The Kuomintang is Coming... For Your Behinds
by Brian Hioe
Taiwan seems set to hold a national referendum on caning. The Kuomintang, the right-wing, pro-unification party in Taiwanese politics, is currently pushing for this referendum using its majority in the legislature. The proposal would use spanking with a cane as a punishment for severe crimes like, say, Internet fraud—an increasingly consequential social issue in Taiwan, with crimes often targeting the elderly—as well as sexual assault and child abuse.
I imagine holding such a referendum would make Taiwan a laughingstock. But quite frankly I would welcome it, since I can’t see this move working out very well for the Kuomintang. In the meantime, I’d enjoy the bizarre international news reporting.
In case you were wondering: no, this doesn’t seem to be an attempt to court the fetish vote. There’s a provision in the Taiwanese constitution that allows for national referendums on issues of significant social concern. They can be called either through campaigning and gathering signatures from the public at large, as a citizen-led initiative might seek to do, or through being passed by the legislature. They have been called for, in the past, as a means of addressing longstanding issues facing Taiwan, from independence versus unification with China to the ever-contentious debate over the development of nuclear energy (given that Taiwan’s frequent earthquakes have always stoked fears of the potential risk of nuclear catastrophe, like the Fukushima disaster of 2011).
Strangely, this sudden interest in caning did not arise in response to popular demand or a public emergency–there was no social demographic or civic group, say, that had been calling for anybody to be caned before the Kuomintang began agitating for a referendum. Yet the prospect of employing canes to hit the behinds of those who commit crimes may, in fact, be put to the nation to decide.
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