First the KMT subverted democratic elections by its use of overwhelming advantage in stolen money as well as control of all the major media... It subverted the 2008 elections by refusing to work with the duly elected DPP administration from 2000 to 2008 but instead passed laws, and blocked laws all with a view of destroying any meaningful reform or action by the DPP government. With its control of the legislature during those years, it did nothing to help Taiwan, but did only to help create a negative impression on the DPP and to lay the groundwork for 2008.
Second the KMT subverted democratic referendums by setting such a high threshold that the referendum would not pass...
Third, the KMT subverted the justice system to cause not-guilty verdicts for its own party members. Then it used the judicial system to attack any former members of the DPP administration whether or not there was any real evidence. And finally, it corrupted the judiciary to control the outcome of verdicts related to former President Chen. (Democratic institutions were doubly subverted because the lack of impartiality both renders untrustworthy any decisions of the judiciary as well as prevents true justice from being done in the Chen case for any actual offenses he may have committed. Because of the lack of impartiality from the justices, Chen's guilt will forever remain a question.)
Now with the referendum on gambling casinos in the Penghu Islands of Taiwan, the KMT has rigged the "referendum" so that it has little chance of being thwarted by concerned citizens through a normal democratic process of persuasion and public debate. It did not follow the same rules that it did for the referendums it wished to block. It also brought all the resources of government, media, etc. to push its side and block any debate or hearing of the opposition.
Please read Michael Turton's blog post.
Don't be fooled by sham democracy. The KMT fooled much of the world for over 50 years that it was supposedly "Free China" and that Chiang Kai-shek was supposedly a "Champion of Democracy."
4 comments:
Thankfully, even with the attempts at subverting democracy in Penghu, stacking the deck against the opposition to gambling, the anti-gambling coalition was still able to get their message out.
Yes, so far, the climate both domestic and international is such that the KMT does not think it can get away with bald-faced authoritarianism so it still has to abide by a semblance of democracy, and so Taiwan's people still have a little bit of a voice.
If the KMT were concerned with true democracy instead of sham democracy, the KMT would put the ECFA to a national referendum.
True democracy means asking people of Taiwan directly if they want to be part of China or establish their own Republic in a national referendum.
Those who run around the bush shouting for ECFA referendum instead of the real macoy are practicing sham democracy themselves.
That is more to the point.
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