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.
Undoubtedly, a major factor in this judgement was the KMT government`s crude handling of the investigation and trial proceedings concerning the allegations of corruption involving former president Chen Shui-bian, former first lady Wu Shu-chen and other Chen family members, and other former officials in the previous Democratic Progressive Party government and the unwarranted "preventative detention" imposed on former president Chen himself for well over a year.
Another explicit factor was the passage by the KMT-controlled Legislative Yuan of amendments to the law on administrative neutrality which bars academics or teachers in public universities or secondary or elementary schools from participating in political activities or having any connections with political parties.
Frankly, it is doubtful whether these factors, which are serious enough, are the only reasons for the downgrade.
For example, global human rights groups are also concerned with the constrictions in Taiwan's news freedom and moves by the KMT to restore control over the content of news coverage and commentary over legally autonomous state-owned media such as the Central News Agency and Radio Taiwan International.
Hence, the Paris - based Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists dropped Taiwan`s ranking in news freedom 23 places to 59th in its annual "Press Freedom Index" of 175 nations last October after Freedom House itself had dropped Taiwan's ranking in news freedom from 32nd in 2007 to 43rd in 2008 in its 2009 Freedom of the Press Report issued last May.
Defensive mentality
Of course, the Freedom House evaluation was by no means only negative toward Taiwan, which was still generally positive.
Besides continuing to rank Taiwan as "free," the new survey improved Taiwan's ranking in "political rights" back from grade 2 to back to grade 1, based on progress in cracking down on vote bribery based on the annulment of the victories of several KMT legislators in the January 2008 elections and the investigation of over 200 suspects in vote - buying in last December's "three-in-one" local elections.
The improvement is somewhat ironic since the prosecutions, which have now resulted in the annulment of the victories of five KMT lawmakers and by-elections (three of which were won by opposition DPP candidates and one by an independent) were initiated by prosecutors before the former DPP government stepped down in May 2008 and as the vast majority of the victorious candidates whom have been hit by indictments for annulment due to vote bribery are KMT politicians.
Moreover, as one of Asia's "democratic miracles," progress in deepening democracy should be considered the normal course of affairs and not cause for self-satisfaction, especially since stronger action against vote bribery and corruption should be expected in a new democracy.
Far more important and worrying is the fact that the Freedom House report confirms international acknowledgement and deep concern over the tangible regression in our hard-won civil liberties since the KMT "won back Taiwan."
Indeed, the downgrade marked the first time Taiwan's civil liberties have not received a region leading "Grade One" since 2004 and indicated that the curtailment of civil liberties under the Ma government had overwhelmed its achievement of the legislative passage and presidential promulgation of two major international human rights covenants.
Therefore, the reduction in Taiwan's grade manifests real concern in the global human rights community over the trends in Taiwan in the wake of the return of a "formerly authoritarian" party to power and in the wake of intensifying pressure from the authoritarian People's Republic of China
Unfortunately, the Ma government has chosen to respond defensively to such expressions of concern.
In responding to a recent letter by overseas Taiwan studies scholars last November, Cabinet spokesman Su Jin-pin cited the Freedom House survey in 2009 to deny that "freedom and democracy have eroded" and bizarrely quoted a research report on political risk by Hong Kong-based business consultancy to "prove" that Taiwan's judicial system under the KMT was "fair and independent."
Moreover, KMT Premier Wu Den-yih openly insulted prominent global human rights activists who expressed concern for threats to Taiwan's precious civil liberties by declaring that such persons either "lacked knowledge" about conditions in Taiwan or "did not have to bear responsibility."
The new Freedom House report shows that Taiwan remains free, but issues a warning that our civil liberties are eroding that neither the Ma government or our citizens should ignore.
Source: Taiwan News Online - Editorial 2010/01/14
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