President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has always disliked former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), but lately his own behavior has started to resemble that of Chen. During the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 18th National Congress early last month, Ma lashed out at the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidates in the year-end special municipality elections, saying the DPP had harmed the country during its time in government.
Ma also referred to the separation of administrative and political affairs and warned the DPP that its opposition to the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) had turned it into an enemy of the public.
Ma’s similarities to Chen almost make one wonder whether he suffers from a split personality.
Senior KMT and Presidential Office officials and spokespeople have started a propaganda war against the DPP in an attempt to turn the special municipality elections in November into a political shootout between the pan-blue and pan-green camps. They are also making the ECFA the centerpiece of the campaign to stir up enthusiasm among deep-blue voters and cover the fact that the KMT’s candidates pale in comparison with the DPP’s candidates, both individually and in terms of governing ability.
Such thinking would be normal from a perspective of electoral strategy and the attitudes of politicians, but when a party that has been in power for more than two years blames every problem on the previous government while failing to show any concrete achievements of its own, it is clearly underestimating the intelligence of voters.
For example, during a recent trip to the US, the DPP’s candidate for Taipei mayor, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), said Ma exaggerates the positive state of Taiwan-US relations. This infuriated the Presidential Office, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs worked around the clock to come up with “evidence” to refute Su’s comments, which he called the “one must and four nots” (一要四沒有).
Su said that despite more than two years in office and despite saying US-Taiwan relations have never been better, the Ma administration has “not” signed a free-trade agreement with the US, has “not” reached an agreement on visa exemptions for Taiwanese visitors to the US, has “not” received any visits by Cabinet-level US officials and has “not” convinced the US to sell Taiwan the F-16C/D fighters it has wanted for so long. Su said that given these circumstances, the Ma administration “must” explain how it could offer to make travel more convenient for Taiwanese and Americans, strengthen economic and political ties and enhance Taiwan’s security.
To show that Taiwan-US relations were at their best ever, the Presidential Office and the ministry presented evidence of senior US leaders affirming the Ma administration’s China policies and continuing to support Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, how the US military sent helicopters to assist in relief work in the wake of Typhoon Morakot last year and how Taiwanese military aircraft were allowed to stop at US army bases for refueling and maintenance en route to Haiti to provide disaster relief.
However, even if we overlook how the Ma administration committed a major policy blunder when it initially refused the US’ offer of help during Morakot, the fact remains that there has been no substantial developments on what Su called the “four nots.” If the US does endorse the Ma administration’s efforts to improve cross-strait relations and relations with the US are better than they have ever been, why hasn’t there been any improvement on the four issues Su cited.
Recent reports also show that the gap between Taiwan’s rich and poor has reached an all-time high. Despite this, Ma insists that the NT$3.2 billion (US$100 million) budget earmarked for celebrations of the Republic of China’s 100th anniversary next year is not a lot of money and has even compared it to the sum used for the World Games in DPP-ruled Kaohsiung last year.
The previous weekend, when Ma had to rush between appointments because of a full schedule, police forced other drivers out of the way to make way for the presidential motorcade on the highway. The Presidential Office has tried to put a spin on the situation on several occasions by putting the blame on the National Highway Police Bureau. It even said Chen had done the same thing during his presidency to downplay the incident.
For Ma, the five special municipality elections in November will be an important part in his attempt to win re-election and the KMT will go to any lengths to win. The problem is that in the past, Ma criticized Chen for using election rhetoric to split Taiwan along ethnic lines and create tensions between the pan-green and pan-blue camps. The KMT has now been in power for more than two years and has no reason to blame their poor governance on the DPP. Even if the DPP really did harm Taiwan as Ma claims, the party has already paid the price by being voted out of office.
An opinion poll by Global Views Magazine showed that despite several months of strongly promoting the ECFA, only 31 percent of respondents supported Ma. This is an undeniable fact. The KMT must surpass itself and produce concrete policy achievements to win voter support because any attempts to manipulate social divisions will fail.
Liu Shih-chung is a senior research fellow at the Taipei-based Taiwan Brain Trust.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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