Two legislators called the police claiming a hostage taking at NTU and then on their arrival at the scene said they were testing their response time.
They have since said sorry and cried to the cameras, so everything is all right. DPP are disciplining or reprimanding them and police are looking into whether any laws were broken.
Of course this is not a party political issue. Both sides are equally capable of this kinda stunt.
Too bad it wasn’t a SWAT team with a shoot first ask questions later policy.
Taiwan needs a respected independent academy of government & politics with no independence/unification stance. It is possible to teach government and politics and train good politicians and civil servants. Perhaps there already is one but they haven’t fed through the system yet. I hope so because this country needs good politicians more than most places.
I love Taiwan. I miss it. But everytime I learn something like this, and yesterday I learned that a gator had bitten off the hand of a zookeeper in Kaohsiung because, for some reason he thought it was a good idea to get that close to the thing, I can’t help feel ashamed and embarrassed.
I mean, I realize that it’s just part of the culture there for polititions to act like dicks in an attempt to make big face for themselves. Same goes over here. But the Taiwanese always come off as incredably backward and uneducated. The seem to lack common sense. And I’m not the only one who feels that way. I don’t know how many times a Taiwanese person has said that their polititions make them feel ashamed. So, how do these people get elected? In my opinion, the polititions trully do not reflect the general population of Taiwan, but no one over here ever believes that. :s
I sometimes think we get the politicians we deserve. More true in a democracy at least. A clean and healthy body politic comes from a clean and healthy society. Reform comes from the will to reform and the determination to act on that will.
There is a case to be made that politicians in general lie to us because we ask/want/require them to. Who wants to be told that taxes will have to rise or that a candidate doesn’t have all the answers?
It’s not true that all politicians or potential politicians are corrupt (though all human beings may be corruptible to a greater or lesser extent). The question is how to develop a mature political culture. How to make the polity less rather than more corrupt? Because some are better than others.
h-cat, the croc had been sedated. He turned out to be tougher than they though. People do make mistakes, ya know. It has nothing to do with being Taiwanese.
That’s because the international media take their cue from the pro-Blue media here in Taiwan, which looks down on Taiwanese and deliberately plays up negative aspects of society. Their thesis is that Taiwan is a mess and only annexation to China can save it. Hence the emphasis on things falling apart and the center not holding. You only have to look around you to see what a lie that is – the government is the cleanest in the island’s history, there’s well run hi tech stuff all over, the leisure choices are growing, the population is getting much better traveled. Change is always going on here, and it is generally for the better.
Politicians stage stunts because it is a structural feature of the old system, where only a few votes were necessary to get into the legislature, and any publicity was good. That should go on the wane as stunts will become less necessary over time with the new legislature.
Politicians DO reflect the local population very well. Do you really think the general population is uncorrupt, public-service oriented, and aware of how to present themselves to the outside world?
everytime something big happens overseas the powers that be want Taiwan to be seen to be reacting appropriately…but the country is so far behind the 8 ball in it’s internationalization that is often ends up making a fool of itself…
Pure idiocy. Phone in a phony bomb threat next time?
There are how many legislators? Have each of them stage something like this every other week and what will you ha… Right, right… forgot. Nevermind, carry on.
[quote=“sulavaca”]
2001 Taiwan ranked 27 in the ‘TI 2001 Corruption Perceptions Index’
2002 Taiwan ranked 29 in the ‘TI 2002 Corruption Perceptions Index’
2003 Taiwan ranked 34 in the ‘TI 2003 Corruption Perceptions Index’
2004 Taiwan ranked 35 in the ‘TI 2004 Corruption Perceptions Index’
2005 Taiwan ranked 32 in the ‘TI 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index’
2006 Taiwan ranked 34 in the ‘TI 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index’
The lower the rank relates to less corruption in comparison to all other countries.
Nuff said? :s It seems that Taiwan has been slipping not improving doesn’t it?[/quote]
No, not 'nuff said. According to their website you should be looking at changes in Taiwan’s annual score - not it’s position relative to other countries… From the FAQ section:
Which matters more, a country’s rank or its score?
While ranking countries enables TI to build an index, a country’s score is a much more important indication of the perceived level of corruption in a country. A country’s rank can change simply because new countries enter the index or others drop out.
This topic is related to the low quality of public servants, the stupid choices they make and the culture that encourages them to make them. Public servants includes politicians and civil servants and between them, they make up the government.
I think the idiocy and corruption go together - it’s possible to have one without the other, but in this case they’re related.
Why would it? Everyone sensible realizes the two guys are idiots. What’s to bash? It’s the nature of a system where legislators have to drum up publicity to stay in office. I think that this behavior will gradually disappear over time as the parties adjust to the new legislature and winner-take-all districts.
Fundamental problem is that that two parties are very similar. Both are center-right nationalist parties, one pro-China, the other pro-Taiwan. On many, if not most issues they are actually in agreement, and issues that keep popping up in the press are the ones they don’t agree on. You never hear them arguing about the existing of the NHI or migrant worker rights or corporate tax rates, because they agree on those things. In most countries things that are thrashed out between parties from various places on the spectrum don’t even come up on the agenda here.
The DPP legislators also represent another problem – neither party is yet a real strong political party. The KMT is simply a shell for money flows and the guardian of the mainlander political identity. It has no identifiable policies. The DPP has another problem, its well-known faction issues.
Time will get rid of this behavior, as it has in other democratic nations.
There are many bananna republics that just shoot people for infractions even less than this.
Tme could transform Taiwan into a binlang republic and something quite short of the ideal democracy.
I think they should be incarcerated for a short period of time to show that actions like this will not be tolerated.
There are many bananna republics that just shoot people for infractions even less than this.
Tme could transform Taiwan into a binlang republic and something quite short of the ideal democracy.
I think they should be incarcerated for a short period of time to show that actions like this will not be tolerated.[/quote]