Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Groups hope calls for constitutional reform recognized

Taipei Times

Major political parties may be feeling the crunch in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election as participants in the Sunflower movement announced earlier this week the start of a new movement to promote constitutional reform via the will of the people in hopes of circumventing the restrictions imposed by the Referendum Act (公民投票法).

KMT lost without DPP opposition

Taipei Times Editorial

It is no longer a secret that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and the ruling party, which is struggling to shore up sagging poll numbers, have started to “colorize” the election campaign by attempting to emphasize the affiliation of Lien and his main opponent, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), with the blue and green camps respectively, despite Ko being an independent candidate with no party affiliation.

Appealing to party adherence is an understandable approach in a well-functioning democracy, where political parties attract votes by persuading supporters that their policies and principles are superior to the opposition’s.

KMT refuses transitional justice

Huang Chang-ling, Yeh Hung-ling 黃長玲﹐葉虹靈

On Nov. 9, 25 years ago, the 155km-long Berlin Wall fell. Not long after, large groups of people charged into the intimidating Ministry for State Security (Stasi) headquarters where they saved files from destruction by ministry staff. It was later discovered that the 158km of files and films found were the results of information gathered by 90,000 Stasi staff and 150,000 informers to keep strict control over East German society.

Superficial peace is very harmful

Taipei Times Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) often brags about how much cross-strait relations have improved since he took office in 2008, and how both Taiwan and China abide by the so-called “1992 consensus,” yet the way in which China has treated Taiwan and its envoy at the APEC meeting shows that Ma’s “achievements” are nothing but lies.

Attending the APEC meeting as Ma’s special envoy, former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) was not treated as he should have been at all, and despite the APEC meeting being an international event, Taiwan has been treated as just a part of China.

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