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The Liberty Times
Editorial : Carthage: Lessons from the past
President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) is now well into his fourth year in office. It
would be nice if he were to talk a bit less and do a bit more, but by this point
there seems little chance of it.
Ma has been talking again recently. Referring to controversy over whether there
was ever any so-called ¡§1992 consensus¡¨ between Taiwan and China, Ma said that
the main point was not what you called it. The main thing, he said, was whether
there is in fact a consensus that there is one China, with each side having its
own interpretation of what exactly ¡§one China¡¨ is. He said the consensus that
exists between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is precisely that, and that
the experience of the past three years shows that China can accept this
consensus. The formula is workable and that is the main thing, Ma said.
Was he talking off the top of his head again? Perhaps he would like to explain
to us how this consensus is being ¡§interpreted¡¨ in the case of the thoroughly
Taiwanese film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale.
Seediq Bale is a Taiwanese movie through and through. It was produced and
directed in Taiwan, and it is all about Taiwanese history, recounting the tale
of Aborigines¡¦ resistance against foreign invaders. So why did this purely
Taiwanese production get labeled as coming from ¡§China¡¨ at the Venice
International Film Festival? What¡¦s more, the Ma government¡¦s attempts to
intervene have only made matters worse, with Taiwan getting labeled as ¡§Chinese
Taipei,¡¨ while there was no sign of our national flag. Didn¡¦t Ma say that the
cross-strait consensus is that each side can interpret ¡§one China¡¨ in its own
way? Didn¡¦t he say that the consensus is workable because China accepts it? If
so, how did we get into a situation where China can¡¦t even accept a movie? The
consensus, if there is such a thing, is evidently not working at all.
It is a pity that we have a head of state who can¡¦t stop spouting fiction and
who is totally shameless about it. You can tell a lie 100 times, but it still
won¡¦t be the truth, but if you brainwash someone 100 times, you might turn them
into a fool. That is the real danger.
Recently, Ma¡¦s election campaign office came up with another smokescreen, with
campaign director King Pu-tsung (ª÷·ÁÁo) saying that the real consensus is that
Taiwanese people should have a good life. What does ¡§a good life¡¨ mean, exactly?
To put it in a nutshell, it is about the economy. Politicians love to talk about
the economy when they are trying to solicit votes and the most commonly heard
catchphrase is one made popular by former US president Bill Clinton: ¡§It¡¦s the
economy, stupid.¡¨ A lot of people like to parrot this slogan, but they are
forgetting something. What they forget is that the US at the time enjoyed
unparalleled superpower status, and that was what allowed the Clinton campaign
to focus on economic issues. In other words, maintaining the economy is a basic
standard for someone running a government, but it is by no means the only
condition that politicians have to meet.
Every country has its basic values. Americans are proud to think of themselves
as the world¡¦s foremost citizens, and they don¡¦t want that notion to be
challenged. If whoever is in charge of the country lets the nation¡¦s dignity
slip in this respect, his popularity is sure to take a big hit. For example,
when US President Barack Obama visited China soon after taking office, he was
lambasted by US media for behaving in an excessively humble manner, and his
popularity ratings took a nosedive.
What is so dangerous about the Ma campaign¡¦s attempts to brainwash the public?
It is not a good thing when whoever is running a country thinks about nothing
but the economy and claims that ¡§having a good life¡¨ is the most important
thing, while paying scant regard to other values of nationhood.
There are plenty of examples in the history of mankind. For example, in the
ninth century BC, the Phoenicians established the Carthaginian empire in the
Mediterranean Sea. The Phoenicians¡¦ influence and that of Carthage spread far
and wide at the time, but what is left of them now? The ruins of Carthage that
you can see today are the remains of what the Romans built when they colonized
the area after destroying the original city. The city that existed before the
Carthaginian empire was extinguished was reduced to ashes long ago. Before it
was destroyed, Carthage signed three peace agreements with Rome, but these
agreements were followed by the three Punic Wars, and the final outcome was that
the city was razed to the ground. So what good did those treaties of friendship
serve? What protection did they give to Carthage in the end?
Is it enough for Taiwanese just to have a ¡§good life?¡¨ It might be enough for
some people, but for others, it is even more important to live in security and
dignity. Such people will find the standard that King set to be much too low.
Besides, a lot of people have the impression that the main thing the Ma
government has been trying to do is to let a minority of people live a good
life, while most Taiwanese have no share in it. If Ma and King ask their
accusers to prove their point, they need look no further than the wealth of
official statistics published by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting
and Statistics ¡X and those official figures can¡¦t be wrong, can they?
Ma says that his pledge of ¡§no unification¡¨ means that there will be no
negotiations for unification during his presidency. However, given this
administration¡¦s propensity for fabrication and brainwashing, the harsh reality
is that ¡§not negotiating about unification¡¨ is not the main point. The main
question is whether Taiwan will end up being ¡§unified¡¨ with China because of
Ma¡¦s inability to defend it. Can Ma be trusted to keep to his pledge of not
negotiating about unification? Do we really want to give Ma a free hand to
decide whether he wants to stick to his word or break it?
Translated by Julian Clegg
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