Wednesday, January 16, 2008

2008 will be an eventful year for Taiwan as well as for Malaysia

Taiwan has spoken, loud and clear.
At the close of counting, the official Central Election Commission said the Kuomintang had won 81 seats in the 113-seat Legislative Yuan, the Democratic Progressive Party won 27 and the balance went to minor parties and independents.

The main reason for the worst defeat by the DPP who came to power 8 years ago was Chen's China policies that have made Taiwan's once-vibrant economy to lose competitiveness and have raised tension in the edgy Taiwan Strait. After coming to power, the DPP has spent the last 4 years politicking instead of managing the country. Corruptions, mismanagement, cronyism and money politics have been the hallmarks of the Chen’s administrations.
Taiwan was once governed by the KMT until Chen’s DPP came to power in March 2000. Many claimed that democracy has finally landed in Taiwan then as KMT had ruled Taiwan with an iron’s grip since it moved to Taiwan after losing to the CCP in mainland China. Many would not expect Chen to win the 2000 presidency but Taiwanese proved them wrong by choosing for change and thus Chen was elected.

This time around, the people of Taiwan have spoken loud and clear that they want change again and they exercised their rights to pull off the biggest defeat for Chen’s DPP in the just concluded legislative council election. The Taiwanese had sent a very clear message to all the political parties that they will not be manipulated and they will play their roles in the democratic process to elect only those who can deliver.

Malaysian will go to the polls in the coming months to elect the next government and Malaysian will be given the chance to address the issues facing the country which far out weight those of the Taiwan’s. Judicial and political scandals, corruptions, inflations, crimes, racial tension and widening gap between the have and have-not will all be under scrutiny. I hope 2008 will be the beginning of the change that we have been waiting for 50 years.

David Wong
16-01-2008

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had been listening to Taiwanese radio programs and at some point politics are being discussed openly and constructively. Comments and criticism were made against DPP and KMT with an open mind.A holistic view of the current political scenario was made clear to the public and I suppose it helped them to make the best decision for the future of Taiwan. The scenario in Malaysia is different. Let's put Taiwan in a "Malaysian way",perhaps President Chen will force the radio station to close for criticsing him and his party. But that's not happening in Taiwan. Malaysian needs a holistic understanding of things happening in the country. Disinformation must not be allowed in the name of "racial harmony" and "national security". I doubt change will not take place in Malaysia so soon.

David Wong's blog said...

Thank you for your imput here, Malaysia's scenario is of course different because of the following:
1) BN has governed since Merdeka while KMT in Taiwan was the power before DPP took over,
2) Our demographic build-up is more complex,
3) We never have a free press and many restrictive Acts in place to protect the ruling elites
4) Taiwan has a better-educated meddle class who have access to information technologies,
5) The political structure is different in the two countries,
6) The independence of the election commission in Malaysia is doubtful

David Wong

David Wong's blog said...

Sorry, it should be "middle" instead of "meddle" in no.4 above

David Wong

Anonymous said...

World politics is changing with the changing of the leaders. U.K., Australia and now the U.S. All the super powers. If there are some others who control the world for example through the use of the stock exchange, then nothing stays forever. Probably because of this, Malaysia is now desperate enough to change to be more financial competitive and also to be more acceptable by the rest of the countries. Probably this is why there was the BERSIH rally, the Hindraf demo, the Dato Doctor Chua Soi Lek's scandal, the Lingam tape mystery and others. If Malaysia does not change, she will be left out and may never achieve her Vision 2020 goal.

One of Taiwan's visions is to be the sole government of China. Of course this will never be. Because of her wishes, she would want all communication frequencies to be opened to the world or else how would people be fooled into thinking that Taiwan controls the whole of China ? That is why the other way will be for Taiwan to be independent which nobody is prepared to do so because it is like giving up their China roots. However if they do become independent, they will be something like Singapore or countries where Chineses dominate and rule.

One of Malaysia's vision is to be developed. This could happen but it will be very evil because development comes with it money. How develop can we be ? Do we want a first class infrastructure but third class mentality ? This is what we are suffering from now. We have all the big modern buildings espcially in Kuala Lumpur but people are not keen to maintain the state of the art facilities. The facilities are left all alone, dirty, vandalised and nobody bothers. Simple example. The tiles in the KLIA toilet are coming out. The water leaks. The flushing system does not work normally. Some of the metal parts are rusty. Those who always travel via KLIA will know the experience.

Therefore if changes do come, they will come. Nobody can stop it.

Anonymous said...

David, you were rights, both the women and white gave Clinton. Yeah, both the "sex and Race" were up against Obama's contention. I have to give it to you, way to go. Below is from the Yahoo News for your reading pleasure:

The Nevada results indicated Clinton's support among women remained strong. Significantly, nearly two-thirds of Hispanic caucus-goers said they supported her, despite Obama's backing from a heavily Hispanic casino workers union.

Six out of 10 of these attending the state's caucuses were women and nearly half of them backed her, according to a survey of caucus attendees. One in three women supported Obama going into the caucuses.

She and Obama split men about evenly. More than half of white

voters entering the caucuses said they supported Clinton; one in three said they backed Obama. The white vote made up two-thirds of the overall vote.

Black voters heavily favored Obama, with eight out of ten voting for him. But they made up fewer than one in five voters.

Anonymous said...

1.The missionary schools in Sarawak were built of out the tears, toil and sweat from the time of our early missionaries and Christians.
2.We DO NOT want all that happened to missionary schools like Methodist schools, Convent Schools, St.John Institution in KL, in Semenanjung whereby Some heads of schools,some local education officers, some teachers act as napoleons of the putrajaya government.

3.We demand full protection of freedom and rights that ALL missionary schools, Chinese, Tamil vernacular schools,my bumiputeras of Sarawak schools to be forever preserved as in the Constuition of Malaysia, that the head of each school must be our own people of Sarawak, along with head teachers, education officers,school inspectors at all level.

4.DAP must collaborate with Baru Bian, and all small and strong competent, clean Sarawakian political parties. Merge, collaborate to birth THE Sarawak and Sabah who hold such power to totally Ubah,and transform for a New Progressive Malaysia.
5.Sarawakians and Sabahans are so beautiful multiracial peoples who truly care,love, work, live in harmony, and pray for its peoples.

6.We will love DAP and PKR as they give us the true respect,accountability, true friendship, recognision and collaboration from this time forth.

7.In the Star paper, Tues,June 21
showing a helicopter flying dentists to Sabah's interiors. Is it ONLY the umno people dentists ? to look good first, then to create disunity in Sarawak and Sabah? DAP, PKR know their tricks, expose them, teach how to be thinking on the feet and be on alert.

8. When a segment of educated, or highly educated is raise up, successful, please each one of us DO NOT only live behind
high gates, exclusive housing areas like in KL, etc.
It will breed ill-feelings, snobbishness - back to square one -social-economics injustice. Come out, mingle, form friendship and support the marginalised people with their trades.
There, however, exceptional ones who are both really nice depsite their success.

9. We like a lot of DAP leaders, forever humble, accessible, even when higlhly educated. We love Baru Bian too much, and our local hardworking Sarawakian leaders,too.

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