The people of Taiwan want to join the UN, but the Ma government doesn't

In a statement dated last Friday, September 4, 2009, the officials at Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released some information to the media.

An AFP news item titled "Taiwan not seeking UN membership this year" reported that:

Taiwan won't attempt to seek UN membership this year, officials said Friday, in a move one observer said was aimed at patching up ties with Beijing after the Dalai Lama's visit.

"Instead of asking our allies to submit a proposal to join the United Nations, we will seek other kinds of meaningful participation," said a foreign ministry official.

"It is a change of method but we will not give up the Taiwan people's right to join the UN."

[...]

Last year, Taipei made an attempt to join the World Meteorological Organization and other specialised UN agencies rather than seeking full UN membership.

Here are some of my observations derived from the controversial statements made by the unnamed official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

First, the official stated that "we will not give up the rights of the people of Taiwan to join the UN"; however, when the Ma government suddenly lets go of the chance to apply for UN membership after Taiwan made 16 consecutive annual attempts previously, how does this government expect anyone to believe them when they say they are "not giv[ing] up the Taiwan people's right to join the UN"?

Second, UN Resolution 2758 -- which stated that Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) representative would be expelled from the UN's China seat and be replaced by a representative of the PRC government in Beijing -- did not mention anything about the Taiwanese people's right to join the UN or Taiwan's seat. (See Tim Maddog's earlier post: "Taiwan isn't China's.") Furthermore, it was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA -- eventually replaced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] in 1952) that assigned the ROC to administer post-WWII Formosa, if there were any arguments about representation between China and Taiwan, it should be resolved at the source of problem, namely the UN, which is responsible for the creation of this problem. The representation of China (ROC or PRC) was already addressed by UN resolution 2758. The residents of Taiwan have been fighting for their rights internally against the ROC administration and externally against the PRC government's unlawful claim to represent them.

Third, the Ma administration stated that they had made attempts to join the World Meteorological Organization, but a simple check of region II of the map on their website (I even checked the region V, just to be sure) shows that neither Taiwan nor Chinese Taipei (to use Ma's favorite term to describe Taiwan) is a member. If Taiwan were a member, the information received from the WMO would probably have helped Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau to forecast typhoons more accurately. So, the report card shows a grade of "Zero" for last year's so-called "attempts" by the Ma government.

Fourth, in 2007, former president Chen Shui-bian had applied for Taiwan's UN bid as early as July, Ma's statement in September showed that no matter what excuses he provides, he does everything too slowly, ranging from the Typhoon Morakot rescue to the UN membership bid to possibly even Swine Flu (A[H1N1]) prevention, this continual inaction leads us to wonder what we elect a president for. Who is Ma working for: the Taiwanese or our neighbor across the Strait who have at least 1,500 missiles targeting us?

Fifth, the so-called change of method regarding meaningful participation was demonstrated to Taiwanese residents this past spring by way of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan's temporary attendance at the World Health Assembly (WHA), which was subject to annual approval by China in exchange for selling out Taiwan's sovereignty, not to mention the lack of any progress in securing an independent membership at the World Health Organization (WHO) as desired by the people of Taiwan. Therefore, it is a dangerous move by the Ma administration to continue using the WHA model to gain access to international organizations by being an associate member under Beijing's seat, or under Beijing's permission via a secret Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the CCP and the KMT parties.

On behalf of all residents of Taiwan, the bloggers of Taiwan Matters would like to ask all residents and friends of Taiwan who value the universality of the UN and the rights of Taiwanese people to join the UN to continue signing this existing petition on www.GoPetition.com to counter Ma's inaction on this issue and the PRC's false representation. (Only sign once. If you've already done so, please encourage others to do so as well.) While you're at it, there's another petition on that site that could use your signature, too: "Remove Missiles Pointed At Taiwan 移除所有的導彈對準台灣." What are you waiting for? Go sign now!

(Tim Maddog contributed to this post.)