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The Diplomat
17-07-2025
- Politics
- The Diplomat
‘Great Recall': Taiwan's Democratic Experiment
On July 26, Taiwan will head to the polls – or rather, roughly one-third of Taiwan will do so. For this is no ordinary election, but a globally unprecedented experiment in the use of a relatively obscure democratic mechanism: the simultaneous recall of 24 members of Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan. Known as the 'Great Recall' (大罷免), it has the potential to reshape Taiwanese politics. The modern form of recall, in which citizens collect signatures to hold a kind of referendum on whether an elected official should be removed from office, was created in Switzerland in the 19th century and adopted in many U.S. states in the early 20th century, as part of a wave of reforms to combat corruption in politics. One admirer of the concept was Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the Republic of China. Trying to create a constitutional government from scratch, he listed recalls alongside elections and referenda as core elements of his principle of popular sovereignty. In due course, these rights were enshrined in the first Constitution of the ROC, adopted in 1947, which was brought to Taiwan after World War II. Recalls have thus been a part of the political landscape for Taiwanese people for decades, memorably internalized in the discourse by the fact that Taiwan's election law is always referred to as the 'Election and Recall Law' (選罷法). But recalls have been used only sporadically, as indeed they usually are in other countries. The reason is simple enough: voters anywhere generally resent being told that they made a mistake, and they generally prefer not to have more elections and campaigning than necessary. Therefore, mainstream politicians tend to hesitate to reach for this mechanism, for fear of public backlash, and even activist gadflies usually decide that the low rate of success would not justify the effort. So what explains the current 'Great Recall' in Taiwan? Voters in January 2024 delivered a divided government, with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) retaining the presidency but losing its legislative majority. The Kuomintang (KMT) won a slight plurality of the 113 seats, then managed to form a majority through an alliance with the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP), which had won eight seats, all from the nationwide party list ballot. Taiwan has lived with divided government before. Voters around the world sometimes prefer this arrangement, hoping it will force parties to cooperate. However, since it can easily lead to gridlock, various mechanisms are needed to cope with such situations. In Taiwan, as in many other countries, the most important of these is the Constitutional Court. After taking office on February 1, 2024, the new KMT-TPP majority moved quickly to enact a series of controversial measures. One of the earliest was a package of laws expanding the legislature's own powers. These sparked public backlash, culminating in the 'BlueBird' protest movement led by civil society. The KMT and TPP rushed the legislation through anyway. The government responded by referring the package to the Constitutional Court, which later in 2024 struck down the most controversial parts of the package. This was the system working normally. However, the KMT-TPP majority also decided to launch an attack on the Constitutional Court itself, quickly passing a measure to effectively prevent any further constitutional interpretations, removing this crucial mechanism for addressing gridlock. At the same time, the majority also enacted sweeping cuts to the annual budget, most notably cutting or freezing critical national security expenditures. Combined with the overt liaisons with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during this period – notably the meeting in April between the KMT caucus leader Fu Kun-chi and Wang Huning, the fourth-ranked CCP leader – a sense of national crisis emerged. Many Taiwanese began to worry that their democracy was being weakened at the behest of Beijing. In response, citizens mobilized to take matters into their own hands. As repeated protests had hardly slowed down the pace of legislation, they turned to the recall mechanism. Originally the movement targeted Fu and the most controversial members of the caucus, to punish them as individuals. But it spread like wildfire throughout the country, as the idea took hold that the KMT caucus as a whole should be punished by eliminating its majority. Recall efforts were launched against all 37 district members of the KMT (recalls are impossible to use against members elected from the nationwide party lists, thus sparing the TPP). Two stumbled right away at the first stage of signature collection, and four more failed at the more difficult second stage. With five more still under review, recall ballots may be held in as many as 31 districts total: 24 on July 26, plus between two and seven afterwards. The signature collection campaigns themselves were impressive. Using almost all unpaid volunteers, over a million signatures were collected across the country in the 60 days allowed. The movement was backed by a flowering of cultural creativity. For example, after a KMT legislator disparaged Taiwan's film industry (while the legislative majority was cutting budgets for its support), over 100 filmmakers forged an alliance that produced a series of short films explaining why citizens should support the recall. It is not easy to assess how many of the recalls will pass. It is even more difficult to determine whether the legislative majority will actually change hands. Even in cases where recalls are successful, by-elections will need to be held, and alternative candidates from the KMT might well be able to hold the seats. Nonetheless, the 'Great Recall' can already be considered a success. It has provided a platform for citizens to concretely express their displeasure at the performance of the Legislative Yuan. The heightening of citizen awareness of the dangers of foreign influence and the experience of taking direct action against politicians will act as a deterrent against future bad behavior. In short, the 2025 'Great Recall' is bringing Taiwan's democracy to the next level. Taiwanese society, by its own efforts, is enhancing its political resilience against the manifold threats posed by the CCP. This can only be welcomed by Taiwan's friends in the international community, and indeed friends of democracy anywhere.
