If Taiwan is trying to burnish its reputation as a democracy, why is it cozying up to some of the world's worst dictators? asks Cain Nunns.
TAIPEI, Taiwan—It was all smiles and “brotherly love” as Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh received full state honors and a 21-gun salute from Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou in Taipei late last month.
Jammeh, making his ninth trip to this diplomatically isolated island republic 100 miles off China’s southern coast, has called Taiwan “one of the best friends Gambia has ever had.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent out a press release calling the impoverished West African nation “an important ally” before writing that “the close partnership and brotherly bonds between the two countries remain strong.”
Jammeh, who has presided over a brutal dictatorship since engineering a coup in 1994, has previously called for all gays to be expelled from his country. If they stay, he says, he’ll have their heads “cut off.”
That was just one in a long list of “colorful” behavior from a man who claims to have invented an herbal cure for AIDS that requires sufferers to stop taking drugs prescribed to fight the virus. When the UN representative to Gambia complained that it was a reckless gesture for a country wracked with one of the world’s highest adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rates, he had her expelled.
According to a March 2009 Amnesty International report, up to 1,000 Gambians were abducted by government-sponsored "witch doctors" on charges of witchcraft. Once abducted, they were taken to detention centers and forced to drink poisonous concoctions. Apparently, the former Army lieutenant attributed his aunt’s death to people dabbling in the dark arts.
Jammeh also forbids anybody else from driving through the massive arch commemorating his coup in the crumbling capital of Banjul.
But that’s routine compared to human rights groups’ claims of documented disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the torture and imprisonment of his real or perceived enemies at the hands of his feared security apparatus and shadowy militias with laconic names like Ninjas, Drug Boys and Jugglers.
A Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative report linked Jammeh to a 2005 massacre of 50 African nationals, including 44 Ghanaians. The group was reportedly picked up by Gambian naval boats in international waters, transported to Gambia and hacked up by “security forces with machetes, axes and other weapons.”
But that doesn’t seem to bother Ma.
The China News Agency reported that Taiwan will give Gambia three more patrol boats to “help strengthen its naval defenses.” Apparently one of the four 50-ton boats earlier donated by Taipei had “suffered serious damage.”
So why would a country that often trumpets its own remarkable democratic achievements be so quick to embrace a brutal regime and pariah of the international community?
The answer is in the numbers – 23 of them to be exact. That’s how many diplomatic allies the Republic of China - Taiwan’s official moniker since Chiang Kai-sheik’s battered troops started arriving on the island in 1945 – has left.
“We need a friend, OK? Everybody does. All presidents, except ours, are traveling worldwide. It’s important to receive friends to get to know us better. We only have 23 allies. But we would like to have more,” says Joanne Chang, a research fellow at the Institute of American and European Studies and former diplomat. “We don’t have the option of friends who can speak out for us. By coming to Taiwan to see our freedom and democracy, and the freedom of the press, we hope it will impress other countries to improve their own political systems.”
That may well be true, but critics claim Taiwanese foreign policy has long been bipolar. Taipei, they say, has turned a blind eye to its despotic allies for decades, a practice that began long before it started to get hammered in its diplomatic race with Beijing following the island’s expulsion from the UN in 1971.
A cursory look at the leaders that Taiwan has armed, funded and provided military training to is a Who’s Who of 20th century dictators.
Taipei was a strong supporter of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party in Apartheid-era South Africa. In Central America, Taiwan was a chief backer of François Duvalier, or "Papa Doc" who was known for personally watching and participating in torture sessions, and on one occasion communing with the head of a rebel leader he had executed.
Ditto for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Honduras, Paraguay, Dominican Republic and Panama, all home to brutal dictatorships, death squads and bloody civil wars during the late days of the Cold War. It bears mention that the United States, too, supported many of these same regimes.
Perhaps most disturbing was that many of the perpetrators of these abuses had passed through the Political Warfare Cadres Academy in suburban Taipei. The college, reportedly established with U.S. help in the early 1950s, is a Made-in-Taiwan version of the School of the Americas. El Salvador's Roberto D'Aubuisson, or “Blowtorch Bob," was one of the college’s most notable graduates. The Academy is today part of the National Defense University.
More recently, in April of this year, Ma embarked on a three-country African tour, which included a stop in Swaziland to visit Africa’s last absolute monarch King Mswali III, who is gearing up to make his 13th visit to Taiwan.
Mswali, who according to the World CIA Fact Book, presides over the world’s highest adult HIV/AIDS rate at 25.9 percent, thinks branding is a viable cure for the disease.
Despite overseeing one of the world’s poorest countries, Forbes estimated him to be the world’s 15th wealthiest monarch in 2011, with a personal fortune of $100 million. Added to that is some $30 million per year set aside for the royal family and a multibillion dollar state investment fund that he controls.
