What Was Missing from the May 20 Inaugural Address?

Although President Ch'en Shui-bian's May 20 inaugural address—which drew widespread domestic and international attention—was generally well received, it starkly contrasted with his first inaugural address four years ago, where he devoted 311 characters to outlining his human rights policies. By comparison, the amount of space dedicated to human rights in this year's address was pitifully small. This comparison not only disappoints people with respect to President Ch'en, who has long enjoyed a reputation as a "human rights lawyer," but also evokes a sense of regret—given the competitive dynamic between the political systems on both sides of the Taiwan Strait—that President Ch'en failed to emphasize Taiwan's efforts toward enhancing human rights at such an important occasion as his inauguration.

Specifically, the three declarations put forward by President Ch'en regarding human rights issues four years ago were truly refreshing and widely welcomed by human rights groups: First, the Republic of China will not stand outside the global human rights trend, and will comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights. Second, the government will promote the Legislative Yuan's ratification of the International Bill of Human Rights to internalize it into domestic law. Third, an independently operating National Human Rights Commission will be established, inviting international non-governmental human rights organizations to assist our country in implementing various human rights protection measures. In contrast, this year's inaugural address merely mentioned that "the protection of basic human rights and the rights of disadvantaged groups" is an immediate and obvious issue for constitutional reform when discussing his constitutional reform project, and twice used the phrase "human rights are a universal value" and once used "our country and international allies have established a 'value alliance' relationship based on human rights" when talking about Taiwan's willingness to actively participate in the international community. Compared to the former, not only has the length drastically shrunk, but aside from pointing to constitutional reform as an issue with some possibility of expectation, the other three instances clearly reduced "human rights" to a mere symbol, treating it as diplomatic rhetoric for international exchange. I personally believe that this is not only a major setback for human rights and social movement groups, but something we should be even more vigilant about.

In fact, examining the extent to which the Ch'en administration has implemented human rights policies over the past four years, goals such as the "abolition of the death penalty" advocated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the domestication of the "International Bill of Human Rights," or the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission remain at the stage of "only hearing the footsteps on the stairs, but seeing no one come down," with no clarity on when they will be realized. Moreover, since the DPP came to power, there have been numerous instances where the executive or legislative departments were criticized from the outside for "violating human rights." For example, at the end of 2000, the Ministry of Justice proposed a draft amendment to the General Provisions of the Criminal Code, introducing the spirit of the American "three-strikes" legislation to double the statutory penalties for habitual offenders with three or more convictions, which may lead to situations where the punishment does not fit the crime. Furthermore, in the middle of last year, DPP legislators reviewing the Police Powers Exercise Act demanded the addition of Article 25, attempting to empower police with the authority to visit individuals who have been released on parole or have completed their sentences at any time, thereby "stigmatizing" those with a criminal record and violating their privacy. Coupled with recent calls by some DPP legislators for "universal fingerprint registration," human rights groups are worried that before the Ch'en administration's human rights policies have even been implemented, it has already started reversing course.

Therefore, what exactly was missing from President Ch'en's May 20 inaugural address this year? On the surface, it seemed to lack President Ch'en's policy and determination to promote the building of a "nation based on human rights." On the other hand, I also hope that human rights and social movement groups can shed their illusions and expectations toward those in power. Although domestic social movement groups have long maintained good interactive relationships with the DPP, as President Ch'en is re-elected and the DPP may move toward long-term governance, human rights and social movement groups seem to also need to consider walking their own path, rather than holding too many illusions and expectations about those in power, or even being "domesticated" or becoming dependent on them. After all, engaging in social movements still requires insisting on standing from a civilian and opposition stance so as not to lose the momentum to supervise the government and promote reform.

※ Published in: 2004-5-28 / China Times