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Political violence
divides nation
By Paul Lin 林保華
Unless there is some irregularity, a political party’s national congress is
never postponed. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ninth congress, for
example, was postponed for 13 years while the Cultural Revolution ran its
course. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 19th congress was scheduled to
take place on Sunday, but earlier this week was suddenly rescheduled. The reason
for the change was that something irregular had happened.
It has been reported that the congress will instead be held on Oct. 26 and the
venue will be changed from National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in downtown Taipei
to the Chungshan Building on Yangmingshan. Even though the KMT is escaping to a
mountaintop, it still has to pay its respects to the party’s founder.
When the party’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee revoked Legislative Speaker
Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) membership on Sept. 11, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)
attended the meeting in person to oversee proceedings and to address the
committee, while choking up and shedding crocodile tears.
As a result of the bitter intraparty fight that Ma started, it became necessary
to postpone the party congress. This is a developing crisis for the KMT, but it
is also an opportunity for change, depending on how the party handles the
issues.
After Ma’s attempt to revoke Wang’s party membership, Taiwanese — and KMT
supporters in particular — gained a new understanding of their president and KMT
chairman. This is why Ma’s approval ratings dropped from 13 percent to 9.2
percent. Despite his decreased popularity, he does not engage in
self-reflection, but only changes his strategy. He even called the top managers
of five media companies to pressure them to reverse public opinion about his
move against Wang.
The president interferes personally in the judiciary and the media, and he tried
to remove the speaker of the legislature. Taiwan is still a democracy, so how
long will the public be able to control their anger?
If there is one event that put Taiwan on the road to where it is today, it was
the assassination attempt on then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and then-vice
president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19, 2004, the eve of the presidential
election. What had been a normal campaign and a normal transition of power
changed because of those bullets.
The KMT accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of arranging the shooting
and the DPP took offense. The result was a standoff between the pan-blue and the
pan-green camps that still exists today. The divide between the camps has harmed
the political landscape.
The KMT did not trust the results of the DPP government’s investigations into
the shooting and the reports became impossible to verify because the main
suspect mysteriously drowned. Ma has not further investigated the case since
taking power, which is also very strange. What is there to be afraid of?
In 2010, Sean Lien (連勝文), a son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), was
lucky to survive a shooting. This occurred on Ma’s watch and the truth of it has
also not been uncovered. To this day, Sean Lien is afraid to run for office.
There have also been reports of death threats against him.
The assassination attempt on Chen and Lu had far-reaching repercussions for Lien
Chan, People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and the DPP. Who stood to
gain from the incident? The DPP would not stop Sean Lien from coming forward if
he wanted to, so who is afraid of the truth behind his shooting? Is Taiwan
really ruled by spies and gangsters?
If Taiwanese politics are to develop normally, the pan-blue and pan-green camps
must stop their fighting and temporarily put aside arguments over unification
with China versus independence. They should investigate these serious incidents
of political violence. Why was DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming’s (柯建銘) telephone
wiretapped for two years over a case involving NT$200,000, but assassination
attempts and shootings are left unresolved?
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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