Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Interviews and Views

A sombre Ma overlooks an intersection in Taichung.

First, Taiwan News reports some good news out of the EU:

Members from the European Parliament yesterday issued a statement supporting Taiwan's efforts to become a member of the United Nations, and urged other European Union countries and U.N. members to support Taiwan's U.N. bid.

In the statement, the parliament members also criticized U.N.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his earlier remarks that claimed Taiwan is an integral part of the People's Republic of China.

A total of 100 members from the European Parliament yesterday jointly issued the statement, saying Taiwan, with its 23 million citizens, is a sovereign state. Taiwan has its own Parliamentary and Governmental systems, an independent territory and a distinct population, the statement read.

"Taiwan has never been under the control of the People's Republic of China. On the contrary, Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy that realizes the rule of law and universal human rights. Furthermore, Taiwan has diplomatic relations with 23 sovereign States. For all these reasons the U.N. Secretary-General's statement that said Taiwan is an integral part of the People's Republic of China is clearly false and unjustified," the statement said.

Members of the parliament said in the statement that the parliament has passed many bills to call for more support for Taiwan's 23 million people's participation in international organizations.

A very strong statement, and most welcome! "False and unjustified!" Strong language....

85 year old Peng Ming-min, the 1996 DPP presidential candidate and a lifelong independence advocate, speaks out in an interview with the Vancouver Sun:

"For democracy to function you have to have some self-control. You have to have some restraint," said Peng whose 1964 secretly printed manifesto launched Taiwan's democracy movement with its demand for an end to one party rule and a declaration that the island is a nation independent from China.

That act of defiance against the military rule of the KMT former nationalist government of China, which fled to Taiwan after being defeated in the civil war by Mao Zedong's Communists, earned Peng an eight-year prison sentence. But he escaped to Sweden and then lived in exile in the United States.

Peng returned to Taiwan in 1991 after martial law was lifted and the transition to multiparty democracy affirmed. He was the DPP's unsuccessful candidate in the first free and fair presidential elections in 1996.

What Peng called "the epoch-making moment" came at the next elections in 2000 when current DPP president Chen Shui-bian won and was then re-elected in 2004.

But Chen is leaving on a sour note of public unhappiness, the whiff of scandal and the air of failure.

Peng's bleak view is therefore fuelled not only by the particular grubbiness of Taiwanese politics at this time, but also the strong possibility that Ma and the old one-party dictators of the KMT will return to power.

Most observers would say that the modern KMT is not the repressive and massively corrupt organization that occupied and ruled Taiwan like a subject colony for half a century until forced into the democratic transition 20 years ago.

There's two pages of it. Great stuff. Frank Hsieh was Peng's vice presidential candidate in 1996....

9 comments:

MJ Klein said...

A total of 100 members from the European Parliament yesterday jointly issued the statement, saying Taiwan, with its 23 million citizens, is a sovereign state.

wow.... i guess that means the CCP is programming more missile targets into their system.

nerdsta said...

Yes, good news indeed--but the bad news is that Germany's ruling "Christian coalition", the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) have affirmed that Taiwan & Tibet are an "inalienable" part of China (and we suspect the rising new Left Party would do the same if given the opportunity). linky

Anonymous said...

Most observers would say that the modern KMT is not the repressive and massively corrupt organization that occupied and ruled Taiwan

and 'most observers' would be...who?

eighty said...

Peng advocates Non-democratic rule best for Taiwan in that article. Claims the Taiwanese culture clashes with democraticly elected governance - operates best under a one party state.

Let me guess his meaning - It must be ONLY if the one party is the DPP right? But clearly Peng's words are the epitome of DPP's false democracy reasoning. Just as bad is the DPP's appauling use of tragic deaths to stay in power. Any and every tragedy where a government kills its people the DPP latches onto the event and uses it to instill terror in its own citizens.

Take Tibet for example, China quashes protesters with military force in hopes that such a violent shoot to kill resolution to protests will terrorize its own people in order to prevent future protests and then justifys its actions by blaming all deaths on the protesters. This is exactly what the DPP is doing now, the DPP is terrorizing its own citizens by stating if Ma is elected president the violent shoot to kill approach will be adopted by the KMT against Taiwanese protesters - and this Justiys why Taiwanese must elect Hseih as president. Both countries ruling parties are using TERROR to stay in power are they not?

The DPP's campaign theme is to deepen Taiwan democracy but they have adopted communist rules to stay in power and make sure their party is the only ruling party. In fact the DPP's statement that Taiwan's democracy will become doomed under KMT rule is actually the reverse. Taiwan's democracy is doomed if the DPP stays in power. Case in point is elections - throughout this election campaign Frank Hseih has been trying his hardest not to beat Ma on the issues but to outright disqualify him - This is not democratic to disqualify your opponent. The KMT did not try to disqualify Chen Shui Bian in 2000, nor did they do so in 2004. In fact the 2000 election was the most democratic, smooth transition of power Taiwan has ever had, it shows the KMT is NOT the bad guys, the KMT can graciaously compete, lose and transfer power in a democratic way. The DPP on the other hand CAN NOT compete fairly, it terrorizes its voters, it makes every attempt to disqualify the opposition and clearly does not care about the rules of a democratic system where the BEST MAN for the job gets elected by the masses.

Michael Turton said...

For those of you who wonder why I let Trace post here, I think his over the top writing gives an excellent view of just how far gone KMT supporters are.

Tommy said...

"The KMT did not try to disqualify Chen Shui Bian in 2000, nor did they do so in 2004."

Nah. They just tried to blame him for an assassination attempt, tried to find him guilty of stealing the presidency, put no-confidence motions against him when the public did not really support it, crippled the center of Taipei with mass rallies over a "corruption" allegation that is not much more serious than what Ma was acquitted over, and blocked all useful bills that his party proposed just to make things difficult. All of that is but a trifle....

StefanMuc said...

Trace - you equate shooting at people by China with the DPP's efforts to win the presidential elections. Obviously there are some similarities there - for example both the Chinese government and the DPP have convictions and like to see their policies succeed and stay in power, correct?

You may want to look at the differences as well though - the means by which they want to reach their goal:
one side shoots people, the other side talks to people.

I suppose we'll come to different conclusions looking at this, but for me talking to people (even if it was misinformation, lies or propaganda) is preferable to killing people.

StefanMuc said...

@nostalgiphile

I'm not sure what your link states is correct, it sounds like it could be a rather free interpolation of Eckart von Klaeden's statements. (Please correct if I'm wrong.) I couldn't find them from reputable news organizations, the most closely related was this:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/1298733/german_chancellor_condemns_tibet_violence/index.html?source=r_general

Also CDU/CSU are not the ruling coalition of Germany as the article claims - it's CDU/CSU & SPD (CSU and CDU are closely linked, they are almost the same party). Good news is that the Greens have come out strongly against the Chinese government.

Anonymous said...

“In fact the 2000 election was the most democratic, smooth transition of power Taiwan has ever had, it shows the KMT is NOT the bad guys, the KMT can graciaously compete, lose and transfer power in a democratic way.”

Trace, 2000 was the ONLY transfer of power Taiwan has seen under democracy, so that year’s presidential election automatically wins in the “smoothest” category. With blue diehards attacking their own party HQ after that election and calling for Lee Teng-hui’s head – and egging would-be peacemaker Ma Ying-jeou in the process – some might also call that transition a winner in the “least smooth” category, too.