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Repulsing the public with hypocrisy
You know election time is around the corner when you start hearing Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) government officials trumpeting ¡§Taiwan¡¨ and ¡§Taiwanese
people¡¨ in their speeches.
At a seminar in Taipei last week on cross-strait relations from 2008 to this
year, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan (¿à©¯´D) said in a speech
that ¡§putting Taiwan first for the benefit of the people¡¨ was the main principle
guiding the KMT government¡¦s policy toward China.
¡§It also needs to be ensured that [Taiwanese] people have the right to decide
the future development of cross-strait relations,¡¨ she said.
With Double Ten National Day this weekend, President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) will
also likely accentuate the importance of ¡§Taiwan¡¦s interests¡¨ and ¡§Taiwanese
people¡¨ in his national day address.
Naturally, government officials will highlight the great importance they attach
to the nation¡¦s interests and its people. However, amid the backdrop of the KMT
government signing the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with
China, it is not hard to see the irony and farce of pro-Taiwan words pouring out
of KMT officials¡¦ mouths.
How can the Ma government convince the voters that it truly believes that the
¡§people have the right to decide the future development of cross-strait
relations¡¨ when the public is muzzled and the government rejects any chance for
critics to have their voices heard through a referendum?
On Thursday last week, the Executive Yuan¡¦s Committee of Appeal upheld the
Referendum Review Committee¡¦s rejection of a petition, signed by 200,000 people,
to put the ECFA to a referendum, again supressing the public¡¦s voice. So much
for KMT remarks that the public has the right to decide the future of
cross-strait development.
The KMT government should heed the warning suggested by a recent Research,
Development and Evaluation Commission poll. The survey showed that in 2007, 63
percent of people referred to themselves as Taiwanese, while 15.4 percent
considered themselves Chinese. In 2008, after Ma won the presidency, the group
that considered themselves Taiwanese rose to 67.1 percent, while those who
regarded themselves as Chinese dropped to 13.6 percent. In a similar poll in May
last year, the number who saw themselves as Taiwanese slid to 64.6 percent,
although those who saw themselves as Chinese dipped even further, to 11.5
percent.
Statistics from National Chengchi University¡¦s Election Study Center show that
in 2007, 43 percent of respondents saw themselves as Taiwanese, while 5.4
percent considered themselves Chinese. In June this year, the percentage of
people who identified themselves as Taiwanese rose to 52 percent, while those
claiming to be Chinese dropped to 3.8 percent. Meanwhile, the group that saw
themselves as Taiwanese as well as Chinese also declined, dropping from 44.7
percent in 2007 to 40.4 percent in June this year.
These numbers suggest that the public¡¦s identification with Taiwan has not
diminished despite the Ma administration¡¦s China-friendly policies.
The Ma government can keep using the words ¡§Taiwan¡¨ and ¡§Taiwanese people¡¨ all
it wants, but in case the KMT hasn¡¦t realized, using these phrases to get votes
and then tossing them away like toilet paper when their use has been fulfilled
will only hurt the Ma government, undermining its credibility and repulsing the
public with its hypocrisy.
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