Would Taiwan Be Another Venezuela?

  Would Taiwan Be Another Venezuela?

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 24, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

Venezuelan President Maduro won the presidential election on the 20^th and gained another six-year term, but the electoral process was full of issues, coupled with Maduro’s trampling on democracy and oppressing the opposition. The US, Europe, and the Lima Group of Latin American countries refused to recognize the results of the election. US declarations that it would impose sanctions even caused oil prices to immediately soar. This victory built on ashes of cinders and angst, except the powers that be that felt elated, the entire country became losers.

The most serious problem with Maduro is that he has all put his limited capabilities entirely on consolidating his own power, and doing it to the extreme. Venezuela’s economy has become worse and worse, and society has become increasingly filled with unease. While Maduro was inept in coping with the economy, he was expert in abusing power and autocratic. As the opposition constitutes a majority in the parliament, he simply set up a constituent assembly in order to hollow out the parliament, while the constituent assembly was not only Maduro's puppet, election frauds had been reported during the election of constituent delegates. The fairness of last year’s local elections was also in question.

The governance of the country may be divided into the "growth model," "erosion model," and "divisiveness model." In the "growth model" of governance, if we use the metaphor of raising dairy cows, it is to raise the country on nutritious feed, carrying out appropriate disease prevention and pest control, and stimulating more healthy growth, so that the people will be able to obtain an endless supply of cow milk. “Erosion model” governance, on the other hand, is when the powers that be repeatedly extract national resources for their own benefit, and the country becomes mired in a vicious circle of poverty for the people and a predicament of the coffers. Selfish and incompetent rulers exhaust the hopes of national survival, leaving the people mired in pain and despair, and sowing the seeds for turmoil and confrontations in the future. The “divisiveness model” of governance utilizes the departmentalization and divide of different groups in the society to create political space and election markets as tools for their administration and the basis for their rule.

Since the DPP government came to office, in both domestic society and cross-Strait relations, it has endlessly cut ties with the rival fronts, arousing divides of hatred. Thus, the country’s resources have been repeatedly squandered, with no growth, but retrogression; in actuality, it is the governance mode of both the “divisiveness model” and the "erosion model." Winning the election and losing the country's future, what is the significance of this kind of regime? President Tsai should pay heed to the warning signals emanating from the Venezuela example.

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