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Brawl or no brawl? Taiwan's opposition leader on the reasons for fights in parliament

Heute mal wieder auf Englisch, weil Taiwan ausnahmsweise gerade international Schlagzeilen macht. Leider nicht wegen eines der vielen wirklich wichtigen Themen, sondern wegen Kämpfen im Parlament. Wieder mal. Kaum gibt es Gerangel ums Rednerpult, interessieren sich plötzlich auch in Deutschland die Medien von Spiegel Online bis Bild Online für Taiwan. (Bruce Darnell wusste, worauf es ankommt: Drama, Baby!) Dabei fasst Spiegel Online immerhin die Hintergründe des Streits kurz, aber einigermaßen neutral und korrekt zusammen, wobei ich nicht weiß, ob hier eine Agentur zitiert wird oder ein Redakteur selbst ein wenig Sachkenntnis hatte:

Die Opposition hält den Kurs der Regierung, der eine Annäherung an China bedeutet, für falsch. Sie befürchtet, dass Peking, welches Taiwan als abtrünnige Provinz betrachtet, langfristig die Angliederung anstrebt. Die Insel Taiwan vor der chinesischen Festlandsküste wird nur noch von wenigen Ländern der Erde als unabhängiger Staat anerkannt. Dabei gehört sie zu den wichtigsten Wirtschaftsmächten der Welt.

Solche Kämpfe im Parlament gibt es immer wieder mal, und natürlich sieht die Regierungspartei KMT ebenso wie viele Außenstehende darin einen Versuch, die Arbeit des demokratisch legitimierten Parlaments zu behindern. Bei einer Pressekonferenz am 29. April fragte ich daher die DPP-Vorsitzende Tsai Ing-wen, ob dies wirklich das Bild sei, das sie von Taiwans Oppositions ins Ausland transportieren möchte. Ihre Antwort ist nicht uninteressant. (Und bevor ich ins Englische wechsle: Ein richtig guter Artikel über Taiwans politische Lage ist gerade in den Nürnberger Nachrichten erschienen.)

There is one sure way to make the international media report on Taiwanese politics: Have a fight in parliament. As much as most newspapers or websites tend to ignore Taiwan – throw in some physical confrontation, and they find the time and space to report. Unfortunately, this kind of news usually gives an impression of Taiwanese policitics being immature, irrational and a little silly.

Yesterday, a confrontation between KMT and DPP politicians broke out during a session on ECFA, the trade agreement with China. The KMT says it’s all business, no politics. The DPP sees it as a huge step towards Taiwan being absorbed by China (Anschluss, anyone?). Today, you can read about the brawl in many papers worldwide. Or on the web. Most of the reports mention the political background of the fighting, but mostly very briefly and not always historically correct („split from China in 1949…“).

Some days after another one of these incidents, on April 29, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-Wen had a Q&A with the foreign press. I asked her if obstructing parliament’s work is the kind of image for Taiwan’s opposition she would like to project abroad. This is her answer.

The DPP represents at least 45 percent of the votes here. But unfortunately we only have slightly more than a quarter of the seats in the legislature. So in terms of proportional representation, this is not the kind of situation that we would like to have. That is, your seats are not representing enough the people who voted for you. And the rules in the legislature that is our parliament are such that it would not give the minority enough room to exercise the right amount of influence. So you have an extremely powerful versus an extremely weak political party in the legislature. And in that sort of situation, the relationship has to be very, very carefully managed. But we don’t see the will on the part of the KMT being an extremely powerful party in the legislature to sit down and negotiate and express their willingness to hear what the other party has to say.

So if they are not prepared to be a listener, they are not prepared to sit down and negotiate, if they are not prepared to respect the views of at least 45 percent of the population here, I think the kind of conflict that we saw is something very difficult to avoid. And of course we don’t want to see that sort of thing happen every day. We try to reduce that sort of conflict. But it is so difficult to avoid, primarily because you have the other party that is not ready to be patient and rational.

We are not the only country that has that sort of conflict in the legislature. And you have seen that sort of fights in other places, as well. Korea has that sort of situation and to a certain extent Japan has that situation, too. So I don’t think this is something unique here. And if there is any uniqueness in this political situation here, it is we as a political party have to face KMT as a very powerful party plus the Chinese. So this is a very unique situation and as a result it is very, very difficult for an opposition party to be meaningful. Unless we take strong actions.

Our appeal to the international community is they have to pay more attention to what is happening here and what is the voice of the people here, and what the opposition has to say. I think the news coverage in terms of what the opposition has to say is rather limited in terms – I mean, I am not complaining, I am talking about foreign press here. So we have a humble request that perhaps you want to be more accomodating in terms of the opposition’s view on various things. And to a certain extent we hope you are more understanding and sympathetic.

Watch footage of the brawl here. And on thousands of other websites.

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Klaus Bardenhagen

Klaus Bardenhagen

Comments

3 Antworten

  1. Dear,

    very god article and information,

    PLEASE VERIFY the impacts of financial instituions on these actions.
    especially look into the overseas investments by Taiwan by financial instituions. You will find amazing results. It is just right platform to say that in any overseas investment the local tawenese is senta s CEO is either not willing to OR the other CEO’s sent are almost uselss to comply with growth revolution theory.

    I will not name here any instituion but if you require, I will send the details in full AS RESRACH ARTICLE WHICH CAN BE EVEN OPODUCED IN QUESTIONS TO THE PARLIAMENT

    TAIWN HAS NOT BECOME FAMOUS IN INDIA, I CAN PROVIDE YOU ALL THE REASONS FOR THE SAME. WHY TAIWENESE OR PERSONS APPOINTED BY LCOAL UNITS FOR THEIR OVERSEAS UNITS ARE TOTALLY FAILRUE CAN BE DESCRIBE DIN TEH RPEORT.

    IF THE PRESENT SITUATION CONTINUES THERE WILL NO DIVERSITY OF TAIWAN TO INDIA.

    ASK THE RULING PARTY TO INVESTIGATE AND TAKE IT SUPPORTINGLY.

  2. Dear Sir,

    GOING ALL WRONG, IMMEDUATE STEPS REQUIRED

    MOF BECOMING PUPPET IN HANDS OF OVERSEAS INVESTORS and local parent companies FROM TAIWAN AND HAVE NOT SCRUTINIZED THEIR PAST AND FUTURE PERFORMANCE
    I can provide you critical analysis of investemnt done in INDIA which is one of the emerging markets, THE valid question has not been taken into consideration in any of the parliament questions.

    I can provide you the details of work done by the CEO‘ selected by the MOF. Most fo them have not agrred to the Govt views. It is high time to investigate and take feedback from people like me and I can prove my words especially in comparative words.

    Thanks,

  3. This is one great interview. I guess Ms. Tsai considered the reading of ECFA was an issue that worth putting the risk of DPP’s (and the national parliament’s) reputation on the line for some attention. There are obvious consequences and backfiring damages, but as prudent as the chairwomen has been, she’s probably had them all considered. Thank you for the info.

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