Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

President Ma Ying-jeou and his Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) administration should seriously re-examine its performance in civic and human rights in the wake of the downgrading of Taiwan's level of civil liberties by a prestigious international human rights monitoring organization.

In its annual survey of "Freedom in the World," the New York - based Freedom House downgraded Taiwan`s rating in civil liberties was reduced from grade 1 to grade 2 primarily due to violations of the rights of defendants in criminal cases and other new restrictions on freedom of expression and news freedom since the right-wing "formerly authoritarian" KMT regained governance in May 2008.

While Adimmune Corp’s production of vaccines is the concern of the company and the Food and Drug Administration, vaccination policy is jointly managed by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The government departments that oversee production and use of vaccines are on an equal footing, neither being subordinate to the other, and the relationship between the vaccine maker and the government being one of buyer and seller.

Former health ministers have voiced their support for the government’s swine flu vaccination program — Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) by volunteering for a flu jab and Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) by saying that he hoped everyone would get vaccinated. The vaccines are supplied by two companies — Adimmune and Novartis — and they do not have the right to be partial to one or the other.