By Bernadette H. Carreon
Horizon news staff

DELEGATE Kerai Mariur’s statement that he is considering introducing a resolution condemning Taiwan’s so called dollar diplomacy again bring up the issue of Taiwan and China’s haggling over Pacific Island countries.
China has accused Taiwan for using dollar diplomacy to gain diplomatic relations with other countries.
Taiwan for its part said that dollar diplomacy "exists only in communist countries where people cannot supervise the government ‘s budget like democratic countries can."
Taiwan’s friendship with Palau goes back a long long way and President Remengesau is standing behind Taiwan and has said repeatedly that its support is with Taiwan.
The president earlier has said those who wanted to turn their alliance to China has been apparently been "wined and dined."
Taiwan is one of the staunch supporters of Palau in its quest for economic development.
It said in its statement last week in response to Mariur’s pronouncement that the good will and good faith of Taiwan has been misunderstood but vowed that it would continue to assist Palau without any hidden agenda.
Twenty-six countries recognize Taiwan , six of which are from the Pacific Island countries including Palau.
These countries are supporting Taiwan’s bid to be recognized by the United Nations.
Many countries however still supports a one-China policy and the international community’s consensus is that Taiwan is still a breakaway province of China.
This controversy will be a test of friendship between Palau and Taiwan, China is apparently trying to woo countries which has diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
But while President Remengesau is at the helm, Palau’s friendship with Taiwan is unwavering.
Traffic jam
Yesterday the week-long Education Awareness started with close to over 4,000 participants. The event however created a traffic jam.
We hope that before the week end, the bottlenecks will be eased because it could put some stress to the motorists especially those that want to get to their work early.
We hope that the Bureau of Public Safety comes up with a traffic plan to avoid the congestion which could lead to accidents.
Usually traffic occurs only from 7:30 to 8 in the school areas, but yesterday the traffic lasted until 9 a.m.
This makes us wonder about the traffic situations once the road widening of Koror and Airai starts.
We suggest this early a traffic plan should be put in place to avoid delays and congestion.
The road widening will commence within the year and this early the ministry of Resources and Development has already asked the public to brace for traffic.
However, with development sacrifices has to be made.