Ma and the King had a sit-up competition, and Mswali presented the two-term president with a severed leopard’s head.
In Burkina Faso, Ma was awarded the country’s highest honor, The Grand Cross of the National Order, by President Blaise Campaore.
Campaore seized power in 1987 when his former friend and boss Thomas Sankara was gunned down in his own office. Ma lauded the Muammar Qaddafi's World Revolutionary Center graduate for the country’s sustainable development achievements. Unemployment runs at about 77 percent in Burkina Faso.
While Taiwan has been criticized for checkbook diplomacy, critics say that the island should also be more circumspect when choosing international partners to stump for it in the international arena and downplay the pomp and ceremony of official ties.
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Michael J
If all the western countries can recognize Taiwan as a state, Taiwan wouldn't be begging some small nations for diplomatic or even 'rogue' nations. It's ashamed that US is acting on a double standard, that on one hand not recognizing Taiwan (ROC- REPUBLIC OF CHINA) as a state, even despite Taiwan's strong demoratic values and liberal civil liberties, and on another hand, blaming Taiwan. So, as ROC marches pass past its 102 years of foundation, I wonder why no Chinese would recognize Republic of China as a demoractic Taiwan/China, and unfounded pride in Chinese history. Taiwan deserves more recognition rather than being blamed on acting on its own interests.
Michael Lu
Westerners should be ashamed of the fact that Taiwan, a nation with strong democratic values and true liberty, is forced to beg for recognition by the world community. If Westerners can sell their own values for quick profits from China, why are Westerners acting all morale on this issue? Taiwan is not a rouge nation. It is one of the founding members of the UN. It fought along side of the allies in WWII and took the brunt of Japan's military might with nothing more than muskets. Yet, the world sold out Taiwan as soon as it is convenient and profitable. So, just what is wrong with that picture? If the author wants to be the morale judge, I certainly welcome that but please start by explaining to his kids why he and his nation does not support a democratic nation but instead is sucking the cxxk of China, which runs its people over with tanks and make its citizen disappear at night to be sold as body parts just for speaking out?
Peter Yang
You know…there really is an elegant solution to all of this….
If the other democratic countries would recognize Taiwan as a state
It would not have to go around swarming up to shady states
Diplomatic isolation only create environment for desperate solutions
Or maybe it should wait to be unified by China and end all democracy all together
MBP
I thought this was a nice article of positive measures being taken not just for the benefit of The Gambia but also for the continent of Africa in its entirety. Another reason why Taiwan should continue to maintain the relationship it has with H.E. President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia.
http://gbcghana.com/index.php?id=1.972595
AU endorses establishment of African Public Health Emergency Fund
African Heads of States and Governments have endorsed the establishment of the African Public Health Emergency Fund, introduced to the 19th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The President of the Gambia, Yahya Jammeh moved the motion for the heads of states to adopt and endorsed the Fund.
In an address, President Jammeh reminded the summit that public health emergencies remained a major concern for Africa, as they continued to draw back the continent’s development.
According to a statement issued by the WHO Africa Regional Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President Jammeh pointed out a number of countries that do not have the requisite human, financial and material resources to deal effectively and efficiently with public health emergencies.
He said these countries often have to shift their attention beyond their boundaries for external assistance that sometimes arrive when much damage had already been done.
He said it is in this regard that it is strongly justifiable to create a common fund that will considerably enhance preparedness for dealing with emergencies and their attendant unpleasant consequences.
GNA
flashyjew
Hey Newnauk
I didn't see any mention in this story of not giving Taiwan "its due." Nor any mention of Beijing. It's simple really. If Taiwan can't behave like a "proper" global citizen then why should anybody care? In case you haven't noticed, it's Taiwan that needs the world and not the other way round. The island might have a better chance of winning support if it wasn't such an embarresement to everything it claims to represent.
newnauk
What I am hearing, suggested by the human right activists/journalists, is to ask Taiwan to become a responsible global citizen without giving her the proper due nor incentive. If you don't think it is important to recognize Taiwan, or for that matter Republic of China, as a proper sovereign perhaps you should approach Bejing and submit your demand instead.
Fabrizio Bozzato
In my opinion, both Washington and Beijing would not like Taiwan to sever relations with those dictatorial states because that would destabilize/jeopardize the cross-Strait "diplomatic truce". So, as long as President Ma is in office and China is happy with the developments of the cross-Strait dialogue, Beijing will not snatch any of Taipei's "diplomatic friends". Nor Taiwan will ditch any of its allies.
Taipei Girl
I really don't like how China goes about things. But if we are acting the same way, how can we blame China for our own decisions? To say that its China's fault that we choose to openly support leaders who kill their own people because we have no friends is not good enough.