[quote=“Omniloquacious”]The biggest rat I’ve ever seen here was running around inside a Wellcome supermarket – but no one seemed to be taking much notice of it.
However, it is certainly true that rats are quite a rare sight in Taipei. I’ve often wondered why that’s so. In this, at least, Taipei scores much higher marks than Singapore – I remember seeing lots of rats scuttling in and out of the storm drains the last time I was there, but that was quite a few years ago, so perhaps they’ve successfully tackled that problem by now.[/quote]
The only rats I saw in Singapore were People’s Action Party rats with Lee Kuan Yew and Family being the stinkiest ones of the bunch.
:fume:
If that’s the kind of vermin we’re talking about, then their rattishness pales in comparison with Messrs Soong & Lien and their vassals in the Lifayuan.
If that’s the kind of vermin we’re talking about, then their rattishness pales in comparison with Messrs Soong & Lien and their vassals in the Lifayuan.[/quote]
I disagree. The KMT allowed democratization during the 1980s. The fall of Marcos in the Philippines scared some of the power shakers at the time, and they started the democratization process, albeit slowly. In Singapore, under LKY, Goh Chok Tong, and soon to be LKY’s son, any Singaporean who voices dissent is put through the court system until they are bankrupt. Email James Gomez or JBJ in Singapore and they will tell you of their experiences. If I were a Singaporean, I would be a “Spartacist.”
Not too much till the 1990s, really. But then it was a very different KMT, under Lee Teng-hui, from the pan-blue rabble now led by Lien and Soong. If those two had gained control of the party after CCK’s death, you can bet that Taiwan’s version of democracy would be far less free and more hollow than Singapore’s. And it almost certainly wouldn’t include direct presidential elections.
I’m sure Lee Kuan Yew and the PAP learnt a trick or two there from the good old KMT. They excelled at using Taiwan’s draconian criminal libel laws to not only hit their opponents in the bankbook but also to put them in prison. Remember Chen Shui-bian’s eight-month prison sentence imposed in 1986 for his absurd conviction on libel charges brought by KMT hatchetman and currently alleged maid-rapist Elmer Feng?
I hope Soong and Lien Chan spend a lot of time in Purgatory for their sins and I hope Elmer Feng gets his ass ripped by an animal from the Taipei Zoo. I know a few DPP politicians who spent time on Green Island, have tremendous respect for them, and I despise the authoritarian nature of the KMT - past and present.
That aside, I don’t think 1-6 year jail sentences match the 22 years that Chia Thye Poh spent in a Singaporean jail under the Internal Security Act. Take a look at this website for the darker side of Singapore:
escapefromparadise.com/NewFiles/seow.html
Tales of terrible tyranny, indeed, redounding to Singapore’s utmost discredit. Not as bad as the darkest deeds of the KMT under the Chiang dictatorship, but deserving of the utmost condemnation nonetheless.
Very happy to see the BBC has been publishing some stories that show the “seedier” side to the “Lion City” and that ruthless son of a bitch, the Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3676881.stm - illustrates the meddling LKY does even in his old age. What Singapore does to foreigners vis-a-vis collective bargaining should make any professional expat in Asia angry.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3672745.stm
Of course none of these stories or any other negative stories on the “Lion City” make their way into the Singapore Press Holdings. The Straits Times (SPH’s flagship newspaper shouldn’t even be considered a newspaper – it should be considered a ministry of their government - like the GIO was in Taiwan under Soong many years ago. I know for certain some of the ST’s reporters in Jakarta were actually spies for the government (overheard a conversation in the newsroom where this was inferred) and all the brass openly bragged about their ties with the PRC…
I am sure glad the President’s Office in Taiwan knows the real nature of these bastards.
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003153934
Interesting story about a gentlemen who was fired from the Straits Times