President Ma Ying-jeou should reconsider plans to participate in a controversial presidential inaugural in Honduras and make a transit stop in the earthquake devastated Caribbean nation of Haiti for the sake of both humanitarian assistance and Taiwan's global image.
The Office of the President announced Friday that Ma, who is scheduled to embark next Monday to participate in the controversial inaugural ceremony of Honduran president - elect Porphyra Lobo of the conservative National Party of Honduras (PNH), hopes to make a short stop in Haiti or the neighboring Dominican Republic during the return leg of his six-day excursion.
In the wake of a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake that may have killed up to 200,000 persons including at least one Taiwan child, the 10 million people of Haiti indeed need urgent assistance and the world community, including Taiwan, has responded with no less massive assistance efforts.
Virtually all public services and infrastructure in the capital of Port au Prince have been shattered and supplies of food, medicine, water and clothing have been disrupted just as concerns with disease and disorder rise.
Air, sea and ground transportation and communications facilities are reeling from the earthquake's damage and the pressure of the rapid mobilization of international rescue and relief efforts.
The ravaged one-runway Toussaint Louverture International Airport just north of the Haitian capital of Port au Prince is already overburdened with hundreds of U.S. military and other international aid flights, and the Las Americas International Airport outside of the Dominican Republic's capital of Santo Domingo is also becoming overcrowded with flights diverted from Haiti.
Instead of adding to this pressure with a high-profile presidential stop, Ma and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should pinpoint how Taiwan can make its best contribution to addressing the most critical bottlenecks in the aid effort, including ground transportation and communications equipment and medical assistance, as well as arranging for the the evacuation and, if needed, medical care of Taiwan citizens.
Questions of legitimacy
Even without the massive human tragedy in Haiti, Ma's plans to visit Honduras to participate in Lobo's Jan. 27 inaugural were ill-advised.
After all, the Honduran political situation has yet to stabilize in the wake of the coup last June 28 against liberal Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and the establishment of a "transitional government" under "interim" president and former National Assembly speaker Roberto Micheletti which triggered Ma's cancellation of plans to meet Zelaya in Tegucigalpa after state visits to Panama and Nicaragua.
After months of diplomatic manoeuvring and intensifying domestic division, Lobo won a new presidential election November 29 with 56 percent of the votes in a contested poll in which less than 50 percent of 4.6 million eligible voters cast ballots and which was shadowed by a decree by Micheletti which suspended the constitutionally guaranteed personal liberties and freedom of association and speech for most of the campaign period.
International reaction remains divided as the European Union and most Latin American nations refused to recognize the de facto Micheletti government after the June 28 coup, have demanded the reinstatement of Zelaya and reject the legitimacy of Lobo's election.
Less than 20 other nations, such as the U.S., Canada, Panama and Costa Rica, have recognized Lobo's election in hopes of ending the crisis and promoting "reconciliation."
While Honduran media claim 19 countries will send representatives to the Jan. 27 inaugural, the refusal of Micheletti, who has been named a "permanent member" of the Honduran National Assembly, to resign his his "interim presidency" and the continuation of widespread human rights violations have renewed international concerns.
Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias has declared his intention to boycott the ceremony, and Washington is not expected to send any high-ranking envoy.
Ma would be better advised to strike a balance between sustaining Taiwan's relations with Tegucigalpa and our international image and send a special envoy instead of personally attending this controversial event.
Moreover, the combination of attendance at an inaugural of dubius legitimacy and the questionable benefit for Haitian earthquake victims of Taiwan presidential stopover in Port au Prince or Santo Domingo will inevitably spark suspicion at home over whether Ma is motivated primarily by humanitarianism or by a desire to district public attention from a deepening leadership crisis at home.
Ma's best option would be to transfer the funds, resources and staff time required for the planning and execution of a presidential diplomatic foray into more substantive tasks such as arranging transportation to send our humanitarian assistance into Haiti, map out an effective strategy to help our ally recover from this disaster instead of becoming a "trouble-maker" by adding the burdens of Taiwan diplomats and local government officials, especially when China inevitably issues a shrill protest.
In sum, President Ma's plans to attend Lobo's disputed inaugural and make an ill-considered stopover in Hispaniola will bring criticism and trouble and should be dropped for the sake of the people in Haiti and for Taiwan's own international image.
Source: Taiwan News Online - Editorial 2010/01/18
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