Stories and Commentaries

The newly elected Taiwanese president, Ma Ying-jeou, took office on May 20, 2008, which means KMT, the party that had ruled Taiwan from 1945-2000, after 8 years away from power, has regained its familiar position. The restoration of a KMT regime is thought by many as a comeback of the conservatives, because KMT used to adopt a "development comes first" policy, putting labour and environmental justice out of its sight, while further oppressing Taiwan's democracy movement and social movement; at the same time, it also underlines people's disappointment toward the DPP, who used to be the symbol of democracy and reform.

A video produced by Law Man Lok on inmediahk.net and its citizen journalism practice. The video is produced for the culture sieges politics exhibition in Hong Kong.

Before election, both parties found Tibet a hot topic

When the outrage broke out in Tibet on Mar 14th, 2008, Taiwan was right in the midst of presidential election frenzy. Ma Ying-jeou, the KMT candidate, reprimanded the abuse of force from the PRC government, and reiterated the consistent respect of the ROC government for the cultural, religious, as well political rights of the Tibetan people. He also clarified the principle of handling cross-strait issues—following the opinion of the majority, which is maintaining the status quo, no independence, no unification, no force.

On the other hand, the DPP candidate, Frank Hsieh, not only made a statement to oppose violent crackdowns, he also framed Tibet as a warning for Taiwan, implying that once the one-China market grows into shape, China will use force against Taiwan where there are human rights or security concerns, and that we won't be able to protect Taiwan.

A T.V special news report by RTHK.

Nine Dragons Paper

Nine Dragons Paper has been listed in Hong Kong Stock market since 2006, its peak market value was worth of HKD$100 billions. The corporate has two factory campuses in China, one in Dongguan, Guangdong province, one in Taichang, Jiangsu province, with 9,000 and 6,000 workers respectively. It has planned to develop its third and fourth manufacturing campuses in Zongqing and Tianjin. The corporate is listed the top in China, the second in Asia and the eighth in the world in paper manufacturing. In 2006, the corporate chair Zhang Yin was listed the richest woman tycoon in China, she is also a member of National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). In the past few months, Zhang has been very high sounding in attacking the national policy for labour protection, she explicitly stated that “from a developmental perspective, a nation cannot be rich without the polarization between rich and poor”, “if the law over protects the labour, corporate cannot function”.

The Shijou Community (溪洲部落), located by the Hsindien River in Taipei County, is close by Bi-Tan (碧潭), a tourist attraction. Since the 1970s, aboriginal laborers have began to build simple shafts and lived on this high ground. Over time an aboriginal community was established, of Amis construction workers and miners from Hualien and Taitung.

The emergence of Shijou Community is the testimony of the structural problem of Taiwanese aboriginal people: becoming cheap and disposable labour as a result of land and economic exploitation. The lack of steady employment kept them from purchasing apartments, and forced them to make do with makeshift homes on riverside high grounds, even grow vegetables or raise animals to avoid dependence on markets and currency. Therefore, this kind of riverside communities can be seen all over Taiwan.

On Jan 28, protesters gathered round the CLA (Council of Labor Affairs); instead of angry unemployed laborers, they were brokers who have made bucks by "importing" migrant labors into Taiwan, protesting for their tarnished business by the "direct employment" policy implemented by the CLA.

"Direct employment" is a policy that labor NGOs have demanded for years. Taiwan has been using migrant workers for 18 years, for as long its society somehow has held discrimination against them, regarding them as highly replaceable workforces. Foreign labor policy is one of the major exploiters of the migrant workers.

(This article is written by Ip Iam-chong on April 6 published by Ming pao daily. Translated by Oiwan)

Watching the Olympic new on T.V, I laughed until tears came out.

The news about the Olympic torch is never ending. Details like whether our chief executive Donald Tsang’s arm is strong enough to hold the torch and run for 200km are reported in length. As for Hu Jia, who has been sentenced to 3.5 years imprisonment because of “sedition of the state power”, has been sidelined by piles of Olympic public relation news. The International Olympic Committee and T.V station want us to see a colourful Beijing, with grand spectacles. I looked at the smiling face of the news anchor, it looked like the Olympic symbols – Fu Wa.

written by S.Arutchelvan
Banting, 10 February 2008

It was a victory long over-due. The Corporate Giant - Lion Group could have sealed and resolved the issue a decade ago, but they choose the part of arrogance and sheer disregard to their toiling workers. The workers then took them to a protracted war which took 12 years to complete with the workers emerging victorious.

The victory parade started at a critical junction of this plantation. With drums and banners, they marched to the estate field, where a decorated stage was awaiting for the victory celebration to role on.

The darkest day

It is cold and dark, not only because of the weather but because of the crazy crack down of internet and massive arrest of netizens.

Hong Kong Police has gained the permit for moral patrolling in the Internet via a scandal which involved 4 prominent popular stars private photos on love making.

The photos were posted in an overseas forum and then linked to popular forums in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. The story had made into the front page of local newspapers in Jan 29 and stirred the hottest debate in town about whether or not the photos are fake? Who else will appear? And how to control the Internet from further distribution?