Irish Times
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Academic questions: Frank McNally on Titanic terriers, epic expense accounts and the rise of the ‘full professor'
At the prestigious annual Theatrical Cavaliers table quiz in Dublin last weekend, held this year in aid of the My Lovely Horse animal rescue charity, they had a round on the theme of dogs. A typical question asked us to identify the Pekinese terrier, named after a famous revolutionary, which was one of only three canine passengers to escape the sinking of the Titanic. This is the sort of utterly useless information that we veteran quizzers pride ourselves on knowing. And I'm half-embarrassed to admit that I did indeed have the answer on the tip of my tongue. Or nearly. I knew the name had three words, all monosyllables. I knew it was Chinese. And I could have written a short (if vague) essay about the revolutionary in question, including the fact that he admired and wrote letters to Michael Davitt – a detail retained from a visit to the Davitt museum in Mayo a few years ago. READ MORE But after rifling through various dusty files in a back office of my brain, I came out with the wrong one. Chiang Kai-shek, I pronounced with confidence, wrongly. Doh! It was of course Sun Yat-sen. Oh well. We won the quiz anyway, the generous prizes for which, as usual, included a potted plant. I have one from last year too, now overgrown. If this run continues, I'll end up with a garden. The journalist Emile Joseph Dillon (1854 – 1933) would have known the right answer that question. He probably knew Sun Yat-sen personally. As the foremost foreign correspondent of his day, the Dubliner befriended many famous statesmen, and as well as writing about them for the Daily Telegraph, became in some cases their confidante and adviser. He was, as we would say today, a player, helping to end the Russo-Japanese war (1905) and the Balkan wars of 1912-13. In recognition of his influence, three of the resulting peace treaties – Portsmouth (1905), London (1913), and Bucharest (also 1913) were signed with his own gold-cased fountain pen. Forgotten for decades after his death, Dillon is now the subject a first-ever biography, the launch of which I attended on Thursday night The book is by Kevin Rafter , professor of political communication at DCU, who drew envy from some of those assembled in Hodges Figgis by describing the glory that was journalism in the early years of last century. Much as some of us today might envy EJ Dillon's influence, more would prefer his expense account. Not only did it allow him to stay in the best of hotels and dine in the finest restaurants, it also covered such essential purchases as silk top hats and Cuban cigars. Even after a 60 per cent cut as part of a Daily Telegraph austerity drive in 1917, which caused him much indignation, he was still allowed expenses of £1,000 a year, the equivalent of £110,000 today. He also at times had the services of two secretaries, one of whom he liked to have play piano for him while he wrote dispatches. Sigh. Try claiming for a piano-playing secretary today and see what happens. To quote Mark Antony: 'O, what a fall was there ...' Rafter was introduced at the launch (by DCU President Daire Keogh) as a 'full professor', a description also used on the book. You hear this curious phrase more and more these days. And for me, at least, it always evokes the image of an academic who has eaten too much. [ The spirit of 1965 – Kevin Rafter on Ireland's first television election Opens in new window ] I suppose the point is to distinguish from the mere assistant and associate professors that proliferate these days, and whose titles can be rounded up in casual usage, to the detriment of their seniors. Even so, there must be versions of that problem in many careers. And yet I can't think of another that uses this construction. You never hear of full doctors, for example, or full plumbers, or full chefs (full-Irish chefs, maybe). Come to think of it, you also don't hear of full columnists, which could be useful to distinguish those of us who write daily from the part-timers and dilettantes who do it once a week and think they're great. In support of my impending expense claim for a piano-playing secretary, I may have to start using the term myself. Somehow it seems to go against native Irish genius to describe people as a full or complete anything. Our preference is drawing attention to inadequacy. Hence the countless diminutives in Hiberno-English, describing people who fall short of something: girleen, maneen, squireen, priesteen, etc, etc. Strange to say, you never hear the junior grades of professor described as professoreens. Maybe that's the problem. Speaking of Irish-English, or vice versa, my thanks to several readers who sent me the picture of a sign over a door in Beaumont Hospital, on which 'Please Knock Before Entry' is translated as 'Le Do Thoil Cnoc Mhuire Roimh Iontrail'. The translator appears to have mistaken the verb 'Knock' ( cnag in Irish) for the Mayo village of the same name. Unless the intended suggestion was that those seeking hospital treatment should first consider a visit to the Marian shrine. That would be a reversal of the usual order of things, certainly, but also one way to cut waiting lists.
South China Morning Post
15-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Can Japan strike a new green tourism deal?
Published: 2:30pm, 15 Feb 2025 Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at [email protected] or filling in this Google form . Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification In about two months, the World Expo 2025 in Osaka-Kansai, Japan, is expected to welcome nearly 30 million visitors. Additionally, two mega-events, the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya and the 2027 Horticultural Expo in Yokohama, are set to attract a massive number of visitors. Tourism has become a vital economic driver as Japan struggles with a declining population and ageing workforce, but the country is also experiencing rising discontent with overtourism. It has been argued that the Japanese government's policy needs to be actively adjusted to ensure that tourism can contribute to overall economic development while minimising harm. Both the capital city Tokyo and the 'nation's kitchen' Osaka have evolved out of exchanges between East Asia and Europe. These cities have always hosted foreigners, and meeting tourists and immigrants is an inevitable part of urban life. Recall that over a century ago, Chinese people responded to Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary call from Japan. Today, travel is also a cherished pastime for many around the world. Nonetheless, tourism is not an industry without its environmental and societal impacts. According to a pre-pandemic study, tourism is estimated to account for 8 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. It may be time to consider a new green tourism deal. Striking a balance between benefits and drawbacks requires coordination among policymakers, businesses and the local community. This would help ensure travellers' convenience while respecting local traditions.
