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Voters can either save Ma or save the
nation
By James Wang 王景弘
A US-based high-ranking official who served under the administration of former
president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) used to offer a standard response to any overseas
Taiwanese who wanted Taiwan to be annexed by China. He would say, — and not
without a degree of satisfaction — that advocates of this position should first
move back to Taiwan and then see how they felt about the issue.
This strikes at the very heart of what democracy is. Any changes to the
sovereign status, political system or way of life in Taiwan should be decided by
Taiwanese. People living overseas, on the other side of the world, should keep
their opinions to themselves if they’re not prepared to live with the
consequences.
This principle can also be applied to Taiwanese businesspeople in China: The
question is whether Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤)
has the guts to tell these pro-unification businesspeople to put up or shut up —
to go back and live in Taiwan before offering their opinion.
No one is claiming that all Taiwanese businesspeople in China are
communist-leaning, but it cannot be denied that they are at the mercy of the
machinations of Beijing and they end up looking at things from a Chinese
perspective. Advocates of annexation, whichwould spell the death of Taiwanese
democracy, are the people who form President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) hardcore base
of supporters.
Ma does not stand up for Taiwan. He wouldn’t even deign to stand up for the
Republic of China (ROC). His “one China” policy has undermined his popularity
and voter support, just as it has damaged the sovereignty, industry and
employment prospects of Taiwan and the democratic rights of Taiwanese.
The Hong Kong edition of China Taiwan Businessman magazine has been running a
“Save Ma” campaign, lauding his policy of capitulating to China, mainly because
it’s in the economic interests of Taiwanese businesspeople in China that he does
so.
The “Save Ma” slogan reflects the concerns of China and the pro-China faction in
the aftermath of last month’s special municipality elections. Immediately after
the elections, Li Jiaquan (李家泉), a Chinese pundit and former official dealing
with Taiwanese affairs, conceded that Ma was “flawed,” but called on the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) to unite around him, offer their support and stop
undermining him.
Li is making a play on words in Chinese here. The phrase he uses for support
includes the character tai — houtai (support, 後台) — which is the same tai as the
first character in the name Taiwan. What he was insinuating was that he sees Ma
as dismantling the ROC and undermining Taiwan (chaitai, 拆台) in readiness for
surrendering it to China. Ma knows that even hardcore, pan-blue supporters would
balk at this and his prospects for re-election for a second term would not be
good. The answer is to support him (butai, 補台), in other words, by being
complicit in his deceiving of the electorate.
Ma has recently made much of the ROC’s centenary, regurgitating that
oft-repeated phrase about “loving Taiwan” and that the future of the country is
to be decided by the 23 million Taiwanese living here. This is little more than
deception; nothing more than cloak and dagger.
Support Ma or undermine him. Save Ma or save Taiwan. This is the predicament
currently facing the KMT. It is also a crucial choice that the Taiwanese
electorate faces with the legislative elections at the end of this year or the
presidential election next year.
James Wang is a media commentator.
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