The country is slipping back into formal democracy only: Yang
Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/07
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan is facing the risk of turning into a democracy in name
DPP Secretary General Lo Wen-jia (By Central News Agency)
only, harking back to practices from Martial Law and from Communist China, columnist Yang Sen-hong (楊憲宏) wrote for Fount Media.
With the help of modern technology, lies and rumors have made a comeback into Taiwan’s democratic election system, the veteran publicist wrote in his opinion piece. Over the past years, the most worthwhile evolution had been the prominence of free and fair election, with vote buying and ballot tampering almost disappeared, however, they now seem to be making a comeback, threatening to influence opinion polls.
Yang mentioned the example of President Chiang Kai-shek telling Hu Shi that “democracy is very good, but it should not interfere with dictatorship,” in other words, voting is acceptable, as long as the winner of the election is.
He added that the situation today was not the same, as critical opinion pieces like his still were allowed to appear in the media, but he nevertheless warned that a gradual move toward formal democracy was possible. [FULL STORY]
