|
History will reveal
Ma’s true nature
By Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財
Time is the fairest judge of a politician. After the merciless passage of time,
a politician’s legacy consists of nothing but the traces he or she has left
behind and the impression of their actions. Praise or condemnation by the blue
and green camps, media outlets or talking heads, pretty nationalist slogans and
distorted data will all be swept into the dustbin of history. The mightiest and
most powerful politicians frequently come forward during the most difficult of
times. However, if at such times they act like President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)
does, trying to evade responsibility by blaming it on the unpredictability of
the world, they can be certain that it will not improve their historical
standing.
Ma’s legacy may not be final, but the fact is that most of the chapters have
already been written.
For example, Ma has always been politically consistent: He has always chosen
authoritarianism and conservatism over democracy and reform. Ma was part of the
nobility that was nurtured under the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and
his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). He enjoyed all the advantages and benefits of
the one-party state and left no stone unturned in his efforts to praise the
autocratic and dictatorial system. When democratization was inevitable, Ma said:
“When I heard that martial law would be lifted, I went all numb.” When democracy
swept across Taiwan, he stuck to his anti-democratic guns and opposed full and
free legislative elections and direct presidential elections; he even compared
referendums to China’s Cultural Revolution.
Simply put, Ma stood on the wrong side during the authoritarian era — a period
when many mistakes were made — and he continues to stand on the wrong side in
the democratic era when those mistakes are being corrected.
Looking at Ma’s track record in public office, the most positive impression he
left behind after eight years as Taipei mayor— and maybe the only two positive
things anyone can think of — are probably the images of him jogging and
swimming. As to the innumerable public construction projects — such as the
dedicated bus lane on Zhongxiao west Road, the demolition of the Jiancheng
Circle, the construction of the underground shopping area at Longshan Temple,
the Neihu MRT line and the Maokong Gondola — all of these more or less added to
the troubles of residents and some of them remain a problem to this day. The
most representative image of Ma’s mayoral incompetence is perhaps the
communications nightmare created by the flooding and ensuing stoppage of the
Taipei MRT system during Typhoon Nari in September 2001.
After Ma became president, there was no changes. Indeed, his administrative
incompetence has not only affected a city, but a the whole nation. When Ma and
his officials went to inspect a disaster area after Typhoon Morakot struck, they
were not just late, they were very late. When fruit prices in numerous areas
collapsed because of a problem with the production and distribution system, Ma
and his team of officials seemed to have seen and heard nothing. Not a single
component of his so-called “6-3-3” election promise — that the nation would
enjoy annual economic growth of 6 percent, a per capita income of US$30,000 and
an unemployment rate of less than 3 percent — has been fulfilled, but there were
no apologies for the administration’s failure. Furthermore, unemployment remains
high and salaries have dropped to a 13-year low. Yet Ma and his team praise the
people who purported the concept of long-term unpaid leave. Data show that among
the four “Asian Tigers” — each of which is dealing with the same international
economic situation — Taiwan, under Ma’s economic team, occupies the last spot on
every count.
In the area of foreign affairs, diplomats like former representative to Fiji
Victor Chin (秦日新), former director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural
Office in Kansas City Jacqueline Liu (劉珊珊) and former representative to
Singapore Vanessa Shih (史亞平) have either been involved in scandals or have
generated negative publicity amd brought shame on Taiwan.
As for Ma’s favorite topic, “incorruptibility,” this has also become a joke
following the scandal surrounding the pride of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT)
“new generation” — former Cabinet secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世). The most
absurd aspect of Lin’s alleged corruption is that he is said to have been
engaged in these illicit activities long before any irregularities were exposed.
Still, that did not stop him from criticizing and humiliating the
then-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government when he was a legislator. It
is lamentable to see how a large group of Ma’s team still takes pride in making
use of and distorting the DPP government’s mistakes.
As Ma no longer seeks to be re-elected, he is free from electoral pressure and
is now fighting no holds barred for his place in history. Shockingly, the
reforms he has been trying to push through — increasing fuel and electricity
prices, reinstating a capital gains tax on securities transactions and allowing
the importation of beef with ractopamine residues — have dumbfounded everyone.
The capital gains tax is extortionate, as is the increase in fuel and
electricity prices, and allowing the import of ractopamine-laced beef simply
demonstrates a disregard for life. Ma is getting closer and closer to being
written into our history books as a tyrant.
Chang Kuo-tsai is a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association
of University Professors and a retired associate professor of National Hsinchu
University of Education.
Translated by Perry Svensson
|
