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The Liberty Times
Editorial: Removing Ma Ying-jeou’s mask
The US and China are the two countries with the biggest influence over Taiwan’s
international role. So, how are Taiwan’s relations with these two big powers
shaping up?
Despite all the news to the contrary, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) says that
relations are smooth and relaxed. He has said that US-Taiwan relations are
closer than they have been at any time during the past 30 years and that
cross-strait relations are the best they have been in 60 years. If past
presidents didn’t feel themselves standing at the edge of an abyss, they at
least realized that they were treading on thin ice. None of them were as
confident a Ma in the face of such dire international trends. Has Taiwan under
Ma’s leadership really changed so much that it has left all its problems behind?
Of course not. Moreover, Taiwan’s foreign relations have now reached a critical
imbalance. The arrest of Jacqueline Liu (劉姍姍), director-general of the Taipei
Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Kansas City, Missouri, by FBI agents and
the meeting between Ma’s APEC envoy Lien Chan (連戰) and Chinese President Hu
Jintao (胡錦濤) at the recent APEC summit in Hawaii probably offer the most
realistic image of the government’s interactions with the US and China: They are
at the end of their tether, unable to cope with the situation.
Liu was accused of fraud in foreign labor contracting because her Philippine
-housekeeper, who was hired to work 40 hours per week and receive a monthly
salary of US$1,240, in fact had to work six days per week, 16 to 18 hours per
day and received a much lower salary. Because Liu planned to leave the US as
soon as the accusations appeared, the US prosecutor requested that she be
detained without bail. This case raises at least five questions that need
clarifying.
First, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) declared that this was the first
time a Taiwanese diplomat had been arrested in the US since the bilateral
Agreement on Privileges, Exemptions and Immunities (台美特權, 免稅暨豁免協定) was signed in
1980. If this statement is correct, it pokes a big hole in Ma’s statement that
Taiwan-US relations are closer than they have been at any time in the past 30
years.
Second, the US prosecutor said that Taiwan was not a sovereign state and that
its diplomats therefore did not enjoy diplomatic immunity. Surely this is
symbolic, not of the closest, but of the frostiest, relationship between Taiwan
and the US in the past 30 years.
Third, what is covered by the Agreement on Privileges, Exemptions and
Immunities? Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) says that diplomats only enjoy immunity in
the course of their official duties, but not when they act in a private
capacity. The foreign ministry believes Liu enjoys immunity and has lodged a
protest with US authorities both in Taiwan and in the US. Who is right?
Fourth, regardless of whether Taiwan and the US have different understandings,
Taiwan’s foreign minister said that it was not necessary for the US to handle
the matter in the manner it did, indirectly saying that the US should have
informed Taiwan through diplomatic channels. If Taiwan’s representative office
in the US handles relations with the US properly and according to protocol, that
would not be asking much. That raises the question why US authorities chose to
act the way they did.
Fifth, having caused relations with the US to deteriorate to such an undignified
state, one cannot help but wonder what the staff at the representative office in
Washington have been doing over the past four years. What have they done to
mislead Ma to the point where he is so pleased with relations, deceiving the
whole country?
If US relations are in such a shambles, then how about relations with China?
When Lien met Hu in Honolulu, three actions in particular drew attention.
First, as the president’s special envoy, Lien referred to Ma as “Mr Ma” in his
conversation with Hu. Second, Lien and Hu reiterated their common opposition to
Taiwanese independence and insisted on the relevance of the so-called “1992
consensus.” Third, when Lien’s suggestion that a peace accord should be
discussed at an opportune moment stirred up controversy, he said that he had
been simply talking about “peaceful development.”
Because Hu rejects the title of president for Ma, Lien can only refer to Ma as
“Mr Ma,” while Ma himself has to silently accept this state of affairs. Will he
also swear allegiance and pay tribute by accepting that there is only “one
China” by signing a peace accord?
If it is this humiliating, subservient slave mentality that he means when he
says current cross-strait relations are the best they have been in 60 years,
then this head of state is denigrating and humiliating Taiwan.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Ma administration is dealing
with US and China relations by sitting on the fence trying to find out in which
direction the wind blows.
Ma is a president who was out of the loop when a Taiwanese diplomat was arrested
in the US, who couldn’t even insist on his own title being used in dealings with
China and who is shrinking Taiwan’s living space to the point where it has to
exist in the cracks of the international community, while still claiming to be
proud of his achievements.
Why on earth would Taiwanese voters want to re-elect such a man?
Translated by Perry Svensson
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