Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Aborigines demonstrate for secret ballot rights

Taipei Times

Saying that their right to secret voting is not properly protected, a group of Aboriginal voters yesterday staged a demonstration outside the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP), asking it to help negotiate for a better system.

“CIP please help out! Give us back the right to secret voting,” dozens of demonstrators mobilized by Kumu Hacio, an independent candidate for the mountain Aborigine seat on the Greater Tainan City Council shouted as they stood outside the council.

Chen draws from ‘Tea Party’ ideas

Taipei Times

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) drew comparisons between his “One Side, One Country” Alliance and the US “Tea Party” movement yesterday, saying that they both “insist on the most basic principles” and defend fundamental ideas.

In a statement that will be released by the Neo Formosa Magazine on Wednesday, he says the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) failed to stand against the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and suggests his alliance is a growing political movement.

Youth look for identity as Ma runs from flags

Taipei Times Editorial

A few days ago, several students at Taoyuan County’s Kainan University, host of this year’s Asian University Basketball Championship, flew Republic of China (ROC) flags around the university sports arena in protest at the confiscation of ROC flags during a basketball game with a Chinese team the previous day. Behind this action is a burgeoning identification with Taiwan, a shared sense of patriotism and a feeling of unity among the younger generation. It represents a rejection of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) untenable concept of “one China.”

When they talk of their identification with the ROC, they are actually talking about their identification with Taiwan, distinct from the China on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. One country on either side, each with its own separate identity.

A Taiwanese template for China

Taipei Times Editorial

During the controversy surrounding Japan’s detention of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat in the waters off the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), China displayed the strength of a major power, forcing Japan to call on the US-Japan security treaty and Washington’s assistance in reining in Beijing.

The question of how to counterbalance the power of a rising China has become a matter of grave concern to the international community.

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