Comments on: Government undermines promotion of democracy

By: Passing By

Passing By — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:42:59 +0000

Su Chi is a total scumbag. I’ve seen some of his correspondence; he’s so full of himself. He’s driving all the Machiavellian underhanded stuff in the Ma administration, including pushing him to take back the party chair. It breaks his own promise, but he wants to use this as an excuse to negotiate with China without the title of President.

The tentacles of the government are all over the place these days–from removing Taiwan from government publications and replacing it with ROC to tons of government sponsored cross-strait cultural activities/exchanges…

Ma had an idiotic economic plan and was reprehensible enough from his past actions opposing democratization for me to strongly oppose him on those grounds, but that he actually is trying to push a unification agenda and in an underhanded, undemocratic way… damn… even the most pessimistic estimates of Ma are becoming true.

There are local elections at the end of this year, but then no more until 2012. With legislative elections and the presidential election so far off, Ma can afford to continue avoid public opinion until elections come up, and he appears to tack back towards the center again.

Without any political levers to pull, can civic society, perhaps in conjunction with international organizations, new media, push back against this minority agenda? Can there be a viable DPP strategy, perhaps with additional events like Chen Chu’s visit to China–high profile, highly rational, but firm statements on the DPP position?

By: David Reid

David Reid — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:59:30 +0000

Joe, There are plenty of examples in other countries of organisations that receive most of their funding from the government, but operate independently. Public broadcasters such as the ABC in Australia are a good example of this. While it can be expected that governments might appoint people to the board for ideological reasons these very direct manipulations of the TFD are not in line with the principles of democracy. What the KMT government is currently doing to PTS is a repeat of the same pattern. The work the TFD does is quite important in improving Taiwan’s connections with global civil society. As Taiwan is excluded from the UN these kind of activities are vital to developing Taiwan’s international image and giving it more international space.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:03:29 +0000

Nothing connected to the government can be expected to operate “independently”. Now, why is the government giving money to this “Global Go To Think Tank” to support “democracy” ?

By: Govt ‘taking the democracy out’ of Taiwan Foundation for Democracy?

Govt ‘taking the democracy out’ of Taiwan Foundation for Democracy? — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:48:30 +0000

[...] foundation is supposed to operate autonomously. But its board members accuse the KMT government of inappropriate interference. “For example, when we were organizing an event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the [...]

By: Portnoy

Portnoy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:05:23 +0000

Link:
http://blog.roodo.com/torrent/archives/9236523.html

By: Άλισον

Άλισον — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:33:43 +0000

Thanks David!

This was one of the two topics I was writing on yesterday, but I didn’t finish it.

Looks like I don’t need to finish it anymore. I will take a closer look and see if I have anything to add, but not today.