Is Taiwan a democratic XXX? (XXX can be plugged in with anything you like! :P )

Actually it’s not, before 1987.

Brfore that year, there was indeed a Constitution of Republic of China, but it was suspended because of the quasi-War atmosphere. At that time, Taiwan people (including those who came to Taiwan with KMT around 1948) were suppressed by the martial law and dictatorship. Ironically, during the same period, Taiwan was ever being an ally of Western democratic countries during that Cold War period.

In 1987, the long term curfew in Taiwan ended. The rights guaranteed by the Constitution gradually went back to people. Since then, people in Taiwan can exert the freedom of speech. However, this basic human right is still suffocated by the power of the government run by Community Party.

I agree that the slogans like “democracy, equality, justice, blah, blah, blah…” are inherently relative. Thus, my allegation of “unfreedom” on China could be unfair. However, it is undebatable that people in some China are more unfree or suppressed than the people in Taiwan. Frankly, I am also unsatisfied with the human right situation under Taiwan government. But if let me choose China and Taiwan government to suck my blood, I’d rather let the latter one…

Checking Constitution is not enough, it could be just a make-up. If the department of justice is not independent, the constitution is useless. Only when a country can sue the government operators when the latter disobey the basic articles in the constitution, people can really use their rights. As long as the government is like a gang, I don’t see how could it be in a free state.

Here are some counter examples to the articles in the PRC’s Constitution.

Disproof of 35th article
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/6/9/15/n1454490.htm
People who demonstrated for the water polluted by arsenic from a plant, the protestors were beaten by gangs, just in front of policemen.

Disproof of 36th article
http://www.hkflash.com/diary/read.asp?id=tanghofung&aid=13015082
“Community Party won’t interfere as long as not against the Party.” This is religious freedom, or religious control?

Disproof of 37th article
An entry from GVO online told the journalist who had written a story questioning the materials for construction of railroad was fired and cannot be hired by any news company in China thereafter. “People’s freedom is inviolable”, as long as the authority’s interest is not threatened!!??

Disproof of 39th article
Please refer to the planned destruction of historic Hu-ton(胡同) in Beijin.

It needs lots of time to show all the disproof for other articles. :P It’s pitiful that every beautiful article has its proviso, i.e. don’t violate the leaders’ XXX. (Again, XXX can be plugged in with: wisdom, decision, power, interest, etc.)

I do not live in China, but I read many events about violation of the basic human right of freedom in China. I believe people are lovely there. But those authority and interest groups are the barriers to make this country a more humanitarian state. Surely Taiwan is not good enough, but it is better than China. If Taiwan government and politicians still focus only on self political interest, soon it would be caught up.

There are indeed many against freedom, peace, democracy, co-existence. As an example, please consider those who worship Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. I would also add the many Palestinians who train their children to hate their neighbors and, in some cases, are lauded for sending their children on suicide bombing attacks against civilians.

Even in states such as Malaysia, courts do not fulfill their duties responsibly. Consider Lina Joy, a convert from Islam to Christianity, whose conversion was ruled illegal by a Malaysian court, despite the country’s constitution that professes freedom of religion. What role did Mahathir play in allowing courts to be so weakened?

So is there anyone who is against Democracy, Freedom, human rights, love and peace?

People from both sides all say they support Democracy. And people from each side accuse the other side of being undemocratic. That is the problem and that is politics.

Some people for example, would accuse America of not being a democracy except on election day but as a 2 party state controlled by lobby groups. Some would say that Iran is a better example of democracy because it has more political parties and voter turnouts. But enemies of Iran would not like Iran to be called a democracy. So they invent a new term called a “theocracy” and tell the Iranians here, you are not a democracy, you are better categorized as a theocracy.

And that is politics. Enemies of both sides accuses the other side of being evil.

So here we have TRUST accusing China of being unfree. But how is China being unfree when its people’s rights are protected by the Constitution? Don’t believe me? Read its constitution:

“Article 34. All citizens of the People’s Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of nationality, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status, or length of residence, except persons deprived of political rights according to law.

Article 35. Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.

Article 36. Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.

Article 37. The freedom of person of citizens of the People’s Republic of China is inviolable.

Article 39. The home of citizens of the People’s Republic of China is inviolable.

