Wag the Tu gou
For all of us that are worried about ROC President 陳水扁 Chen Shui-Bian’s bold yet perplexing move to remove the Nation Unification Council, I have some bad news - we have been had. Had in the best, classic A-bien fashion. Ignore the silly debate over ‘cease to function’ versus ‘abolish’. Forget a campaign to bring the President to his senses, or the talk of recall/impeachment - we’re all missing the point.
This is all just one huge distraction, cooked up to steal focus from a bigger issue that that is currently brewing - the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) scandal. This debacle has been making its way though the courts and prosecutors’ offices, as detailed in an editorial in the China Post. Build-to-order contractor Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co 遠通電收 chose an outdated technology that has caused chaos on the roads and slammed users with speeding tickets. The lucrative collection contract for the system was awarded to the same company under scandalous circumstances, which have resulted in the indictment of the transportation minister’s personal secretary, Soong Nai-wu 宋乃午, and an ongoing investigation into the conveniently former MOTC minister, Lin Ling-san 林陵三. The Taipei High Administrative Court ruled last Friday that the MOTC violated the principles of public interest, and revoked FETC’s status. The government is inexplicably considering suing on behalf of FETC to restore its favored status. The DPP and its voice-box the Taipei Times have trolled out an inexplicably familiar argument - it was broken before we got there. This didn’t work in the 高雄 Kaohsiung (Gaoxiong) MRT scandal, and it won’t work now.
A-bian is at least politically savvy enough to spot this, and knows that he has to energize his voter base and move attention away from the stream of domestic failures and scandals. And so, taking a page from the American playbook, Chen has conveniently picked a fight with the big, bad PRC, costing his citizens billions on the currency and financial markets. Chen beleives that the Taiwan dog, or Tu gou, is better than Western breeds, so I suppose that means he thinks ‘wagging the dog’ here will work better than it does in the US.
This is all just one huge distraction, cooked up to steal focus from a bigger issue that that is currently brewing - the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) scandal. This debacle has been making its way though the courts and prosecutors’ offices, as detailed in an editorial in the China Post. Build-to-order contractor Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co 遠通電收 chose an outdated technology that has caused chaos on the roads and slammed users with speeding tickets. The lucrative collection contract for the system was awarded to the same company under scandalous circumstances, which have resulted in the indictment of the transportation minister’s personal secretary, Soong Nai-wu 宋乃午, and an ongoing investigation into the conveniently former MOTC minister, Lin Ling-san 林陵三. The Taipei High Administrative Court ruled last Friday that the MOTC violated the principles of public interest, and revoked FETC’s status. The government is inexplicably considering suing on behalf of FETC to restore its favored status. The DPP and its voice-box the Taipei Times have trolled out an inexplicably familiar argument - it was broken before we got there. This didn’t work in the 高雄 Kaohsiung (Gaoxiong) MRT scandal, and it won’t work now.
A-bian is at least politically savvy enough to spot this, and knows that he has to energize his voter base and move attention away from the stream of domestic failures and scandals. And so, taking a page from the American playbook, Chen has conveniently picked a fight with the big, bad PRC, costing his citizens billions on the currency and financial markets. Chen beleives that the Taiwan dog, or Tu gou, is better than Western breeds, so I suppose that means he thinks ‘wagging the dog’ here will work better than it does in the US.
posted by Taiwan's Other Side at 7:26 PM
7 Comments:
You completed misrepresented the Taipei Times. You're so ideological that you missed their biggest point--the ETC bidding process should have been more transparent and inferior technology was chosen. Um... yeah, that's why no one cares about your blog. Nothing insightful.
Like we need the Taipei Times to make that point and contribute to yet another round of self-criticism. Good to see them chasing down corruption in the party that they support.
No one cares about my blog? - wow, that's so insightful, thanks!
Wag this!
Pay very close attention to this part of the China Post's front page article to which you linked [emphasis mine]:
- - -
Scrapping the NUC arguably violates Chen's "five noes" policy as the policy includes a promise not to abolish the council and its unification guidelines provided China does not use military force.
- - -
Where I come from, that's called a lie.
Here's what Chen actually said [in translation, of course; emphasis mine]:
- - -
Therefore, as long as the CCP regime has no intention to use military force against Taiwan, I pledge that during my term in office, I will not declare independence, I will not change the national title, I will not push forth the inclusion of the so-called "state-to-state" description in the Constitution, and I will not promote a referendum to change the status quo in regards to the question of independence or unification. Furthermore, the abolition of the National Reunification Council or the National Reunification Guidelines will not be an issue.
- - -
"[I]ntention" is not the same as "use." As we know from the "anti-secession" law, the rapid missile build-up, and the statements which preceded Chen's announcement, China's intentions are quite clear.
Words mean things. Slavery, for example, was "abolished" during Lincoln's presidency. That means "it can't come back." It's not like "ceasing" or "quitting" smoking -- a terrible habit to which people often return. If the KMT's candidate should win in 2008, they can therefore resurrect its stinking corpse and parade it about. Maybe they'll be so bold as to run on exactly this platform.
As for the China Post's judgment that the "ETC Incident" is "just as disturbing" as the "228 Incident" (which may have killed 30,000 Taiwanese), that just goes to show how they and their loyal(-ist) readers live in Bizarro World.
TOS, you wouldn't be employed by that paper by any chance, would you?
What's that flip-flopper Chen saying now about the NUC? Did he abolish it or did he not?
I had a laugh when the US asked him to clarify his statement and it was met with silence.
Is "LA" pretending not to know what Chen actually said when he calls Chen Shui-bian a "flip-flopper"? I just wrote it in the comment immediately above his.
Ya think "LA" also "had a laugh" when Voice of America apologized for making stuff up or when the US State Department said there were "no misunderstandings"?
For the benefit of those who are purposely ignorant or mendacious, what was actually said in this case was:
- - -
[State Department spokesman Adam] Ereli said Taiwanese authorities have told the Bush administration that "these officials were misquoted, and the reports are inaccurate."
Ereli said there was no misunderstanding about the meaning of Chen's actions.
"President Chen's assurances were quite clear that the NUC has not been abolished," Ereli said.
"We've seen the reports of comments attributed to other party officials," Ereli noted.
"It is our understanding from the authorities in Taiwan that the actions they took on Feb. 27 were deliberately designed not to change the status quo, and that was made clear in the statement by President Chen," he said.
"We have every confidence and assurance that the statements made by President Chen are reflective of his and his party's policy," Ereli said.
Ereli said that as a result, there is no "gap or difference of opinion" between Washington and Taipei over what Chen said and meant in his Feb. 27 announcement on the NUC and the unification guidelines following his meeting with the National Security Council.
- - -
"[S]ilence" apparently means "that which 'LA' refuses to read."
Why is it that to people like "LA," "[Chen's] words are kryptonite, [China's] missiles mean nothing," and the truth is like sunlight to a vampire?
Maybe "LA" is confused just what the flip-flopper said or did. Did he flip the abolition or did he flop the no abolition? Or, maybe people who enjoy a good laugh just don't know what "cease to function" means?
The DPP has proved that it can be just as corrupt...
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home