2014 - 2nd Quarter
Ma Ying-jeou's Continued Avoidance of Transparency
The occupation of the Legislative Yuan has passed, and the legislature's agreement to discuss and debate the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) before approval appears to be back on track. Whether Ma Ying-jeou and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of which he is the chairman will keep their promise, remains to be seen. Similarly the fast of Lin I-hsiung and the numerous protests against continuation of the building of the 4th Nuclear Power Plant seem to have achieved their purpose. The building of that plant has been temporarily suspended. Whether there will also be the proper discussion and debate on nuclear power's safety, and its role producing energy for Taiwan again remains to be seen. Nonetheless, whatever the outcome, in both cases, one thing has stood out, namely that the residue of the KMT's past one-party state rule still hangs over Taiwan like a pungent odor. ...
Surviving Ma Ying-jeou's Final Two Years
Like the wayward ship in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Taiwan's ship of state remains trapped in the doldrums. Here, the fault for the ship's position is not linked to the death of any albatross; it lies clearly in the hands of its captain, President, Ma Ying-jeou. In Vietnam, Taiwan's businessmen currently suffer because they are repeatedly being mistaken for Chinese. Ma with his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has done little to dissuade this misconception. To the opposite he has constantly tried to convince outsiders and the Taiwanese themselves that they are joined to China under a zhonghua minzu (Chinese ethnic group) banner. Vietnam is one of the boomerang effects of such efforts. ...
Truman, Nixon, Sunflowers and Ma Ying-jeou
Former US president Harry S. Truman was a man, known both for his blunt, straightforward talk and his frank and often-uncomplimentary assessment of people. One of his favorite targets was a member of the opposition party, Richard Nixon. Nixon had entered Congress in 1947 when Truman was President, and in the ensuing years they had had many subsequent battles. It was not surprising therefore when Nixon and John F. Kennedy were campaigning for the presidency in 1960, that Truman, despite not having any great love for Kennedy, still came out with this well-known very strong quote. "Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in." ...
Chicken vs. Pig Pundits on Trade and Taiwan's Future
One would be hard pressed to find anyone in Taiwan who is per se against making money. Likewise one would be hard pressed to find anyone in Taiwan who is against trade between nations. That said, there are trade agreements and then there are trade agreements. And among trade agreements, certainly, not all agreements are equal; some may be unequal and some can even be disastrously unequal. This is the situation that Taiwan currently finds itself in as the critical consideration of the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and the occupation of its Legislative Yuan has reached its conclusion. ...
Shaking Off Taiwan's Stockholm Experience
The phrase Stockholm syndrome is often used to identify various situations where people who have been physically and/or psychologically held captive by others can in that time come to take on many of the values and beliefs of their captors. This happens both to individuals and groups. Taiwan as an island nation that now is a democracy has certainly seen its share of such captive colonial situations in the past. From the Dutch and Spanish periods on through Zheng Cheng-gong's (Koxinga's) fleeing Ming, the Manchu Qing, the Japanese and finally a last fleeing group, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), different generations of Taiwanese have suffered under various forms of “colonial captivity.” But despite that, the remarkable thing is that the Taiwanese have proved resilient not only in eventually shaking each off but also in finally achieving both a unique Taiwanese identity as well as a vibrant democracy. The recent Sunflower Movement has proven to be the final step in that process. ...
The Sunflowers Protest and Pigs in a Poke
These times of protest are times to try Taiwanese souls. But they also are times that all Taiwanese need to remember both now and when November 29 comes around. In the current Service Trade Agreement, Taiwanese are basically being asked by their president Ma Ying-jeou to buy the unseen proverbial "pig in a poke (sack)." Ma tells the wary people that his unseen and unexamined black box trade agreement is their salvation. Whether a pig is actually in there is unknown. Without examination there may be a cat, a rat or maybe many snakes, but still President Ma insists that the Legislative Yuan forego its duty and give his "unseen pig" a rubber stamp. This is the first point the people should remember. ...