KMT choking foreign policy
Taiwanese have been unaware of the evils perpetrated by the Republic of China (ROC) over the past decades in its international dealings, such as forming alliances with dictatorships that share its paranoid anti-communist Cold War mentality. These include forming an alliance with the South African apartheid government and complicity in supporting and training reactionary death squads in Central America.
Notably, Roberto D’Aubuisson, who founded El Salvador’s right-wing ARENA party and has been documented to have ordered the March 1980 assassination of Bishop Oscar Romero, has visited the then-Political Warfare College in New Taipei City’s Beitou District (北投) seven times (see Inside the League, 1986, by Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson).
Less lethal, but still damaging to Taiwan’s international reputation, is its recent money diplomacy with small Pacific islands, which has been disparaged by Australian commentators.
Transitional justice on the international front must delve into and acknowledge the corrosive history of Taiwan’s international relations. What better way for president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) upcoming administration to distinguish itself from the martial law heritage of the Chinese settler regime and promote its international image as the new embodiment of democracy in Taiwan?
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) eight years in office did not alter the mindset and stance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It still upholds the untenable and self-isolating “one China” principle as seen in the pre-emptive severing of diplomatic ties with Nauru in July 2002.
News commentators and people around the world call Taiwan just “Taiwan.” What is the use of maintaining relations with 3 percent of the world’s population under the fictional title of the “Republic of China”?
Undoubtedly, it provides inflated salaries and expense budgets for ministry staff. However, we can give the ministry some credit for funding and providing informational services for non-governmental international activities since the 1990s.
With an overwhelming mandate from the public that rejected the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) pandering to China and gave the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) a legislative majority, Tsai has a responsibility to take control of the ministry and set a new direction for it.
However, several sources said that the incoming administration plans to appoint a ministry official who began his career in the martial law period and served as the nation’s representative to the US, Canada and Australia, as the new head of the ministry.
Whatever the merits of the individual, this cannot but provoke astonishment and outrage. The ministry has consistently upheld the “one China” principle, no matter how anachronistic or damaging to Taiwan. This massively sends the wrong message to the rest of the world. Taiwanese have expressed their collective will by electing Tsai, even though the nation retains the ROC title in its Constitution.
However, the KMT has denied and suppressed the sovereignty of Taiwanese and instead recognized the sovereignty of China over Taiwan. Far from moving toward transitional justice, appointing a KMT official to head the ministry could be construed to be a betrayal of the founding ideals of the DPP, ideals for which many spent years in prison, and perhaps a frustration of the hopes of the electorate as well. What justification can be given for this?
I can attest that several prominent Taiwanese with experience in foreign relations concur with my views; I hope that they will speak for themselves.
Linda Gail Arrigo
Taipei
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