Previous posts of November 15, and November 29, 2008 had presented two open letters to Taiwan's Minister of Justice on the erosion of justice in Taiwan during the short presidency of Ma Ying-jeou. Minister Wang failed to provide any kind of satisfactory answer to both letters and as a result the scholars and writers issued a third letter. This time the letter was addressed to President Ma Ying-jeou before the Lunar New Year holiday. The text is provided below; an answer has since been given by the Government Information Office. It too was inadequate but it will still be provided at a later date. Unable to live up to its pre-election hype and face the bankrupt inadequacy of its programs, the Ma government can only resort to denial...
No Virginia, the 21st Century Will Not be China's Century!
International pundits chomping at the bit for something provokingly sensational to declare in past years have said that the Twenty-first Century is China's Century. Power-hungry Chinese searching for the wish-fulfillment of their dreams will champion this slogan. And even average Chinese citizens long-suffering from their own self-inflicted humiliations will hopefully proclaim that yes this is their century. But it isn't. In an age of global interdependence and instant news-messaging the Twenty-first Century belongs to no one, let alone the dreamers of China...
A Happy Lunar Year of the Ox to All, and Now Back to Work
A Happy Lunar New Year to everyone! In Taiwan the weather up north was typical, wet and cold, but that did not dampen the celebrations. Now as the sun comes out the nation braces for the work ahead to keep its democracy and human rights from continued erosion...
Barack Obama is President, Let Us Celebrate!
Prejudice dies hard and old prejudices die even harder; that is what makes the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States all the more meaningful. It is the death of one of the oldest prejudices in the United States...
Diane Lee, Taiwan Updates, the Shame Continues
The irony of ironies took place in Taiwan when the World League of Freedom and Democracy (WLFD) Republic of China chapter celebrated the upcoming World Freedom Day at their 53rd convention in Taipei. Everyone was praising how Taiwan had become a democracy (which it has) but no one admitted how long it took to do so and how much Taiwanese blood had to be shed to accomplish that. This is just one of the unsaid items of the day...
Ma Ying-jeou's Impotency Bodes Ill for Taiwan
Like the kingdom of the Fisher King in T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," Taiwan is suffering from a deep malaise. Its problem is that its president Ma Ying-jeou is impotent, impotent as a leader and impotent in his party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT); because of that he is impotent to make any long-term constructive contributions to the nation of Taiwan. He can only talk. ...
Taiwan's Freedom Fighter, Linda Arrigo Turns the Big 6-0!
Linda Arrigo, a name well known in Taiwan since the days of the Kaohsiung Incident (when she was unceremoniously kicked out of the country) cheerfully celebrated her sixtieth birthday here yesterday. With her were a diverse group of well-wishing friends, whom we could dubiously call some of the usual suspects in Taiwan's pro-democracy and pro-environmental circles. They included members of the Green Party, prominent bloggers, and even a classmate from Taipei American School high school days who had come up from Pingtung. ...
Freedom House Ranks Taiwan High and China Low, but There is More
On January 13, Freedom House (FH) presented the 2009 findings of its flagship publication "Freedom in the World." This was the first time the publication had been made in Asia. In doing this, FH purposely chose Taiwan as the place for its presentation, noting that Taiwan after many struggles and sufferings had finally become a "vibrant democracy" and "one of Asia's success stories." ...
Zhang Ziyi, Taiwan, and the Perverse Shaming of China
Recent topless photos of Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi have created an uproar and online debate in China; they also expose a dark side of Chinese culture. It is a culture that because of several of its underpinnings unfortunately allows control freaks and people without a life of their own to gravitate to the top of the society. This in turn allows that element to create the self-righteous group thinking that makes China the continued dangerous hegemonic threat it is in Asia. ...
Diane Lee Resigns and Puts KMT Justice on Trial.
Fabrication, fabrication, who would do the fabrication to save Diane Lee? Apparently no one. So as the forces of justice closed in on her falsehoods, Diane Lee decided to try a little fabrication of her own. Two days ago, she brought out letters and documents stating that this was all a mistake, a misunderstanding; the US Consular Office's right hand did not know what the left hand had been doing. Lee had proof that she had given up her US citizenship. She was again innocent. ...
Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou, the Cracks Have Become Fissures, Part II, Ma 's Impotency
Ma Ying-jeou is impotent, impotent in his party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and because of that he is impotent to make any long-term constructive contributions to the nation of Taiwan. Ma watchers sensed this early on when they noted that Taipei City had been run as a much tighter ship under Chen Shui-bian than under Ma. These thoughts were further confirmed as far back as July 2005. At that time Ma became Chairperson of the KMT and made his two tell-tale promises, 1) that he would divest the KMT of its ill-gotten assets and 2) that he would push forward Taiwan's needed arms budget in the KMT controlled Legislative Yuan. Despite the fact that his party controlled the Legislative Yuan, he failed miserably on both counts. ...