tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post7003100748557051338..comments2023-10-22T18:25:39.688+08:00Comments on The View from Taiwan: Daily Links, December 28, 2009Michael Turtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-48826418787491769122009-12-30T07:20:50.343+08:002009-12-30T07:20:50.343+08:00"They are still a long way from repeating tha..."They are still a long way from repeating that success, partly because the KMT has cleaned up its act (to a degree)."<br /><br /><br />I think what you mean is that the KMT stated they would clean up their act and held a few press conferences and shuffled some positions. They talked about the desire to change for a few months in 2000 and 2001... and then went back to business as usual. <br /><br />They have actually gone to great lengths to further integrate organized crime into the political process. The recent redistricting that allowed Yen Ching Piao to gerrymander his way from coastal Shalu to landlocked Wu Feng is a prime example of the KMT securing the power base for organized crime figures.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-17359434072098196652009-12-29T22:31:07.761+08:002009-12-29T22:31:07.761+08:00I have often wondered whether the vote for Chen in...I have often wondered whether the vote for Chen in 2000 was an anti-corruption vote. He got 36% of the vote, essentially the DPP base, while 60% of the voters went for corrupt old KMT candidates. I think that is a misreading of the vote.<br /><br />Yes, I think you might be right. But I do think that DPP successes at local level in the late 1990s had a lot to do with the corruption issued. Remember the DPP won in many deep blue areas. They are still a long way from repeating that success, partly because the KMT has cleaned up its act (to a degree).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-84119546120735502732009-12-29T21:43:00.024+08:002009-12-29T21:43:00.024+08:00@Marc, if Iphones can leverage it, by all means le...@Marc, if Iphones can leverage it, by all means let's do it.<br /><br />Anon, I think Lee's grab for power was motivated by his desire to remake the island's governance in ways that fostered democracy.<br /><br />I have often wondered whether the vote for Chen in 2000 was an anti-corruption vote. He got 36% of the vote, essentially the DPP base, while 60% of the voters went for corrupt old KMT candidates. I think that is a misreading of the vote.Michael Turtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-5374814808905901112009-12-29T19:29:15.692+08:002009-12-29T19:29:15.692+08:00GPS users beware: human-driven global warming is m...<b>GPS users beware: human-driven global warming is making the atmosphere shrink, affecting the orbits of satellites.</b><br /><br />LOL, so can we assume that what will finally nudge proper climate change controls is not the fear of drowning island nations and coostal cities and wiping out thousands of species, but simply losing access to one's IPhone?Marcnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-67353775772040064342009-12-29T13:58:40.412+08:002009-12-29T13:58:40.412+08:00Lee Teng-hui had to consolidate power because the ...Lee Teng-hui had to consolidate power because the mainlanders would have killed him if they thought they could get away with it. Completely ignoring the historical context and the uncertainty of Lee's rise to power isn't going to make your opinion believable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-52966376842395480012009-12-29T13:12:33.717+08:002009-12-29T13:12:33.717+08:00I don't think it is fair to say Lee was concer...I don't think it is fair to say Lee was concerned with consolidating his own power. I think what is meant by that is that many of the KMTers bought into the image of Ma as the pragmatic, can-do, forward-looking, not your daddy's KMT leader.<br /><br />I am referring to the constitutional reforms that Lee pushed through during his presidency which massively increased the power of the president. The ROC constitution (suspended during martial law) basically provided for a parliamentary system of government, but Lee's constitutional reforms reversed that. Particularly significant was that the President can select a Premier without the approval of the Legislature. A system that can be so easily dominated by one man is dangerous for democracy.<br />Also. The KMT's tolerance for corruption was much higher in Lee's day. Public disgust with corruption during the Lee era (along with KMT splits of course) was the main factor behind the DPP's electoral successes at the end of the 1990s and Chen's election in 2000.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-49675665747377667562009-12-28T21:54:33.527+08:002009-12-28T21:54:33.527+08:00You really don't think China's come a long...You really don't think China's come a long way since Mao, even since Deng?<br /><br />These things take time. Taiwan's had 20+ years since martial law was lifted, and things aren't perfect, but they've come a long way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-70295000534019740792009-12-28T20:37:09.924+08:002009-12-28T20:37:09.924+08:00"Those Snickers bars omnipresent in the islan..."Those Snickers bars omnipresent in the island's convenience stores? Yup, made in Moscow"<br /><br />Ouch! That's a big disappointment for me.<br /><br />I will double check because I'd never guess that Taiwan was importing this item from Russia.<br /><br />Anyway, still better than China...<br />Vodka is better than melamine.<br />;-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-71259453473211936222009-12-28T20:05:36.763+08:002009-12-28T20:05:36.763+08:00Lee was a liberal nativist reformer, who brought i...Lee was a liberal nativist reformer, who brought in elements of organized crime to keep the KMT in power and thus force the KMT to liberalize and indigenize. Lee was not seeking to consolidate is own power, but rather wrest it away from the conservative mainlander elite within the party (This is more of the tradition Ma Ying Jiu comes from). I think this is evidenced in Lee relinquishing his power after having inherited a functioning dictatorship. Lee did not have to liberalize and could have successfully limited the transfer of power to the people by maintaining the vast organs of the authoritarian state. But he didn't. Under Lee, the ideals of the KMT shifted to simply retaining power and Lee used this greed to force liberalization of the party; in some instances even stealing the DPP's thunder by echoing their platforms and knocking their legs out from under them. The KMT went along with him as it prevented the DPP from making progress with the electorate. Regardless, the indigenization and the Taiwan centered approach of the Lee administrations resonated with the electorate and it translated into votes. <br /><br />On the contrary:<br /><br />Ma is really the first president of the democratic era to truly represent the traditional KMT, and for that matter, the core ideals of the post Sun Yat-sen ROC. Unlike Lee, Ma has forsaken Lee's Taiwan centered approach, which was favored by voters during both Lee and Chen presidencies, in favor of an ambiguous approach with a locus in the core beliefs of contemporary Chinese nationalist/Sunist ideology. Ma's continued ambiguity on several positions and policies has left many Taiwanese voters, KMT, DPP and independents, feeling uneasy and distrustful of Ma and his party.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-84518839379963965342009-12-28T19:24:32.349+08:002009-12-28T19:24:32.349+08:00I don't think it is fair to say Lee was concer...I don't think it is fair to say Lee was concerned with consolidating his own power. I think what is meant by that is that many of the KMTers bought into the image of Ma as the pragmatic, can-do, forward-looking, not your daddy's KMT leader.Michael Turtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-89394219637198500182009-12-28T18:12:17.056+08:002009-12-28T18:12:17.056+08:00Several people have remarked to me that the reason...Several people have remarked to me that the reason so many KMT voters are disappointed with Ma and the current KMT is that when they voted Ma in they thought they were getting the Lee Teng-hui KMT.<br /><br />In what sense? You have quite rightly highlighted the problem of gangsterism and corruption at the local level in Taiwan. This reached its nadir under the Lee administration. He was concerned with little more that consolidating his own power. I think he was a very over-rated president.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com