Article 40. The freedom and privacy of correspondence of citizens of the People’s Republic of China are protected by law.

Article 41. Citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the right to criticize and make suggestions to any state organ or functionary.

Article 42. Citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the right as well as the duty to work.

Article 43. Working people in the People’s Republic of China have the right to rest.

Article 44. The state prescribes by law the system of retirement for workers and staff in enterprises and undertakings and for functionaries of organs of state.

Article 45. Citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the right to material assistance from the state and society when they are old, ill or disabled.

Article 46. Citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the duty as well as the right to receive education.

Article 47. Citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the freedom to engage in scientific research, literary and artistic creation and other cultural pursuits.

Article 48. Women in the People’s Republic of China enjoy equal rights with men in all spheres of life,

and on and on and on

”

Before, I know very little about China and I get a lot of propaganda about how China suppresses human rights. One day, I decided to investigate this matter myself. To my surprise, I see that all these accusations are groundless. Chinese people in Mainland China enjoy some o f the best freedom and rights and it is protected by its constitution. Since then, I have been very wary of people making such accusation about China. They are political accusations. Of course, there will be times when there are exceptions but those are times when the victims should take their case to the court of law so that the court of law can rectify and accord them back their rights.

Time and time again, we see people are have been violated of their rights by the Chinese government go around the world making speeches. Then you ask them if they have tried to seek justice through the judicial system. And they say no.

the responsibility to convey truth is too heavy and i don’t think we can pretend to be conveying truth. but i do agree that we should be careful not to spread fault information and be opened and genuine in our communication. the “truth” (inter-subjectivity) will reveal in the process. for mainland bloggers, access to outside info is a problem, and proxy is usually slow. but if we can carry on the post in the comment section, it will make everything different.

trust, please don’t say that you are “shallow”. i really appreciate the comments and discussions here. also pipperL for spending time and writing a more elaborated post in Chinese in his blog. that’s the advantage of new media grassroots journalism. we all learn from the process :)

As today I re-read the article that entitled with “China: …,” I have completely different feeling. This is why I call myself shallow: too easily moved by words and unawarely. I appreciate Oiwan’s changing the name of region from Taiwan to China, which makes the title relevant to the text. In addition, this prevents the misconception like mine yesterday.

I also thank David and John for your responses. You are both right. Actually, before submitting the comment yesterday, I had thought about the same thing: the important value of GVO that demonstrating all the voices, and respecting the voices. I also believe Meng did as well as to collect the voices from the netizens at the middle stance. But I still submitted the comment yesterday. I try to analyze my action: I felt that the article title with “Taiwan: …” misrepresents the voices in the article. But, my comment failed to point out this; I am sorry for any inconvenience.

Nevertheless, I do not apologize for some other arguments in the comments! :P Because I do hope freedom and human right can be a daily possession of everyone people living in China. :)

這種將愛國與基本是非搞不清的觀念應該是錯的才對。

內地跟外地差別較大的，應該是在差在民主自由罷了，我想如果彼此都能尊重，要其他人認同是沒問題的。

I’m sorry that my decision to put a “Taiwan” header upset the two of you. This was my mistake, and I apologize to you, and Meng as well, for making this change without seeking his approval first. I rest assured, now, that a “China” header would not have offended anyone.

I’m really touched by several of the points that TRUST makes, and I’d like to re-post just one here:

“The world should support all the Chinese who embrace democracy, freedom, human right, love and peace; and condemn the opposite ones.”

Believe me, it is a mistake by the editor, the writer is new to gv and has little knowledge of our guideline.

The first step to communication is to get to know what others opinions are, even though we may disagree. and there are many people with good intention try to understand the issue from both sides and try to bridge the gap, like the post from 1510: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/11/china-sorry-to-taiwan-fellow/

Take a look at the official WCG site, and the Chinese Taipei team flag representing Taiwan:

http://us.worldcybergames.com/sp/web/us.asp

Still think the bad behavior is only one side?

Global Voices Online上出現了一篇《Taiwan: Gamer flag controversy》，談的是WCG國旗事件中，中國網友的反應。有爭議的地方是，在這篇報導中，雖然標題和分類都是台灣，但是內文所引用的論壇/發言，…