LIKE THE KINGDOM of the Fisher King in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Taiwan is suffering from a deep malaise. Its problem is that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is impotent: impotent as a leader and impotent in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Because of this, he is impotent to make any long-term constructive contributions to the nation. He can only talk.
Ma watchers sensed this long ago. When Ma was Taipei mayor, they noted that his predecessor Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had run a much tighter ship. The observation was reinforced in July 2005, when Ma became KMT chairman and made two empty promises: that he would divest the KMT of its illegal assets and that he would push Taiwan’s needed arms budget in the KMT-controlled Legislative Yuan.
Despite the fact that his party has always controlled the legislature, he failed miserably on both counts.
KMT stalwarts were disappointed in 2005 when Ma got enough of the young vote to beat Lien Chan (連戰) for chairmanship of the party, but they bided their time. They knew they controlled the assets and money of the party and that Ma not only couldn’t touch them, but would eventually need them.
When the KMT won a veto-overriding two-thirds majority in last year’s legislative elections, the return of its corrupting power was evident even before the presidential poll. With veto-overriding power, it mattered little to KMT legislators whether Ma or his Democratic Progressive Party rival Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) would win the presidency.
Though they preferred the weak Ma, they felt they would be able to override either candidate once in office. Four KMT legislators even felt bold enough to storm Gestapo-like into Hsieh’s campaign headquarters, order people around and demand the rent be raised.
So last March, when pundits abroad oohed and aahed at Ma’s rise to power, those who knew his weak character could see the writing on the wall. Seven months later, Freedom House wrote an open letter, highlighting that human rights were in danger of being lost because of Ma’s lack of leadership and control.
Ma can only talk, and one way he seeks to hide his impotence is by talking out of both sides of his mouth and on both sides of the fence.
Some say: “Well, at least he can claim he is right 50 percent of the time.” Others complain about his vacillation. Regardless, most people realize you cannot trust much of what Ma says.
During China’s crackdown in Tibet last March, Ma said Taiwan should show its support for Tibet by not sending its athletes to the Olympics. A week later, Ma wished them well as they left for the Olympics and approved the insulting name “Chinese Taipei.”
During his presidential campaign, Ma sought the religious vote, firmly supporting the Dalai Lama and freedom of religion. But later, when the Dalai Lama expressed the desire to visit Taiwan, Ma — fearful of offending China — said: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Concerning Tokyo, Ma has alternately stated he is ready to go to war with Japan over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and that Taiwan and Japan enjoy long, unshaken, friendly relations that should be built on.
On Taiwan’s sovereignty, Ma says he supports it, yet hides the country’s flag when representatives from China come. Is Taiwan an area of China, a region, a state or a country? It depends on when Ma speaks and to whom.
Ma’s impotency is further evident in the way he avoids responsibility and unpleasant decisions that might tarnish his fabricated image. Even the pan-blue media supported by Ma’s party refer to him as the “little white rabbit who does not want to get his paws dirty.”
In tough situations, Ma is quick to opt out and say: “That concerns the Constitution, or the judiciary or anyone else but me.”
When Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) condoned a skit that constituted a breach of professionalism by prosecutors, Ma’s response was: “I don’t want to interfere.”
When Ma cannot avoid action, he lets others do his dirty work for him. His secretary is languishing in jail for laundering approximately US$500,000 into Ma’s savings account. When Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visited, Ma unleashed 7,000 police to deal with protesters.
When he isn’t busy avoiding things, Ma takes credit where it is not due. In his New Year’s address he said his administration had brought the Control Yuan up to speed.
“In the past six months, the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan have rapidly returned to normal operations and the five-branch structure stipulated in the Constitution is thus once again functioning,” he said.
What Ma did not say is that the reason two branches of government had not been functioning was because the KMT had blocked appointments to those bodies for more than three years. The KMT stymied justice until it could fill the seats with its people.
About the only real action Ma has taken responsibility for is running to China to solve the nation’s problems. Ma has assembled a bunch of gullible “gee-whiz kids” who, when they are not fawning all over Ma, provide him with half-baked schemes. They convinced Ma that by opening the doors to China he could raise GDP growth from 5.7 percent under Chen Shui-bian to at least 6 percent — part of his infamous 6-3-3 promise.
Unfortunately, these gee-whiz kids, who are lost in their dreams of grandeur, were ignorant of developments in the real world. Ma even conceded at a conference last November that they were out of touch with reality and that the nation would be lucky to see even 2 percent growth.
China continues to pour out tainted products, while its GDP growth is sinking because of the global recession. Taiwanese factories in China are closing. Social unrest there is on the rise. The crowds of Chinese tourists Ma said would come to Taiwan failed to materialize, yet Ma insists his plan is working.
As a result, in addition to being subservient to the KMT old guard, Ma is at the mercy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to throw him a few crumbs. When those crumbs are thrown, we are sure to hear Ma boast.
Ma remains a guppy, believing his own hype that he can swim with the sharks, and herein lies the real danger for Taiwan. Both Chinese and US strategists inflate his image and support his impotency because they know they can manipulate him. Knowingly or not, Ma has become the perfect shill for their agendas — and at Taiwan’s expense.
Chinese hegemony remains one of the nation’s major problems, but Ma’s impotency is a far greater worry. With his image-dependent psyche, his fakery and his need for self-approval, Ma can only depend on gloss.
The Holy Grail of Taiwan’s democracy and sovereignty suffers. There is no Galahad at hand and perhaps there should not be. Maybe, instead of looking to one person, the Taiwanese should turn to themselves to strengthen their identity, culture and institutions.
Jerome Keating is a writer based in Taipei.
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