Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma Wants to be Seen as President, but He Really Does Not Want to be Responsible for Anything

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Taiwan once again went through one of those questionable "Say what??" matters as regards its president. Ma Ying-jeou is the one who was "shocked" yes absolutely "shocked" when a half a million US$ got into his bank account. Of course it was his secretary's fault and Ma neither knew anything about it or even questioned it until it became public. Then he was "shocked." So what now?

Well it seems that Ma nominated Shao Yen-ling for the Council of Grand Justices. Shao has a past controversial record and has been called one of Taiwan's "dinosaur" judges. So what happened?

Doubts over fortitude of Taiwanese democracy

Peng Ming-min 彭明敏

Having just returned from overseas, I feel it necessary to share the deep concern about Taiwan’s presidential election that I encountered among many people, including overseas Taiwanese and foreign experts.

They doubt that the presidential election will be held as scheduled and are especially worried that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) may not hand over power should the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) win the election. In a normal, mature democracy, if the government loses, it hands over the reigns of power without a moment’s thought. It then takes on the role of “loyal opposition” and continues to work for the people and the country according to the party’s founding principles.

Expert slams Washington over TRA

Taipei Times

A leading US foreign policy expert is charging that the administration of US President Barack Obama has “shown little to no knowledge or real interest” in the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). William Bader, a former chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, makes his case in a letter given prominent display in Thursday’s edition of the Financial Times.

The letter is a response to a column published in the newspaper last month by Asia editor David Pilling and headed “US cannot sacrifice Taiwan to court the Chinese.”

Red Cross criticized for delay in sending Japan disaster funds

Taipei Times

The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (ROC), which has raised nearly NT$1.7 billion (US$58.5 million) for disaster victims in Japan, more than all other Taiwanese charities combined, is facing criticism that most of the money has yet to leave Taiwan.

The complaints that only about a quarter of the money earmarked for Japan had been given to charitable aid efforts by yesterday came as attention focused on how the organization is managing the fund and how it plans to allocate the money.

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