Wed, Nov 12, 2008 page8

• Taiwan’s president, the ‘little man’

  • By Jerome Keating
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  After Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) stormy five-day sojourn in Taiwan, it is time for Taiwanese to see their primping president for the little man that he really is.

  What should have been a routine visit by a low-level Chinese official to ink prearranged agreements turned into a near riot and cost Taiwanese millions of dollars in wasted resources and opened their eyes to police brutality not seen since the days of the Kaohsiung Incident. This is not because of the legitimate anger and protests staged by concerned citizens, but because of the inept mishandling of and callous indifference to the whole situation by Taiwan’s sometime president, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

  Let there be no question about it: Blame lies squarely on the shoulders of Ma. So caught up was Ma in the fact that his image was suffering and that his approval rating had dropped to an all-time low of 23 percent that he could only see that he needed something “historic” to prop up his failed China policy. So caught up was he in wanting to claim to have done something “historic” to present to the US and Chinese governments and gain their paternalistic approval that he became oblivious to the feelings and concerns of his own country.

  Despite all of Ma’s pre-arranged hype, Chen’s visit was nothing historic. The agreements that ARATS inked with Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation were agreements that had begun and been fashioned in the preceding years by former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration. Higher-level officials from Taiwan had also visited China; the only thing that could be claimed to be historic was that it was the first time that an arrogant, low-level Chinese official deigned to visit Taiwan and be wined and dined by his party’s previous enemies. If that is historic, it is only historic for the little minds of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

  With this background, even a dunce could have seen the storm that was gathering. Taiwanese are not against trade with China; Taiwan is one of the biggest — if not the biggest — investor and trader with China. What Taiwanese are against is trade at the cost of their sovereignty.

  After fighting for decades for democracy, they have legitimate concerns about whether they would be sold out, judging from the loose, cavalier and speedy way Ma was handling the meeting. In this matter, Ma has lost all credibility and the trust of Taiwanese. The past two months saw three increasingly large protests against Ma, with the final march on Oct. 25 attended by some 600,000 people in the pan-blue capital.

  If Ma had given clear, concrete public assurances before Chen Yunlin’s visit, Taiwanese could have handled the arrogance of the Chinese representative. But instead of reassuring the public he would never sell out Taiwan, instead of giving clear signals to China and the Taiwanese that he is the president of a sovereign country, Ma hid in the presidential palace and conjured up legal constitutional conundrums to state why any explanations were unnecessary.

  It was therefore not a surprise when Chen Yunlin came that the protests became a reality and increased in size day by day. At this crucial point, instead of reassuring the public that their fears were unfounded, Ma’s solution was to sequester Chen Yunlin in the Grand Hotel and turn it into a fortress surrounded by police. When he left the hotel to be wined and dined by the KMT throughout the city, Ma’s only solution again was to increase police support. When the public voiced open disapproval, Ma approved orders to attack.

  Throughout the five days, where was Ma? When Ma should have been in the streets convincing the public of his sincerity, he was nowhere to be seen. Instead of sincerity, the public saw arrogance. Despite being the people’s representative, Ma felt he didn’t have to explain himself to the public.

  This is the increasing contention in Taiwan. Not only is Ma seen as incompetent, but he is also viewed as arrogant. If there are any Taiwan watchers in the US or Europe who have doubts about how Taiwanese view Ma’s ineptitude, they only have to examine the following: It took US President George W. Bush six to eight years in office to convince the majority of Americans of his lack of leadership and ineptitude; Ma has been able to do the same for Taiwan in only four months.

  Jerome Keating is a writer based in Taipei.
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