Taiwan: Nerd Analysis and Fallout from the Chen Arrest

Newsweek has a decent analysis of the political storm in Taiwan. Do read.

Here is a bit of it about the KMT and the judiciary:

. . . . before Mr Chen’s arrest, twenty prominent international Asia specialists, including Professors Arthur Waldron of the University of Pennsylvania, Bruce Jacobs of Monash University and June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami, along with former Far Eastern Economic Review Taipei correspondent Julian Baum, issued an unprecedented open letter expressing “deep concern” at the behaviour of Taiwanese prosecutors. “It is obvious that there have been cases of corruption in Taiwan,” they wrote, “but these have occurred in both political camps.” The recent detentions, they said, had created an impression that the KMT authorities “are using the judicial system to get even with members of the former DPP government.” They accused prosecutors of “a basic violation of due process, justice and the rule of law,” by holding several detainees incommunicado without being charged, and of “trial by press” by leaking detrimental information to the media. They suggested that such actions were jeopardizing the achievements of Taiwan’s transition from one party rule (by the KMT) to democracy in the late 1980s and early 90s.

The letter is on a petition site here and gathering signatures (some of the signatures, though, are clearly posted by Internet trolls).

The Newsweek bit also has this to say about Ma specifically:

“Chen Shui-bian was a very divisive figure,” says Frank Muyard of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China. “People hoped Ma would be more conciliatory – they saw him as a gentle, well-educated, nice person who would help Taiwan come together and do something for reconciliation. But he hasn’t done that. Now many people see him as partisan, too eager to please China – they don’t trust him to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty.”

Well, well, well, surprise, surprise. The Slick Smiling Sinophiliac Ma!

If Chen was divisive by enlarging rifts between China and Taiwan, Ma is divisive by enlarging rifts within Taiwan itself. I'm about willing to argue that Ma is more pernicious and ultimately far more harmful: cozying up to China while fomenting internal Taiwanese dissension is a recipe for disaster. Besides, Ma's actions seem well on their way to creating more anti-China sentiment on the island than Chen's.

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