Just Compare, Who Is a Greater Menace to Taiwan’s Democracy?

 Just Compare, Who Is a Greater Menace to Taiwan’s Democracy?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

July 18, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

After Han Kuo-yu emerged as the winner in the KMT’s presidential primary, Luo Wen-jia, DPP Secretary-General, made a comment, saying that Han Kuo-yu is “over the peak”, with less menace to the DPP, adding that the menace to Taiwan’s democracy would be greater if Han should be elected as president, he would govern in a messy fashion, leading Taiwan to an unimaginable state. This commentary will hardly convince others. Just look at Luo Wen-jia himself: he has served two presidents, Chen Shui-bian, known for his corruption and abuse of power, and Tsai Ing-wen, known for her arrogance and undermining the system. It is crystal clear with one glance who presents a greater menace to Taiwan’s democracy.

In those years, the young Luo Wen-jia, Ma Yung-cheng and others served as Chen Shui-bian’s speech writers cum brain trust, deliberately depicting Chen Shui-bian as a hero of Taiwan for nativist democracy with impeccable character, virtually a process of deification. Later the Chen Shui-bian family fell with corruption and graft, as well as transgressions of law and disrespect for discipline, Luo Wen-jia, nevertheless, ran away ahead of others; for being a man serving as top lieutenant to Chen Shui-bian, who undermined Taiwan’s democracy, did he ever have any regret and remorse? Earlier this year, Luo Wen-jia broke out from the cacoon, reappearing in the public arena and serving as the DPP’s secretary-general, he even lauded lavishly and incessantly Chen Shui-bian, who repeatedly violated the rules governing medical parole, praising him as "the most outstanding leadership talent of the DPP." Such a manifestation was indeed hard to chew, and what democratic perseverance was there to talk about? Now, Luo Wen-jia wants to make Lin Fei-fan a replica of himself, attempting to mislead the political worship of the younger generation, isn’t it laughable?

Leave aside Chen Shui-bian and look at the various measures that Tsai Ing-wen has adopted recently to stay in power. Nearly all focus on self-interest, we don’t see any cherishing for Taiwan’s democracy. For instance, in order to avoid "plebiscites combined with general elections" hindering her presidential re-election prospects, she deftly designed a mechanism providing the holding of plebiscite elections every other year and not to be combined with general elections. The plebiscite, revered as a totem by the DPP in the past, was thus put back into an iron cage. In addition, with regard to cross-Strait relations, President Tsai endlessly blocked cross-Strait exchanges through administrative policies, leading to a great impact on tourism and restaurant businesses. She then revised the "five laws of national security", casting stringent and sinister traps for all groups or individuals that would advocate peaceful interchanges; in recent days, she even introduced the concept of "agents for the CCP ", seemingly "Article 100 of the Criminal Code" redux, handy to use the label of “fellow traveler” as trumped-up charges. Such is Tsai Ing-wen; is this not a serious menace to Taiwan’s democracy?

Besides abusive and rampant revisions of the law, many of Tsai Ing-wen’s personnel appointments all originate from personal and partisan interests, without minding an iota of popular opinion. The most obvious case in point is that the city mayors and county executives who lost in last year’s local elections were all called to serve in the central government, with Su Tseng-chang and Chen Chi-mai even serving as Premier and Vice Premier, respectively. This kind of appointment obviously aimed to slap the electorate in the face, showing that Tsai Ing-wen fundamentally cared nothing about the people's choices, and meaning she wanted to counter vox populi to the end. Moreover, through the slanted appointments for Control Yuan members, Central Election Commission, Transformational Justice Commission and others, Tsai, on the one hand, delivered an olive branch to the deep Green pro-Taiwan independence faction, and on the other deliberately undermined and debilitated the operational balance of the government system. Since Tsai Ying came to office, she has never appointed a single impartial figure of society with an image transcending Blue and Green, including the personnel of state-run enterprises. Thus it could be seen that her narrow vision, in fact, is comparable to that of Chen Shui-bian, if not more so.

Tsai Ing-wen has been in office for over three years; Taiwan’s democracy has frequently been mired in backpedaling, and the rule of law becoming twisted endlessly. Often times ordinary citizens were framed with disseminating “fake news” and were punished; this, in comparison with Taiwan’s stagnant economic development, is a more perilous phenomenon. Taiwan’s democracy is in the process of being menaced, and this is definitely not an overstatement made to scare people. Nevertheless, what truly constitutes a peril to Taiwan’s democracy is not Han Kuo-yu, who has just started to train his troops and accumulate popular support, Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP, which has been willingly utilized by her and the falsely self-proclaimed "progressive"; they are the perpetrators that have “committed the offence” of undermining democracy. The DPP fell miserably on account of Chen Shui-bian’s graft and corruption, principally because no one within the party dared to harbor different opinions, leading to power completely without checks and balances. Now, the same problem is being repeated in the Tsai government; the DPP’s "malaise of power worship" is an incurable disease. 

Attachment : none