Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Government starts to sound like PRC

Taipei Times Editorial

Western academics being told they deserve condemnation for interfering in a country’s internal affairs after they criticize what they believe might be an abuse of power by the government is something that is usually associated with China. When US government officials or professors accuse China of abusing human rights by arresting dissenters or squelching opposition with supposedly “legal” means, Chinese authorities either refer to them as ignorant foreigners who don’t understand the specific requirements of running the Middle Kingdom, or they accuse them of seeking to denigrate China for political purposes.

Is the Ma Government Blowing Smoke to Cover its Tracks? What is it Hiding? Part 1

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

With less than a year to go before elections, the Ma government is claiming that there are some 36,000 missing documents that are unaccounted for between the Chen turnover of administration in 2008 and the present time 2011. They claim this is not political but their explanations are lame. Picture the following.

Let us say you work for the government or even for a major corporation and you leave your office or position in 2008; now some three years later you are facing accusations, not that you have, but that you may have not adequately accounted for all documents, classified information etc. from 3 years ago. When would the natural time have been to bring this up, three years ago when matters would be fresh in the mind of both you and your staff or three years later?

Stopping at nothing to win elections

Taipei Times Editorial

The Central Election Commission on Tuesday decided to merge the next presidential election and the legislative elections.

Because legislative elections must by law be held before the next legislative session begins on Feb. 1, Tuesday’s decision means the next presidential election, which was supposed to be held in March next year, will take place in January, meaning there will be an unprecedented four-month gap between the presidential election and the swearing in of the president-elect on May 20.

Environmental activists urge overhaul of EIA process

Taipei Times

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure needs to be overhauled so that controversial projects can be reviewed more thoroughly and political responsibility is more clearly defined, environmentalists said yesterday.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) today will hold its fifth EIA meeting related to a controversial petrochemical project planned by Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co for a wetlands area in Changhua County.

Environmental activists have criticized the EIA process, calling its as flawed.

More Articles...