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Ma is jeopardizing Taiwan’s life and
liberty
By Li Thian-hok 李天福
Saturday, May 15, 2010, Page 8
In his April 30 interview with CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour, President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九) declared: “We will never ask the Americans to fight for Taiwan.
This is something that is very, very clear.”
In other words, any dispute between Taiwan and China is a domestic affair and
the US has no business interfering.
Since assuming office as president of the Republic of China two years ago, Ma
has implemented many measures to advance his goal of surrendering Taiwan’s
sovereignty to Beijing. This includes downgrading Taiwan’s international status,
demolishing Taiwan’s democratic institutions (freedom of speech, freedom of
assembly, judicial independence), opening the nation to Chinese white-collar
workers and students, forcing the signing of an economic cooperation framework
agreement despite opposition by a considerable segment of the population and
enfeebling Taiwan’s military forces.
With the latest outburst, it is now very clear that Ma plans to sign a peace
accord with China and offer Taiwan up to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on a
silver platter before Hu leaves office in October 2012.
Ma is betraying the people of Taiwan, who were deceived by his promise to
protect their right to self-determination, by subverting the Republic of China
government to which he has pledged allegiance.
So what can the Taiwanese do to preserve their liberty, property and dignity?
Many people are counting on a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) victory in the
2012 presidential election. With Ma’s low approval rating, this strategy may
seem sensible, but it is not wise for freedom-loving Taiwanese to devote most of
their energy and resources to the pursuit of electoral victory.
First, the DPP’s chances of regaining the presidency are small. The Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) still dominates the media. Its black gold electoral
machine is solidly entrenched in rural areas and small towns. It still has vast
financial resources (which can be buttressed by Beijing) to buy votes. The KMT-dominated
legislature could pass a law enabling hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese
businesspeople residing in China to send in absentee ballots and the Central
Election Commission is now controlled by the KMT and its allies, who are not
known for their love of fair play.
Second, winning the presidency may mean little, if the KMT government has
already signed a peace accord with Beijing. If the new president tried to
abrogate such a capitulation accord, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could
threaten to invade.
This does not mean that the Taiwanese should give up fighting the alien rule of
the KMT through the ballot box. Such efforts should most certainly continue. The
election of the mayors of the five major municipalities at the end of this year
is important because victory would give the DPP control of the local police
force, which should help restore freedom of assembly and peaceful protest and in
countering the infiltration of Taiwan by Chinese intelligence and PLA agents.
The point is one should not put all one’s eggs in one basket.
In terms of stopping Ma’s intensifying efforts to make Taiwan part of a de facto
“one China,” massive street demonstrations are urgently needed.
If 1 million protesters periodically rally in the streets of Taipei, that will
attract media attention worldwide. It is now the only way to let the
international community know that the great majority of Taiwanese reject rule by
the Chinese Communist Party and prefer to keep their hard-won freedoms.
Another objective would be to paralyze the government and compel Ma’s
resignation. This could be achieved by surrounding the Presidential office
and/or the legislature on a continuous, round-the-clock basis with a smaller
contingent of 5,000 to 10,000 protesters. These volunteers could come from all
around Taiwan on a rotating basis. Such a sustained effort would, of course,
require planning, discipline and organization. It would also demand the unity
and cooperation of all Taiwanese organizations that support Taiwan’s survival as
an independent, democratic state.
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson proclaimed in the US Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new government ... ”
What was true in the US in 1776 is just as true in Taiwan today.
Li Thian-hok is a freelance commentator based in Pennsylvania.
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