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The Liberty Times Editorial: Contradictions rush into New Year
There is a long-standing belief in traditional Asian agricultural societies that things from one lunar year cannot be left undone into the next lunar year.
Despite Taiwan’s modernization, which has seen people become more connected with each other on many levels, many still deeply believe that before the new year comes, all bad things need to be dealt with, or bad luck will follow for the entire year. This is a cultural characteristic that has entered the subconscious of the Taiwanese and affects their behavior. It demonstrates how people can feel that there are many important things that can turn into nightmares if not dealt with in a timely fashion. This is why there is a rush of activity before the end of each lunar year. Within that rush, quite a few issues offer insight into the truth about Taiwanese politics and society.
Recently, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) trotted around the globe like mad. While stopping in as many countries as possible, he held press conferences at which he for the first time stated his position on the long-debated legislative oversight of cross-strait negotiations, saying that he based his view on the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution.
Ma says that the negotiation of cross-strait agreements is the prerogative of the executive arm of government and that he rejects any role for the legislature, whose oversight is limited to passing or rejecting a final agreement.
Given this, the legislative review process of the cross-strait service trade agreement should be respected and not interfered with. However, Ma oversteps the boundaries to keep interfering with the process, saying that because the legislature has held 20 public hearings on the agreement, it has delayed the review and caused some misunderstandings over cross-strait relations.
Why all these contradictions between how things should be and how they really are? The head of state is neither responsible for interpreting the Constitution nor arbitrating on it, nor does the president lead the legislature.
According to the Constitution, the legislature is the branch of government charged with representing the public in counterbalancing and improving its oversight of the government’s power.
Instead of attempting to cover things up, Ma clearly stated that he would not offer an opinion on this issue. He is clearly issuing orders to all Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators in his role as party chairman, but why is he in such a hurry?
The opposition caucuses jointly proposed a tax-evasion clause in the legislature in response to the recent release of information by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involving more than 16,000 cases of Taiwanese companies evading taxes through the use of offshore companies.
As always, the KMT caucus immediately rebutted these accusations, citing three reasons. The first reason was that there was no assessment report; the second, that no public hearing had been held and that Taiwanese businesspeople had many opinions on the matter, while the third was that since a cross-strait tax agreement has yet to be reached, a tax-evasion clause would be careless and hasty.
In comparing the legislative process for the establishment of a tax-evasion clause with how the government signed the cross-strait service trade agreement without asking the public, yet another contradiction is evident. These two issues also differ when it comes to those who have vested interests in each matter. In one case, it is small and medium-sized enterprises, while in another, it is companies that are investing in China.
Also, when it comes to tax integration, why should China be singled out and thought of as a special case to be given special consideration? It is obvious that Taiwanese businesspeople in China have much more power than any other group when it comes to lobbying and influencing Taiwan’s executive and legislative powers. Or is it that these two things are now one and the same? If this is not how things are, why is the KMT caucus being so impatient?
On Jan. 27, a conflict erupted between protesters and police when about 80 members of a self-help organization of people who used to work at Hualon Textile Corp gathered outside the Presidential Office to protest against the government for postponing action against their former employer over unpaid retirement funds.
As this was happening, Ma was overseas telling the media that — with events such as a disgruntled citizen allegedly crashing his gravel truck into the Presidential Office — the government should take a look at itself on the most basic level to figure out how to minimize public discontent. There is obviously yet another contradiction at play here.
Compared with the cross-strait service trade agreement, what position do disadvantaged workers occupy in Ma’s mind? This top-down approach to policy and the priorities given to vested interests makes the government’s policy extremely clear. This also shows why the Hualon Textile Corp workers were in such a hurry to have their demands recognized before the new lunar year.
Amid strong social protest, the Ministry of Education’s curriculum outlines adjustment task force pushed through its plan for implementing a new syllabus that will see the national high-school curriculum embody a more China-oriented view of history. They will not be wasting any time doing this either, as they have already made it applicable to students beginning in August.
The ministry has not only announced that this “minor adjustment” involves bringing the content and wording of the textbooks more in line with the spirit of the Constitution, Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) has even said that the new syllabus does not involve “de-Taiwanization,” although it does involve a little “de-Japanization.”
Such a remark implies serious racial prejudice against Japanese subjects and constitutes a serious human rights violation, while also violating the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
It is absolutely outrageous for a group of highly educated intellectuals to unconsciously show such savagery and arrogance. The entire governing team acts as though it can do no wrong, lacks any sense of shame and does nothing to change. Given this, is there any need to ask why this government was so busy pushing through its new education syllabus before the New Year?
Moving away from altering the contents of high-school textbooks to return to the way the Ma administration stops the legislature from monitoring cross-strait agreements, the Ma government’s policy line becomes much clearer — it involves canceling all the hard work Taiwanese put into democratization and equality and involves leveraging political power to push society into an overall state of decline to bring Taiwan closer to the feudal system still used in China.
In face of these changes, all Taiwanese must stop and ask themselves whether they can allow this attack on democracy to continue and let it become the norm for this lunar year.
Translated By Drew Cameron
source: Taipei Times
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