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Restricting Personal Liberties Is the Resuscitation of Martial-Law Rule

icon2017/07/25
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  Restricting Personal Liberties Is the Resuscitation of Martial-Law Rule

Source: China Times

July 19, 2017

The Cabinet recently proposed two new provisions restricting personal liberties. One is the adoption a draft amendment bill to the “Statute Governing Relations Between People Across the Taiwan Strait," inserting a provision on norms regarding high-ranking retired or departed officials, both civil and military, who go to the Mainland for political activities, with stringent penalties, including fines, deprivation or suspension of pensions, and retrieval of decorations and medals. The second is regarding military, civil servants and public school teachers who receive monthly pension payments. They must take the initiative to notify the government agencies or schools where they last served about their destinations when traveling abroad, including the date of exit and entry, and contact phone numbers. This is another recent step of the DPP government in backpedaling in the area of human rights. In earlier years, the DPP sprang up by lambasting the KMT government for infringing on human rights, and now on the 30th anniversary of the lifting of martial-law rule, the DPP government has finally won full governance. However, it does not regret revealing its true face in contempt for human rights, without even camouflaging its purpose of consolidating power. This also substantiated the famous saying by Lord Acton of the UK that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”!

In fact, using the law to deal with political rivals or others has been the approach of the Tsai government which has never ended since coming to office. The first salvo was the "Statute Governing Ill-gotten Assets of Political Parties and their Affiliated Organizations," erecting an unprecedented Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee (IGPASC) in total disregard for various legal provisions for the protection of political parties, and in total disregard of public opinion and the caveat of the Control Yuan pointing out that this may be unconstitutional, and willingly transgressing the greatest taboo in democratic politics by directly persecuting, without any camouflage, the largest opposition party, which had just peacefully handed over political power in accordance with the law after a general election, and attempting to place it in a political dungeon so that it would never see the light of day.

After the adoption of the "Statute Governing Ill-gotten Assets of Political Parties and their Affiliated Organizations," in the name of pension reforms, the Tsai government followed by targeting hundreds of thousands of retired military, civil servants, and public school teachers, which the DPP has always alienated, not regretting trampling on the long-term statutory commitments made by the government toward them, destroying the good faith and the principle of legitimate expectations. When the retired military, civil servants, and public school teachers exercised their right of assembly and march, which the DPP was most adept at when they were in opposition, took to the streets to protest against the legislation for pension reforms, the Tsai government, surprisingly, erected barricades equipped with blades. The Assembly and March Act, which the DPP when in opposition had long-accused of being unconstitutional and vicious legislation, saying it obstructed assembly and march more than protecting assembly and march, now directly employed enhanced barbed-wire barricades equipped with blades, fundamentally treating the citizens who exercised the basic human rights of assembly and march as enemies. Isn’t this returning to the martial-law rule era?

These have been the veritable, on-going scenes for the past year. Politics is supreme and power is the bedrock. In the eyes of the rulers, there are only us or them, the enemies, but no citizens. When they talk about politics and don’t talk about rule of law, once having gained power, they have forgotten the people's rights. Review the past history of democracy and rule of law in Taiwan, we truly have a feeling of anachronism. If the rulers that be don’t ponder and self-reflect, repenting and recanting their mistakes, the prospects for human rights protection and the rule of law in Taiwan, we are afraid, would be extremely bleak!

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