We Oppose the Anti-Infiltration Bill; There Must Be a Sinister Scheme Behind It If the Gov’t Couldn’t Even Wait for Half a Minute

 We Oppose the Anti-Infiltration Bill; There Must Be a Sinister Scheme Behind It If the Gov’t Couldn’t Even Wait for Half a Minute

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

December 29, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng’s remarks regarding the "Anti-Infiltration Bill" elicited a backlash; he emphasized that the bill would only set norms for 5 kinds of unlawful acts, and that "Taiwan media outlets infiltrated by the CCP" were not covered by this bill, necessitating a separate comprehensive review. This statement not only failed to clarify the controversies, but also conversely allows the shadow of Green terror to further expand. When the five national security bills were enacted last July, the DPP proclaimed that it had put in the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Subsequently, it introduced the "CCP Agent Bill" and "the Anti-Infiltration Bill"; now the DPP government has made an advance announcement to enact a law targeting media outlets. Thus there is an extra piece after the completion of the jigsaw puzzle, which is to completely gag the people's freedom of thought and freedom of speech.

The essence of freedom of speech is "I oppose what you say, but I swear to defend to the death your right to speak". We have experienced the struggles by forerunners of democracy, thus we have the fruits of today's freedom and democracy. Among which the most important is the bustling, pluralistic space for the media, featuring the blooming of one hundred flowers, and it requires a security guarantee ensuring that we can speak out as we desire without fear of oppression. Who could imagine that now we would return to the era of restricting the media and controlling freedom of speech. Oppressing the media, allowing society to become an Orwellian community, permitting the existence of only politically correct voices, but the definition of political correctness would be decided by the ruler. Could such kind of media environment help the people to oversee the powers-that-be, providing checks to the expansion of power? Could it prevent people's freedom to be free from being harmed? Could it continue to play the role of the bedrock of Taiwan's democratic system?

The DPP government will ram through the Anti-Infiltration Bill in the Legislative Yuan for the third reading on December 31^st, showing that whenever the DPP government has a chance, it will continue to be dictatorial and expand power. If the DPP and President Tsai do not want to betray democracy in history, they should temporarily slow down the legislative action on the Anti-Infiltration Bill, leaving it to the new vox populi to detailedly communicate and discuss, with political, economic, legal, and social circles, for the purpose of legislating a good law that would care for the people's freedoms on the one hand, and effectively prevent external forces from affecting democratic operations. However, the DPP could wait not even for half a minute, wanting to railroad the passage of the evil bill without counting the cost; apparently there is a sinister scheme behind it.

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