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Ma surrounded by KMT fawners
By James Wang 王景弘
Saturday, Mar 06, 2010, Page 8
When Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) was president of Taiwan, he introduced a policy
called “innovation and protection of Taiwan” in response to the political
situation at the time. Writing about the Kaohsiung Incident in Biographical
Literature magazine, Ruan Da-ren (阮大仁), who had close connections with the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), made some interesting revelations. Apparently,
when the incident broke out, Chiang’s Taiwanese staff were sickened by what was
happening. There was one voice among them, that of Hsieh Tung-min (謝東閔), the
first Taiwanese to serve as vice president, who suggested “the firing squad for
the lot of ’em.”
Ruan also quoted China Times Group founder Yu Chi-chung (余紀忠) as saying: “Look,
it’s not that we are not using Taiwanese people, it’s that we are using the
wrong people.”
Basically, you had the exiled KMT government monopolizing the top spots, with a
smattering of Taiwanese providing the requisite window dressing. The only
difference between the people appointed by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son,
Chiang Ching-kuo, was that the latter surrounded himself with the second
generation of personnel that came here from China. They were a bunch of yes-men
who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, try to represent the Taiwanese perspective. It’s no
surprise they were “using the wrong people.”
Does any of this sound familiar? The moment President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) got
into power, he employed a bunch of Taiwanese and, no matter how senior or
important they were, they had all seen better days, a bunch of fawners who
answered to his every beck and call.
Ma has inherited his party’s thuggish nature and sees the law as a means to get
what he wants. Like Chinese emperors in the past, his instinct is to get rid of
officials who served the previous dynasty and whose outsider status gives him
cause to doubt their loyalty. Any Taiwanese he has appointed have been for the
chop. In what way is this fair or just?
Ma is in it for himself and his cronies. KMT legislators were under orders to
force through the Local Government Act (地方制度法), and now he wants an economic
cooperation agreement to be signed, binding Taiwan to China. You’ve got
officials of Taiwanese nationality carping on about not signing and, as the
economy goes down the drain overnight, you have KMT legislators absolving
themselves of all responsibility for oversight. And as this is going on, no one
gives a damn about how unpopular the policy is.
Chiang Ching-kuo may well have used the wrong Taiwanese people, but at least he
stood up against the Chinese communists: He knew where his loyalties lay. Ma
doesn’t have any natural affinity with the Taiwanese; the only thing he knows
how to do is cling to defeatist policies that are going to ruin the country,
with a troupe of Taiwanese cheerleaders egging him on to sell the country down
the river, the sooner the better. If this is the way he is going to go about
running the country, it’s no surprise the worm is starting to turn.
When Chiang Kai-shek and his son ruled the country with an iron fist, the
Taiwanese had to play ball. If they didn’t want to throw in their lot with the
KMT, they were pretty much setting themselves up as political dissidents. Since
Taiwan became a democracy, however, it has been easier for people with different
opinions. Ma and his party might not identify with Taiwan, but that doesn’t mean
Taiwanese politicians should go along with the betrayal of their country,
ignoring their own conscience.
For over a year the KMT has been getting clobbered in the polls and Ma’s
popularity rating has plunged. Policy failings are to blame, as well as the fact
that the KMT has finally been found out. But it is also because it has been
“using the wrong people.” The electorate is making the KMT pay. But that is
democracy for you.
James Wang is a journalist based in Washington.
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