A Human Rights Defender makes an impassioned plea for the United Nations not to leave Taiwan behind as it pursues its 2030 sustainable development goals.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/10/15
By: Roy Ngerng
Credit: AP / TPG
To: The United Nations,
I come from one of the United Nations’ member states, Singapore. I have been living in Taiwan for the past two years.
Living in Taiwan, I have enjoyed a unique experience of democracy in Asia. Taiwan is a relatively young democracy, but it has already developed one of the better referendum models in the world, as Bruno Kaufmann, co-president of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy and board member of the Swiss Democracy Foundation, wrote in March this year.
I also have the privilege of being protected by Taiwan’s National Health Insurance, which is extended to United Nations member citizens like me who are working in Taiwan, even though Taiwan is no longer given similar protection by the World Health Organization. Taiwan’s social welfare system is easily among the top three in Asia in terms of adequacy, coverage, accessibility and costs to its citizens, and is even better than that of my home country.
I have had the opportunity to study Taiwan’s welfare system firsthand while living here, and to write about it. Coming face to face with the people of Taiwan, I learned that there is much that their patient strength can teach me, and the world. There is a quiet resilience in their continued determination in spite of adversity. It is this adversity that has allowed their democracy to grow in strength. [FULL STORY]
