Last week's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) anti-President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) rallies across the nation were the last before all the wind went out of Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) sails. Unable to come up with something new to boost the recall motion against Chen, the rallies were merely a repeat of June 21. Since people have grown tired of the platitudes, Ma's return to a moderate path was necessary lest his support continue to fall.
At first, Ma did not wish to act before a case had been established, but then People First Party (PFP) James Soong (宋楚瑜) tricked him into pushing for the recall motion. Ma didn't shrink from talking tough and fabricating accusations of "assassination attempts" against him supposedly made on a call-in program on an underground radio station to whip up support for the cause.
His behavior, however, backfired as it prompted pan-green supporters to unite and launch a counterattack, forcing him to step back. At the last KMT-organized rally in Taipei prior to the recall vote, Soong was prevented from taking the stage, causing a fall-out between the two chairmen. If Ma wants a shot at the presidency in 2008, he and his aides should learn from the recall brouhaha and learn the importance of staying firm instead of turning with the wind.
Unwilling to go down like this, Ma is now trying to divide the pan-green camp and win over their supporters by using the slogan, "defend localization by terminating corruption."
Taiwan is a democratic society where political conflict takes place in the open. By coining this slogan, Ma has modeled himself instead on the highly oppressive ways of China, where one must pretend to support the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to be able to attack it. Likewise, Ma feigns pro-localization to attack the pro-localization agenda.
If Ma were really passionate about localization, he would be firm in his defense of Taiwan's sovereignty and the "one country on each side of the strait" formula. He comes off as a hypocrite, however, when claiming to defend localization after first having stated that his goal is to pursue "eventual unification." Or could it really be that he is going to call the state resulting from a unification between Taiwan and China the "Republic of Taiwan?"
In the run-up to the 2004 presidential election the KMT's image suffered a crisis. As a result, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
In the face of a Chinese invasion, Ma is opposed to passing the arms procurement bill in the legislature, nor did he allow KMT legislators to deliberate on the flood-control bill despite southern Taiwan being inundated. How can he claim to defend localization? Ma has sold plots of local land which were part of the KMT's stolen assets, rather than returning them to the public.
Ending corruption is no easy task. Exposing corruption is a good thing, but claiming that Chen's ouster will terminate corruption is naive. If Ma wants to combat corruption, he should start by surrendering the KMT's stolen assets and explaining his relationship with former Taitung County commissioner Wu Chun-li (吳俊立). He should clarify comments that Wu's detention on suspicion of corruption should not affect Wu's wife -- who won the seat Wu vacated -- as well as the rapid increase in his own fortune. If he does, he might win the 2008 presidential election without spending party assets on campaigning. But if he continues to rely on street violence for help, he might meet a nasty political end.
Paul Lin is a Taipei-based political commentator.
Translated by Daniel Cheng
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS